A standard for on-chain IP and attribution on Bitcoin.
On-chain Canon (OC) is an experimental standard for decentralized on-chain IP. Use the OC standard in combination with parent-child inscriptions to represent on-chain IP provenance, attribution, and ownership.
An OC inscription is a composable, recursive IP primitive tailored to the Bitcoin and Ordinal protocols.
OC data can be included in the ordinal protocol's content field as JSON or in the metadata field in CBOR format.
{
"p":"oc",
"desc":"Null the Cat",
"content":"A hyper-dimensional fugitive that has taken the form of a cat."
}OC data inscriptions typically have desc and content fields.
desc is not unique or required.
content can be text, a URI, or an inscription ID.
Markdown can be used for rich text content.
{
"p":"oc",
"content":[
{
"desc":"Null the Cat",
"content":"A hyper-dimensional fugitive that has taken the form of a cat."
},
{
"desc":"Cartesian the Dog",
"content":"A hyper-dimensional detective that has taken the form of a dog."
}
]
}The content field can be used recursively to include multiple contents.
desc can be included to describe individual content items.
{
"p":"oc",
"desc":"Null the Cat",
"content":"A hyper-dimensional fugitive that has taken the form of a cat.",
"credit":"f5ac3eb2ba6dec087a4170735d8865fc0019bff5263d431e0496fe4695651b5ai302"
}With the credit field, an OC inscription's content can be credited to an inscription ID, Bitcoin address, or other identifier.
OC inscription content with no credits assigned is credited to its parent inscription. If there is no parent (or the parent is burned), then it is credited to its origin Bitcoin address.
{
"p":"oc",
"desc":"Cartesian the Dog",
"content":"A hyper-dimensional detective that has taken the form of a dog."
"credit":[
{
"desc":"Albus",
"content":"Creator"
"credit":"bc1q0z5x3rsqjqt59mzs42vrwra83a2upprtm7lkc0",
"weight":3
},
{
"desc":"Brolly",
"content":"Illustrator"
"credit":"bc1qrhlw047ju02vlt5sk9e9cctn04x8hes5rlc5zl"
}
]
}The credit field can be used recursively to credit multiple parties.
desc can be included to describe the credited entity.
Text representing the associated work being credited can be included in the content field.
The weight value is an integer representing the relative contribution of each credited party within the same scope.
If no weight value is specified, it is assumed to be 1.
{
"p":"oc",
"content":[
{"content":"hash"},
{"content":"hash"},
{"content":"hash"}
]
}An OC inscription can hold secret data while still existing transparently on-chain by storing only a hash of the content, or storing encrypted data directly.
This is also useful for referencing content that is too large to store directly on-chain.
{
"p":"oc",
"credit":[
{
"credit":"f5ac3eb2ba6dec087a4170735d8865fc0019bff5263d431e0496fe4695651b5ai302",
"weight":5
},
{
"credit":"bc1q0z5x3rsqjqt59mzs42vrwra83a2upprtm7lkc0",
"weight":2
},
{
"credit":"bc1qrhlw047ju02vlt5sk9e9cctn04x8hes5rlc5zl",
"weight":1
}
]
}credit lists can be created independently of content.
These credit lists can later be referenced in the credit fields of other OC inscriptions.
Useful for re-using a previous attribution scheme.
Existing standard inscriptions, such as images or code, can be re-inscribed with OC data that references that inscription's ID in the content field.
For example, owning an art inscription re-inscribed with OC data by the rights-holder could confer additional rights to the inscription holder by including a particular license.
{
"p":"oc",
"desc":"Null the Cat",
"content":"A hyper-dimensional fugitive that has taken the form of a cat.",
"license":"OCL"
}An OC inscription can include a license.
The associated license dictates the terms for the OC inscription’s content.
A license can turn an OC inscription into an IP NFT where ownership of the inscription confers rights.
The license can be identified by name or by pointing to the inscription ID of the license on-chain.
If no license is specified, all rights are reserved as normal by their rights holders, and are not associated with OC inscription ownership in any way.
Additional OC content or credits can be appended by re-inscribing on an existing OC including just the new entries.
Provenance requirements such as origin address or parent-child can be used to validate appended data.
{"p":"oc"}Existing OC inscriptions can be “primed” by inscribing a blank OC message on an existing OC inscription.
