BITCOIN RAILS EPISODE #17: DOMO’S SIDE OF THE STORY & the HISTORY OF BRC20 A particularly special episode—@domodata sits down with me for his first video interview ever—to recount the unique history of the BRC20 protocol. The first Bitcoin-native token standard ever created, BRC20 came into existence almost overnight and quickly emerged as a multibillion dollar asset class in 2024. This episode covers the influences leading up to the birth of $ORDI, the roles of different players involved along the way, and how core maintainers are preparing for their next major update—affectionately dubbed “BRC 2.0” by Bitcoin educator @bobbodily Additionally, Domo shares his memory of key moments in BRC20 history—including: —the development of BRC20's canonical indexer and details of Domo's working relationship with @unisat_wallet —Ordi's listing on OKX and Binance (+ what he believes triggered listing decisions by those exchanges) —the creation of the Layer 1 Foundation and the responsibilities of its member organizations in maintaining the core protocol —why Domo has never accepted funding (including advisory fees) from either of his lead maintainer companies @unisat_wallet or @bestinslotxyz We also go into depth about what sparked the “BRC20 indexer wars” and how stakeholders are ensuring the integrity of its consensus going forward. This episode includes special mentions of major influences in the evolution of BRC20—including @redphone @robertjfclarke @Bitcoin_Punks_ @satsnames @bestinslot @unisat_wallet and others. This episode can be viewed on YouTube or Spotify using the linktree in Isabel’s bio—YouTube episode is also in the comments. As always, thanks to the show's sponsor @bestinslotxyz for making this episode possible— in addition to being a core maintainer of BRC20, Best In Slot maintains the leading API for Ordinals and BRC20 data aggregation and indexing. TIMESTAMPS: 01:04 Domo, Ethereum, and how he found Bitcoin 05:04 Why Ordinals clicked for Domo 07:58 Ordinals going from underground to mainstream 11:13 Who helped Domo ideate around Ordinals? 16:21 How did Domo announce ORDI, the “first” BRC20? 20:02 Why did BRC20 blow up so fast? 22:25 How did UniSat get involved with BRC20? 25:12 Catalysts for the BRC20/ fungibles boom 26:35 When did BRC20 get good pricing data? 29:00 Domo’s stresses during the ORDI blowup 31:34 How involved was Domo with UniSat early on? 35:00 Exchanges instantly deciding to list ORDI 37:38 How did Best In Slot start indexing BRC20s? 41:48 Centralization of indexers 44:18 Coordinating indexers around Ordinals forks 47:25 Relaunching the Layer 1 Foundation 49:25 The relationship between Domo, UniSat, and Best In Slot 51:02 Upgrading BRC20: Swap and Programmability Module 54:55 How the programmability module came to be 57:00 “Standard Maxiness” is hurting the industry 59:00 Plugging BRC20 into everything else 01:00:50 Do programmable metaprotocols solve interoperability? 01:02:50 Metaprotocols and L2s: do they compete? 01:05:00 Does BRC20 have an advantage over the metaprotocols? 01:06:20 How should the community approach Bitcoin’s issues? 01:08:50 Competition rising in the BItcoin space 01:10:00 People are underestimating metaprotocols 01:11:55 Single step transfer for BRC20