Inscriptions 2.0 gameplay? A brief analysis of the explosive popularity of Move smart inscriptions MRC-20

Written by: Spinach Spinach

100 billion $MOVE minted in three days! Is MRC20 "smart inscriptions" going viral? Does inscriptions open a new narrative? What about the gameplay of inscriptions 2.0? Why is the Move ecosystem the most suitable for issuing smart inscriptions? How will the development change when inscriptions have combinability and more playability? What are the differences between issuing inscriptions in the Move ecosystem and on Bitcoin and Ethereum?

Let's talk about the recent hype around MRC20 smart inscriptions $MOVE.

This year, the most iconic trend in the crypto space is undoubtedly the surge of inscriptions in the Bitcoin ecosystem, creating a "retail frenzy." Spinach also played the role of "Old Man of Secrets" and successfully missed this wave of inscriptions. This requires reflection, as I initially only saw the attributes of "technological regression" and "new gambling" from a technical perspective, while overlooking the narrative of fair issuance behind it, which is an important factor in determining price.

With the recent general cooling of market enthusiasm for inscriptions, the smart inscriptions MRC20 $MOVE in the Move ecosystem suddenly exploded in popularity. The first inscription of MRC20, $MOVE, was issued on January 1, 2024, and within three days, 100 billion $MOVE were completely minted, with a locked amount of over 1 million SUI, almost occupying 1/200 of the entire SUI blockchain's TVL, and nearly 50,000 minting addresses. Why can Move smart inscriptions succeed?

Spinach believes there are several advantages:

1. Low transaction costs and fast processing speed

The explosion of Bitcoin inscriptions has led to congestion in the Bitcoin network and high transaction fees, making the friction costs of minting and trading inscriptions extremely high, with long waiting times. This has become a point affecting user experience for Bitcoin inscriptions.

In the Move ecosystem, minting inscriptions incurs negligible Gas fees, and the extremely fast transaction confirmation time provides a smooth experience, resulting in better user experience.

2. Combination of inscription features

Bitcoin inscriptions essentially involve engraving an "NFT" on a satoshi, which carries a fungible amount (Amount), equivalent to embedding a FT within the NFT. Moreover, since Bitcoin lacks smart contracts, an additional indexing mechanism is required to record the circulation of inscriptions, which may lead to vulnerabilities, such as the recent indexing rule vulnerability that occurred on OKX.

The structure of Bitcoin inscriptions, where an NFT contains a FT, is actually similar to the ERC-3525 SFT semi-fungible token standard. In a smart contract system, this type of structure can be naturally expressed, and like Bitcoin inscriptions, it can also be fairly issued. The non-UTXO account system can inherently replace centralized indexing mechanisms. So, what advantages do "smart inscriptions" have besides the features of inscriptions?

3. Decoupling of smart contracts and asset ownership

In the Ethereum system, the relationship between assets and smart contracts is tightly coupled. If a smart contract has a vulnerability, or if the project team suddenly upgrades the contract maliciously or leaves a backdoor in the contract, it can lead to asset loss.

In the Move ecosystem, smart contracts and asset ownership are decoupled. Even if there are issues with the smart contract, users still retain control over their assets.

You can think of Move smart inscriptions as a box containing your locked assets, with the key in your hand. The verification mechanism for this key is guaranteed by the blockchain, so holders of Move smart inscriptions almost do not need to worry about contract security issues.

At the wallet level, Move wallets typically have visual operation features, allowing users to see changes in account assets after transactions, making it friendlier and safer for beginners.

4. More playability and combinability

In the Move ecosystem, due to Move's unique structural mechanism, it does not need to follow a token standard to issue assets like Ethereum, providing greater flexibility.

Bitcoin, due to its lack of scalability and combinability, has overly simplistic inscription gameplay. Smart inscriptions grant greater imaginative space to inscription gameplay. Taking MRC20's $MOVE as an example:

With a total supply of 10 billion $MOVE, minting all requires 21,600 epochs, with no concept of total cards, as the amount of $MOVE per card is not fixed.

Assuming each epoch lasts one minute, it will take a total of 15 days to mint everything, adhering to the principles of decentralization and fair launch distribution.

The specific gameplay involves minting one inscription per address per minute, so minting only needs to occur once per minute.

Each mint requires locking 0.1 SUI into the inscription. If multiple mints are submitted within one minute, the inscriptions minted during that epoch will not change, but the excess 0.1 SUI will accumulate and lock into the inscriptions minted during the current epoch.

All locked SUI remains within the user's inscriptions and will not be deposited into any third-party accounts or contracts. If a user does not wish to hold the inscription, they can burn it to reclaim the locked SUI.

Additionally, there are two bonus gameplay modes:

1. Frenzy Acceleration Mode: If the number of participating addresses in each epoch reaches 500, acceleration mode is activated, and a new epoch begins for every 500 addresses, so the duration of each epoch may be less than one minute.

2. Winning Mode: The first address to mint in each epoch will settle the transactions of the previous epoch, thus receiving an additional inscription without needing to lock 0.1 SUI.

The gameplay with a non-fixed total number of cards means that the number of $MOVE obtained per mint may vary based on the number of participating addresses in each epoch. This could be more advantageous for early participants, and this mechanism can also be designed to randomly distribute amounts within a certain range, akin to a lottery, which aligns more with human gambling tendencies.

The SUI locking gameplay allows users to destroy already minted inscriptions at any time to reclaim their principal, with funds not controlled by any third party or contract, genuinely owned by the user's wallet. Users can always reverse their actions, providing greater flexibility.

The bonus gameplay also brings more imaginative space to smart inscriptions, allowing for the derivation of various gaming models, empowering inscriptions, and integrating with full-chain games or other Lego-like gameplay, with limitless possibilities.

I personally believe that players participating in Bitcoin inscriptions are essentially engaging in a "fair issuance." To put it simply, everyone desires a "fair casino," and issuing inscriptions is one way to achieve a "fair casino." Additionally, there is significant controversy surrounding Bitcoin inscriptions, with some Bitcoin developers arguing that inscriptions are actually a form of dust attack and a bug, leading to polarized attitudes toward Bitcoin inscriptions.

Move smart inscriptions are native on-chain assets, which may positively impact the activity level of the Move ecosystem. If everyone simply hopes for a fair casino, then a fair casino with lower barriers, lower costs, better user experience, and richer gameplay would be a better potential choice, wouldn't it?