- EVM chains have caught the inscription bug.
- Data shows that most of the inscription activity is happening on Polygon.
- The purpose of these tokens on EVM chains remains in dispute.
The BRC-20 standard came to life in Q1 2023 as developers sought a way to provide token support on the Bitcoin network. In an unexpected twist of events, the success of these tokens on the Bitcoin network has sparked a wave that has now made its way to chains that already had token support.
Dragonfly Data Scientist “hildobby” recently created a Dune Analytics dashboard to allow users to track the growing activity. The data reveals that most inscriptions on EVM chains are happening on Polygon.
Polygon Hot With Inscription Fever
EVM chains have caught the inscription bug in recent weeks. Data from the EVM Inscription Dune Analytics dashboard released by hildobby on Wednesday, December 6, shows that at its peak on November 22, inscriptions guzzled $800k in gas fees across EVM chains. Per the data, Polygon is where the activity is at.
Over 133,000 users had made 109 million inscriptions on the Polygon network, the highest of any EVM chain. Fantom comes a distant second with 26 million inscriptions from 29,000 users.
As a result of the growing traction, inscriptions have accounted for nearly 69% of all transactions on the Polygon network in the past week. They have also made up for nearly 27% of gas fees spent on the network.
Charts showing the percentage of gas spent on transactions per chain and the percentage of inscription transactions per chain in the past week. Source: Dune
As highlighted by hildobby, POLS Market appears to be driving the inscription activity on Polygon, with nearly 100,000 users minting its PRC-20 standard token POLS. The activity surrounding the token led to record gas fees and transactions on the Polygon network in November 2023.
Despite the excitement surrounding inscriptions on EVM chains, their purpose remains unclear as these networks already have native token support through the ERC-20 standard. At the same time, the increased demand for blockchain data makes network validation a more arduous task.
“Inscriptions go against every EVM design decisions, with gas costs being the only benefit, at the expense of indexing, non-compatibility, integration challenges,” hildobby wrote.
On the Flipside
- Aside from speculation, the purpose of inscriptions on EVM chains is unclear.
- Bitcoin developers are trying to end inscriptions due to their high demands on the network.
Why This Matters
The recent explosion of inscription activity on EVM chains, including Polygon, highlights the ability of memes and speculation to drive activity in the crypto markets.
Read this to learn more about POLS:
What Is POLS and Why Is It Sending Polygon Fees to the Moon?
Learn more about Bitcoin’s recent run to $44k:
Bitcoin Flirts With $44K as Bulls Bet on $48K Year-End Price
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