Primed OC inscriptions are ignored.
Primed OC inscriptions can be normalized by re-inscribing a second sequential blank OC message.
Inscribing OC content and/or credit data on a primed OC inscription 'replaces' its previous content.
Replaced OC data remains immutably on-chain, but is ignored.
Provenance requirements such as origin address or parent-child can be used to validate changes to OC data.
Parent-child inscription can be used to 'lock' OC's by simply burning the relevant parent, preventing future updates with that provenance.
Considering grand-parent and ancestor inscriptions allows for multi-tiered and provisional governance of OC inscription data.
For example, An IP owner could use their own inscription as a parent to create a child inscription that will be used by an IP manager. That inscription is then used as a parent to create and manage an OC inscription, and then is burnt. The IP manager can no longer make valid updates to the OC, however the IP owner still could.
{
"p":"oc",
"content":[
{
"desc":"Null the Cat",
"content":"A hyper-dimensional fugitive that has taken the form of a cat.",
"credit":[
{
"desc":"Albus",
"content":"Creator, Illustrator"
"credit":"bc1q0z5x3rsqjqt59mzs42vrwra83a2upprtm7lkc0"
}
]
},
{
"desc":"Cartesian the Dog",
"content":"A hyper-dimensional detective that has taken the form of a dog."
"credit":[
{
"desc":"Albus",
"content":"Creator"
"credit":"bc1q0z5x3rsqjqt59mzs42vrwra83a2upprtm7lkc0",
"weight":3
},
{
"desc":"Brolly",
"content":"Illustrator"
"credit":"bc1qrhlw047ju02vlt5sk9e9cctn04x8hes5rlc5zl"
}
]
}
],
"credit":[
{
"desc":"Carmen",
"content":"Producer"
"credit":"bc1qrhlw047ju02vlt5sk9e9cctn04x8hes5rlc5zl"
}
]
}If a credit is associated with specific content, it can be included with the content.
In the above example, Albus and Brolly are credited for their creative work, while Carmen is credited for producing. The task of producing, the creation of "Null the Cat", and the creation of "Cartesian the Dog" are all weighted equally with the default weight of 1. Albus and Brolly's credits are weighted 3:1 on "Cartesian the Dog".
Therefore, in this example, Albus is credited the most, Carmen second, and Brolly third.
Existing OC inscriptions can be referenced in both the content and credit fields of new OC’s using their inscription ID.
- Reduces the creation of redundant records.
- Credit prior work by including existing OC inscriptions in the
creditfield. - Reuse previous teams, or create nested attribution schemes by including existing OC inscriptions with multiple credits in the
creditfield. - Create a copy of OC content by including an existing OC inscription with content in the
contentfield. - Create bundles of IP by including multiple existing OC inscriptions with content in the
contentfield.
{
"p":"oc",
"desc":"Null the Cat",
"content":"A hyper-dimensional fugitive that has taken the form of a cat.",
"v":"1.1"
}version refers to the version of the OC protocol.
An inscription with no version indicated will be interpreted with the latest version of the OC standard.
{
"$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
"title": "On-chain Canon (OC)",
"type": "object",
"required": ["p"],
"properties": {
"p": {
"type": "string",
"const": "oc",
"description": "Protocol identifier, constant for all OC inscriptions."
},
"desc": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Optional description of the OC inscription."
},
"content": {
"oneOf": [
{
"type": "string",
"description": "Text, URI, or a reference to another inscription."
},
{
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "object",
"required": ["content"],
"properties": {
"desc": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Description of the content item."
},
"content": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Text, URI, or inscription ID."
}
}
},
"description": "Array of content items."
}
]
},
"credit": {
"oneOf": [
{
"type": "string",
"description": "A single credit, typically a Bitcoin address or inscription ID."
},
{
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "object",
"required": ["credit", "weight"],
"properties": {
"desc": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Description of the credit item."
},
"credit": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Bitcoin address or inscription ID."
},
"weight": {
"type": "integer",
"description": "The relative contribution weight of multiple contributors."
}
}
},
"description": "List of credits for multiple contributors."
}
],
"description": "Credit attribution to the creator or contributors."
},
"license": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Optional license for attached content, referenced by inscription ID or other identifier."
},
"v": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Optional specified version of the OC standard this inscription adheres to."
}
},
"additionalProperties": false
}