Universal BRC-20
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Best Practices and Optimization

Following these practices can help optimize costs and ensure smoother operations.

  • Transaction Fees

    The cost of a BRC-20 operation is determined by the size of the Bitcoin transaction and the prevailing network fees (sat/vB). An OP_RETURN transaction using this method is generally smaller than an Ordinals inscription transaction for the same operation. Optimize transaction size by minimizing inputs where possible. Monitor network conditions and fee rates.

  • OP_RETURN Payload Size Management

    The 80-byte limit for the OP_RETURN data payload is a significant constraint. Longer ticker symbols directly reduce the available bytes for other fields (m, l, etc.). Choose ticker lengths judiciously to ensure the entire required JSON fits.

  • UTXO Management

    Efficiently managing your UTXOs is vital.

    • Consolidate fragmented UTXOs (both BTC-only and token-associated) periodically to reduce transaction size and complexity.
    • When spending tokens, tools should select the appropriate token-bearing UTXO(s).
    • Be mindful of creating change outputs and how indexer policy might handle token distribution to these outputs based on satoshi values. Keeping token UTXOs separate from large BTC amounts might be a strategy, though it increases the number of UTXOs.

  • Automated Monitoring

    For services or frequent users, automating the validation process by decoding raw transactions before signing and broadcasting is a critical step to ensure the OP_RETURN payload and transaction structure are correct according to protocol rules.

  • Prepare for OP_RETURN Limit Removal

    The anticipated removal of the 80-byte OP_RETURN limit in Bitcoin Core v30 will open possibilities for significantly larger BRC-20 payloads. This could allow for much longer tickers (up to potentially 10KB, depending on the new limit), more complex operations, additional metadata, or batching of operations within a single OP_RETURN in future iterations of this protocol. Indexers and tools should be designed with future extensibility in mind.