# Permanent bytes: what to store on Bitcoin, and how

Research: every byte on Bitcoin is permanent and costly. What deserves that, and how is each byte best spent? Seven questions, each tied to the data that could answer it.

URL: https://blockspace.wiki/research/permanent-bytes/

**Status on [blockspacelabs.com](https://blockspacelabs.com): Research.**

## What it asks

The card opens: "Every byte on Bitcoin is permanent and costly. What deserves that, and how is each byte best spent?" It splits the question into seven parts:

1. **What's been stored:** every inscribed byte by kind, over time, and what it paid.
2. **Format efficiency:** bytes per pixel by image format; how often brotli compression is used and what it saves.
3. **Duplication:** identical files inscribed more than once, and what the copies cost.
4. **Reuse, not repeat:** how many bytes [recursion](https://blockspace.wiki/glossary/recursive-inscription/) and [delegation](https://blockspace.wiki/glossary/delegate-inscription/) save.
5. **Cost per permanent byte:** fee per content byte, against the [witness discount](/concepts/witness-discount/).
6. **Link rot:** inscriptions that point off-chain, and how many of those links still answer.
7. **What lasts:** which formats stay readable, and what belongs on-chain whole, as a hash, or not at all, "since nothing can be deleted".

## The data it will use

"The byte census, ord's inscriptions, the largest-inscriptions ranking, BTI books and fees." Each is already kept by [Blockspace Holdings' node and indexers](https://blockspace.wiki/glossary/blockspace-holdings-node-and-indexers/): [the byte census](/research/byte-census/), the ord index behind [blockspace.to](/projects/blockspace.to/), the ranking at https://block.space/largest-inscriptions, and [the three books](/concepts/the-three-books/).

## The figure on the card

The card shows one current figure: 128,169,266 inscriptions in ord, as of 2026-10-20 09:07:08 UTC. The wiki's own reading is 128,170,184 (as of block 972,320, 2026-10-20 12:17:07 UTC). No result of the study is claimed. [Inscriptions](/concepts/inscriptions/) explains how files are inscribed.

Sources:

- The blockspacelabs.com page (index.html) · https://blockspacelabs.com
- Blockspace Labs facts (data/facts.json) · https://blockspacelabs.com
- Blockspace Holdings records
- ord /status (the blockspace.to ord server) · https://blockspace.to/status

Live figures: ord as of block 972,320, 2026-10-20 12:17:07 UTC

Updated: 2026-10-20