What is DRC20 and How Do DRC20 Tokens Work?

DRC20 is adopted as the official token standard for Doginals on the Doge network, providing a common language and interoperability across the ecosystem.
Doginals are pieces of $DOGE written with rich data (like a dollar bill with a piece of art on it), which is the reason for the increase in activity on the Dogecoin network. DRC20 is adopted as the official token standard for Doginals on the Doge network, providing a common language and interoperability across the ecosystem. Doginals faced a significant challenge in indexing due to Dogecoin's variable block rewards, and this challenge has been overcome. This challenge was solved by fetching all random block rewards via a script. The future of Doginals looks like it will be fun and exciting.

What are doginals?

Doginals are individual pieces of “Shibes” tagged with rich data such as text or images within Dogecoin’s underlying Dogecoin network. The new Doginals drc20 standard allows Dogecoin nodes to write data to each Shibe and create a Doginal. The term “Shibe” reflects the Bitcoin equivalent “Satoshi” or “Sat.”

The Doginals protocol numbers Shibes, providing each Shibe with a unique ID and tracking them throughout transactions. This is how Doginals got its name. Branches are numbered according to their mining and transfer order. At the protocol level, Chibes are still tradable and are always worth one Chibe. However, like dollar bills, the real value of Doginal depends on the inscription on it.

How are Doginals different from NFTs?

Like NFTs, Doginals are digital assets created on the blockchain. Although they share this basic definition, some key differences set them apart:

No Need for Smart Contracts
Unlike NFTs, which are typically made using smart contracts on blockchains such as Ethereum, Solana or BNB Smart Chain, Doginals are written directly into individual Shibes and then incorporated into blocks on the Dogecoin blockchain. They do not require a sidechain or separate token and therefore inherit the simplicity, immutability, security and durability of Dogecoin.

Doginals Are Not Tokens
While NFTs are minted as entirely new tokens, Doginals are pieces of Dogecoin whose data is written directly onto the Dogecoin blockchain.

Doginals Stores Data On Chain
Doginals store their data entirely on-chain, making them immune to external attacks, unlike NFTs, which often reference files not hosted on the blockchain.

Lost Inscriptions
Like NFTs, Doginals can be lost if you lose access to your wallet. Doginals can be spent unintentionally. Therefore, it is very important to use dedicated Doginal wallets.

How are doginals created?

The process of creating Doginals, often called mining, minting, or writing Doginals, is similar to Bitcoin ordinals but adapted to the Dogecoin blockchain. While this process currently lacks intuitive tools, many projects are working to simplify this process, and rumors say Doge Labs will release a Mint Service soon.