Evm Ink

Abstract. Purely on-chain digital artifacts allow for truly immutable assets with a digitally verifiable trace and all transactions linked in succession. Decentralized storage provides part of the solution, but asset immutability is lost when a trusted third party is required to validate the asset’s authenticity. We propose a solution that provides truly immutable digital artifacts using purely on-chain data storage. The order of referenced transactions serves as proof-of-work on multiple chains’ infrastructure. Each transaction contains data and references, building the chain of custody and proof of ownership. Transactions on one blockchain can reference transactions on other blockchains. These references across chains can be validated using Indexers of all participating chains in conjunction. Indexers help interpret the on-chain data without the need for any trusted third parties. The indexer can be hosted in a decentralized way and can be cross-verified by anyone.

Digital artifacts on blockchains, like NFTs, have come to rely on trusted third-party servers entirely. While this approach works for most projects, it still needs to address the inherent weaknesses of trust-based models, not allowing them to reach maximum adoption. The need for trust increases with the possibility of changed data references in the NFT URLs. Digital artifact owners cannot utilize such services for transactions where the need for decentralization is of critical concern.

With the proposition of having digital artifacts with purely on-chain data, the inherent virtues of decentralizing the underlying blockchain are inherited, allowing broadened use cases and significantly higher security.

Digital artifacts can also be called inscriptions on each transaction with raw data, which not only reduces the cost of data deployment, in comparison to NFTs, but also opens up borders to interact with multiple blockchains with provable inter-blockchain communication without relying on services like oracles and bridges for parsing information from one blockchain to another.

With the dismissal of boundaries between blockchains, a significant array of untapped use cases previously seen in the light of the limitation of various blockchains opens up, giving rise to Layer 2 solutions (L2s) and a competitive situation for market share capture.

Inscriptions not only bring the flexibility of use cases but also bring forth efficient utilization of different blockchains for much more diverse infrastructure planning. This can include having consensus on a highly decentralized chain and non-critical data storage on relatively lesser decentralized chains or L2s.

Inscriptions are data stored within a transaction’s notes (IDM – input data message ‘or’ callData) section. This ensures that the inscribed data is immutable and is purely on-chain. The Bitcoin blockchain had data inscribed into its genesis block, and the first trace of data inscription on the Ethereum blockchain dates back to mid-2016.

Inscriptions gathered significant mainstream buzz with Bitcoin’s Taproot Ordinals release when this paper was written, EVM INK, the multichain indexer, has recorded 4MM Ethereum inscriptions, 100MM BNBchain inscriptions, and 120MM Polygon inscriptions.

All inscribed data needs is an indexer, similar to Etherscan, but uniquely reading and filtering only inscribed transactions. The indexer behaves as a data interpreter and transaction validator by computing the parsed data.

Multiple functions and instructions can be sent to the indexer, and this is most commonly done using JSONs, which are like encoded text snippets. Instructions within these JSONs use operators like ‘mint’, ‘transfer’, ‘burn’, ‘stake’, ‘redeem’, etc.

Inscriptions can be extended to be as smart as time-locked contracts, and such parsing depends on the indexer’s capabilities.

The indexer plays the most crucial role in the entire inscription ecosystem by supporting various functions and unanimously interpreting recorded data.

With the rise in the popularity of inscriptions, the community has deployed a massive quantity of token transactions. There are multiple token standards in the market, and the most common ones are BRC-20, BRC-20S, ORC-20, BSC-20, NRC-20, BEP-20, etc.

All these standards have a different set of rules defined for data interpretation, and it is the indexer’s job to interpret these defined complexities correctly.

Many inscription standards need more clarity and a well-thought-through definition, which only shows how early we are in this trend. The community is gradually maturing and defining things to fill in the gaps through trial and error.

Transactions are the most critical part of any data stored on a blockchain. If data cannot be transmitted between two entities, the purpose of the data’s existence significantly diminishes.

Handling inscription transactions differs for various use cases. In the case of rich media (Images, Videos, HTML, etc.), the previous transaction hash is referenced and used as the transfer data between two entities. Meanwhile, in the case of tokens, transactions are broadcasted as JSONs, and the indexer has the job of validating the correctness of the transaction based on the predefined token standards.

The community is incentivized to be part of the pivotal shift in digital artifact standards from traditional semi-decentralized methods to purely on-chain methods. As always, early adopters enjoy an advantage in the ecosystem’s building and growth.

Various complex use cases require pure on-chain data records that haven’t yet been explored in the inscriptions ecosystem. This allows the community to rethink the capabilities of blockchain transactions.

With the help of indexers, significantly complex computation can be offloaded to centralized systems, allowing people to enjoy complex instructions stated in transaction data and executed/calculated off the chain.

The community can also intermingle between blockchains by referencing transactions on other blockchains while offloading interpretation and data processing tasks to the indexer. This can give rise to a significant forward push in the overall decentralization of economies and societies.

Cross-chain indexing is relatively straightforward as it utilizes existing data from blockchain nodes that have recorded transactions and executes or interprets complex computations that are referenced across different chains.

For this to be reliable, the indexer must have strict interpretation rules, guidelines for execution, and defined limitations of access to various blockchain data. The indexer should also be proficient in handling the re-organization of data and support for hard/soft forks.

We have proposed an indexer system that can handle complex computations multi-chain data interpretation, and spearhead the adoption of purely on-chain data records (inscriptions).

The indexer’s interpretation is akin to proof-of-work (here, transaction) with a linked record of the public history of transactions.

The indexer doesn’t require any system modifications in the existing blockchain infrastructure; rather, it augments and expands on the capabilities while earnestly trying to solve the shortcomings.

With maturity, the indexer will reach a state of optimal solution to the blockchain trifecta problem.