What is Inscriptions?
Arbitrary data embedded in Bitcoin transactions, most visibly through witness data after Taproot.
Inscriptions store images and other content directly on-chain. They are valid transactions that pay for the block space they consume, and they compete with payments in the same fee auction.
They are contentious: some see a legitimate use of a neutral fee market, others a waste of a scarce shared resource. Both positions are coherent. What is measurable is their effect on fee rates and block-space demand, which we report as data.
Related terms
Taproot
A 2021 soft fork adding Schnorr signatures and a scheme that makes complex spending conditions look like…
EconomicsFee market
The auction for finite block space, in which users bid fee rates and miners include the highest bids.
Transactions & feesMempool
The set of valid transactions a node has seen but that are not yet in a block — the queue competing for block…
Transactions & feesVirtual byte (vB)
The unit transaction size is measured in for fee purposes, equal to four weight units, introduced so SegWit…
This definition is part of the Bitcoin Logical glossary. For the fuller explanation, start with Learn, or see the live numbers on The Bitcoin Signal.