Overview
Ordiscan is a web-based explorer tailored to the Ordinals movement on Bitcoin. It aggregates and presents detailed on-chain information about inscriptions, blocks, and related artifacts while exposing developer-friendly endpoints for programmatic access. The site highlights live statistics such as the total number of inscriptions, storage consumed, and cumulative inscription fees. Its primary aim is to make discovery, monitoring, and inspection of Ordinal inscriptions straightforward for collectors, analysts, and builders.
Core Capabilities
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Inscription indexing and browsing: Ordiscan catalogs individual inscriptions with links to dedicated pages. The explorer displays the latest inscriptions, supports type-based filters (for example, image types), and indicates when previews are unavailable.
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Block and activity monitoring: The explorer lists recent blocks and shows how many inscriptions each block contains. Users can quickly see block-level phenomena such as large batches of inscriptions or BRC-20 related activity.
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Live metrics and statistics: Key metrics—including the total number of inscriptions, the amount of data stored, and cumulative inscription fees—are presented prominently to give a snapshot of network scale and economic activity.
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Trending runes and collections: Ordiscan surfaces trending runes and other collection-level highlights, helping users discover popular or emerging content within the Ordinals ecosystem.
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Developer API: An API endpoint is available for builders who need structured access to inscription lists, block details, and other on-chain data. This supports tooling, analytics dashboards, and custom indexing solutions.
How it works
Ordiscan pulls data directly from Bitcoin blockchain transactions and decodes Ordinals-style inscriptions into searchable records. Each inscription record links to its raw data and a human-friendly page; blocks are annotated with inscription counts and related tags (e.g., BRC-20 or other recognized formats). The site typically combines a live feed of latest activity with curated trending lists to surface both immediate changes and broader patterns.
Typical use cases
- Collectors monitoring new inscriptions and previews to discover new items or confirm provenance.
- Developers building tools or analytic products that rely on up-to-date inscription indexes via the Ordiscan API.
- Researchers and analysts tracking network growth, storage footprint, and fee trends tied to inscription activity.
Why choose Ordiscan
Ordiscan is focused specifically on Ordinals, which makes it a specialized tool compared to generic blockchain explorers. It emphasizes discoverability, real-time metrics, and developer access, providing a practical interface for both casual users and technical audiences. The presence of filters, trending runes, and block-level insight simplifies common discovery workflows, while the API enables more advanced integrations. For anyone working with Bitcoin-based inscriptions—whether to collect, analyze, or build—Ordiscan offers a concise, purpose-built view of the Ordinals landscape.
Limitations and considerations
While Ordiscan aggregates and surfaces a large volume of Ordinals data, some previews may be unavailable due to content type or hosting constraints. Users should also be mindful that on-chain data can be large and that storage and fee statistics are snapshots that evolve rapidly. For programmatic needs, consult the API documentation and rate limits.
Getting started
Visit the homepage to view live metrics and the latest inscriptions. Use the inscription filters to narrow by type, click blocks to inspect recent activity, and follow the API link if you plan to integrate Ordiscan data into applications or analytics pipelines.
