Simple Op Return Text Standard (SORTS)

Title: Simple Op Return Text Standard
Type: Standards
Layer: Applications
Maintainer: Kuldeep Singh
Status: Draft
Initial Publication Date: 2025-05-25
Latest Revision Date: 2025-05-26
Version: 1.0.1

Overview

This document defines the Simple Op Return Text Standard (SORTS) for use in on-chain identity and metadata systems. It is designed for append-only, immutable environments like BitCANN or similar smart contract systems, where data is in fixed-size or limited-size (e.g max 223 bytes in BCH, 2025). The SORTS enables flexible key-value data, namespacing, robust revocation, deduplication, and support for large values through fragmentation. The goal of this standard is to provide a human-readable, stateless, and portable format that supports extensibility and simple parsing.

1. Key-Value Record Format

• Format: key=value
• Keys should use dot-separated namespaces (e.g. social.github, bio.name, dns.txt, contract.fingerprint)
• Parsers should treat unrecognized keys as opaque unless they follow the standard format

2. Reserved namespaces/keys

The standard reserves the following keys for internal use:

Key	Value	Description
revoked	<sha256-hash>	Used to signal revocation of a record. The value is always the SHA-256 hash of the full key=value string of the record being revoked.
meta	type:<array|text|object|...>	Represents the behaviour of the record. Example: meta=type:array. For simple records, it can be omitted.

3. Updating Records and Fragmentation

• A new value for the same key replaces the old one.

• An existing record should be revoked by hash if its invalidation is needed.

• A record with .meta tag attached to it, the parser should assume that the single key will have a complex nature, i.e it can be an array or a text or other complex types.

  <namespace>.meta=type:<array|text|...>
  

• Attachment of .<n> to a key indicates that the key has an ordered value

  <namespace>.meta.<n>=<value>
  

• Examples:

  // Unordered array
  bio.email=a@example.com
  bio.email=b@example.com
  bio.email.meta=type:array
  

  // Ordered array
  bio.email.0=a@example.com
  bio.email.1=b@example.com
  bio.email.meta=type:array
  

  // Ordered text
  profile.bio.0=This is the beginning ...
  profile.bio.1=... continued text ...
  profile.bio.meta=type:text
  

4. Record Invalidation / Revocation

• Since on-chain data is immutable, revocation is achieved through a dedicated revoked=<hash> record signaling indexers to exclude the record.

• The <hash> is always the SHA-256 of the full key=value string

  # example
  Record: social.github=example
  Revoked: revoked=8a2e7f4c...
  

• Indexers must exclude any key-value whose hash appears under the revoked namespace

• Revocation of records with .meta tag will result in removal of all the records connected to it. To remove the individual parts of the record with meta tag, only the part to be removed can be revoked

  # example
  bio.email=a@example.com
  bio.email=b@example.com
  bio.email.meta=type:array
  
  # Revocation of bio.email array
  revoked=8a2e7f4c...  # sha256(bio.email.meta=type:array)
  
  # Revocation of bio.email.1
  revoked=8a2e7f4c...  # sha256(bio.email.1)
  

5. Recommended Namespaces and Types

Namespace	Key/Sub-Namespace	Type	Description
bio	name	string	Display name
	avatar	string	Avatar image URL
	banner	string	Banner image URL
	description	string/fragmented	A description
	email	string	E-mail address
	mail	string	Physical mailing address
	phone	string	Phone number
	keywords	string	Comma-separated keywords, ordered by most significant first
	notice	string/fragmented	A notice regarding this name
	location	string	Generic location (e.g. "Ladakh, India")
	url	string	Website URL
	*	string/fragmented	Many additional keys are recommended as per schema.org Person (e.g., birthDate, jobTitle, alumniOf, etc.); see schema.org for full list.
privacy	pgp	fragmented	PGP public key (ASCII-armored)
	rpa	string/fragmented	RPA (Resuable Personal Address)
	*	string/fragmented	Any other privacy scheme
crypto	BCH.address	string	Bitcoincash address
	ETH.address	string	Ethereum address
	BTC.address	string	Bitcoin address
	<TICKER>.address	string	Cryptocurrency address for specified ticker
	<TICKER>.version.<VERSION>.address	string	Multi-chain currency address (e.g., USDT on ERC20, TRON, EOS, OMNI)
	*	string	Cryptocurrency address format inspired by Unstoppable Domains Records Reference
token	<FAMILY>.address	string	Blockchain family address (e.g., EVM)
	<FAMILY>.<NETWORK>.address	string	Blockchain network address (e.g., UTXO.BCH)
	<FAMILY>.<NETWORK>.<TOKEN>.address	string	Token-specific address (e.g., UTXO.BCH.USDT)
	*	string/fragmented	Token format inspired by Unstoppable Domains Records Reference
social	twitter	string	Twitter handle; case-insensitive
	github	string	GitHub username; letters, numbers, hyphens only
	telegram	string	Telegram username; letters, numbers, underscores
	discord	string	Discord username; must include #
	*	string/fragmented	Other social platform handles
dns	a	string/fragmented	IPv4 address in dotted decimal format (e.g., 192.0.2.1)
	aaaa	string/fragmented	IPv6 address; lowercase recommended
	cname	string/fragmented	Canonical name record; may end with a dot
	mx	string/fragmented	Mail exchange record; priority and host
	txt	string/fragmented	TXT record
	ns	string/fragmented	Nameserver record optional
	*	string/fragmented	Any DNS record type as defined by IANA DNS Parameters is supported. Use the corresponding type name as the key (e.g., dns.srv, dns.ptr, dns.soa, etc.).
msg	<string>	string/fragmented	generic messages
contract	fingerprint	string	Contract fingerprint. See smart-contract-fingerprinting for details.
	params	string/fragmented	Contract parameters

Examples

# Bio
bio.name=Vikram Sarabhai
bio.avatar=https://example.com/vikram.jpg
bio.email=vikram@example.com
bio.description.0=Founder of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
bio.description.1=Spearheaded India's entry into the space age with the first satellite launch.
bio.description.meta=type:text

# Privacy
privacy.pgp=-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
privacy.rpa=example.rpa

# Revocation of bio.description
revoked=8a2e7f4c...  # sha256(bio.description.meta=type:text)

# Social
social.twitter=handle
social.telegram=handle

# Crypto addresses
crypto.BCH.address=bitcoincash:qpm2qsznhks23z7629mms6s4cwef74abcdabdaabdc
crypto.USDT.version.ERC20.address=0xabcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef12
token.EVM.ETH.address=0xabcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef12

# Basic DNS records
dns.a=192.168.1.1
dns.aaaa=2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:194

# Contract
contract.fingerprint=0x1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef12345678
contract.params=1465077837 4 -789332029 e4
contract.meta=type:object

References

1. Unstoppable Domains Records Reference - Documentation for Unstoppable Domains' record types and formats
2. ENS Text Records - Ethereum Name Service documentation for text records and metadata

Changelog

• 1.0.1 - 2025-05-26

  • Added privacy namespace
  • Added object in meta type
  • Added string/fragmented type to wildcard keys (*)

• v1.0.0-draft – 2025-05-25 (69066ab)

  • Initial publication

Copyright

This document is placed in the public domain.