Overview
The Nirvana Upgrade is a major revision of the ORC-20 protocol designed to bring improved compatibility, simplified processes, and expanded financial primitives to the Ordinals ecosystem. Announced as a carefully coordinated migration, the upgrade uses a precise snapshot and a one-block-later Genesis Launch to migrate existing ORC-20 assets while minimizing ambiguity. Indexing services, minting providers, wallets, and other related services are expected to adapt their systems to reflect the new inscription formats and rules.
Core Capabilities
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Improved inscription format: The upgrade standardizes and simplifies the way inscriptions are encoded to better support integration with Bitcoin-based DeFi constructs.
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Stablecoin support: Native support for widely used issuers like USDT and USDC enables more predictable on-chain value transfer and composability with other financial primitives.
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BRC-20-style transfers: A simplified transfer model borrowed from the proven BRC-20 approach reduces complexity for wallets and indexers.
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OTC atomic swaps and ORDER-BOOK: Native on-chain OTC functionality and a later-activated ORDER-BOOK enable peer-to-peer atomic swaps and AMM-like trading similar to Uniswap V3.
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Decentralized rewards: A shift away from centralized reward distribution to decentralized mechanisms aims to onboard more developers and align incentives across the ecosystem.
Upgrade Timeline and Migration Process
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Snapshot: The system takes a snapshot of all ORC-20 asset states at block height #818418. Services that index ORC-20 must capture balances at that block to correctly migrate assets.
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Genesis Launch: The Nirvana Upgrade becomes effective at block height #818419, one block after the snapshot. Any deployments, minting, transfers, or operations performed prior to this block will not be recognized by the upgraded protocol.
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Post-upgrade activation windows: Additional features are turned on at specified blocks (for example, OTC after #819469 and ORDER-BOOK/AMM-related features after #820519 and #826294), allowing staged activation and testing.
Note: Users are explicitly warned against transferring ORC-20 assets as the snapshot block approaches, because pending transfers included in the snapshot block will not migrate correctly.
Technical and Integration Considerations
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Indexers and providers: Indexing services such as Geniidata and 20Scan are primary sources expected to adopt the updated rules. Wallets and minting services will gradually sync to the new standard, which may temporarily affect balance visibility and mint functionality.
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Format changes: By removing unnecessary fields and introducing essential metadata, the protocol aims to increase compatibility for future DeFi integrations on Bitcoin while reducing parsing complexity for implementers.
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Stability and reliability: The upgrade fixes known bugs and establishes clearer indexing rules to lower integration friction and improve on-chain data reliability.
Why Adopt or Monitor the Nirvana Upgrade?
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Developers will gain access to a more robust and DeFi-friendly inscription format that supports stablecoins and atomic swap primitives.
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Indexers and wallets that adopt the new standard early will present accurate balances and a better user experience after migration.
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The introduction of decentralized reward mechanics and on-chain trading primitives increases the potential for new applications and liquidity within the Ordinals ecosystem.
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Clear upgrade timing (snapshot and genesis blocks) provides a deterministic migration path, reducing uncertainty for issuers and holders.
Recommendation
If you operate infrastructure (indexers, wallets, minting services) or issue ORC-20 tokens, plan to capture the snapshot at #818418, prevent transfers near that block, and update your systems to the Nirvana rules before or immediately after the Genesis Launch at #818419. For token holders, avoid transacting as the snapshot approaches and monitor supported indexers for accurate balances once the upgrade completes.


