What Are Rare Sats? (The Ultimate Guide to Rare Satoshis)
The name of blockchain developer Casey Rodarmor was largely unknown in the Bitcoin (BTC) community before 2023. That all changed in the space of several months when Rodarmor introduced two groundbreaking innovations. First, in January 2023, he debuted his Bitcoin Odinals theory, which allowed the identification and tracking of individual satoshis, the smallest units in a BTC coin. The Ordinals protocol made it possible to inscribe pieces of custom data into satoshis, ushering in the era of Bitcoin NFTs. Then, in September 2023, Rodarmor introduced the concept of Runes — a technology that facilitates the efficient issuance and management of fungible cryptocurrencies on the Bitcoin blockchain. The Runes protocol was launched right after the Bitcoin halving event on Apr 19, 2024.
By now, Rodarmor's ideas have attracted keen interest within the Bitcoin community. Hence, it's no wonder that another innovation of the ingenious developer — the rarity classification and index of satoshis on the Bitcoin network — has been the talk of the town in recent months.
Key Takeaways:
Rare sats are satoshis (the smallest units of Bitcoin) that possess some rare properties, such as being the first satoshi in a mined block.
The trading of rare sats has grown in popularity since developer Casey Rodarmor introduced the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol, and the classification of satoshis into different rarity categories.
What Is a Satoshi?
A satoshi is the smallest unit of Bitcoin, with each BTC consisting of 100 million satoshis. The unit is named after Bitcoin's mysterious founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. In the Bitcoin community's jargon, “satoshis” is often shortened to “sats.” In early 2023, developer Casey Rodarmor introduced his Ordinals theory and protocol, which allowed the precise identification and tracking of all individual sats mined on the Bitcoin network.
The Ordinals theory introduced a way of creating native Bitcoin NFTs by inscribing custom data into individual sats. However, ordinal inscriptions are just some of the groundbreaking innovations stemming from Ordinals theory. The fact that each satoshi mined on Bitcoin can now be identified allowed Rodarmor to create a peculiar classification system of satoshis that’s based on their rarity within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
What Are Rare Sats?
Rodarmor's classification system divides all satoshis on the network into different categories, based on each satoshi's rarity. For instance, the first satoshi in each mined block on Bitcoin is called "uncommon," while any sat that isn't the first or last in a block is considered "common," i.e., lacking any notable rarity features.
There are further rarity categories beyond common and uncommon, which we’ll cover in the next section. In Rodarmor's original classification, these categories are rare, epic, legendary and mythic. “Rare sats” refers to satoshis that belong to any of the above categories, except for the common category.
The emergence of the rare sats concept has led to active speculation and trade, with the most in-demand items on the market worth hundreds of thousands or potentially millions of dollars.
Rodarmor Rarity Index (Sats Rarity Checker)
Rodarmor's rarity index initially described six rarity categories — common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary and mythic. Later on, Bitcoin enthusiasts and marketplaces derived more rarity categories, such as black sats and pizza sats. Rodarmor himself describes these additional, "custom" sat categories as “exotic sats,” or exotics.
Common Sats
“Common sats” refers to satoshis that aren't the first or last within a block. These represent the vast majority of satoshis mined so far, as well as those still to be mined. Well over 99.99% of all Bitcoin sats belong to the common category and, therefore, possess no rarity characteristics.
Uncommon Sats
An uncommon sat is the first satoshi in a mined block. A new block of transactions is generated approximately every ten minutes on the Bitcoin network. Thus, one new uncommon sat emerges every ten minutes on the Bitcoin blockchain.
As of this time of writing (Apr 24, 2024), there are 840,592 uncommon sats in existence (i.e., within the BTC supply that’s already been mined). With a maximum supply of 6,929,999, this amount is still a tiny fraction of the existing supply of all satoshis, which is estimated at around 1.9 quadrillion. The potential value of an uncommon sat, as estimated by the Ordiscan portal, is over $500 ($548 as of the time of writing).
Rare Sats
In order to maintain the 10-minute interval between mined blocks, Bitcoin software adjusts its operational schedule after every 2,016th block. This happens approximately once every two weeks. The first sat in a block mined after this adjustment is classified by Rodarmor as “rare.” To clarify the terminology, the term "rare sats" is generally used to refer to all of the categories rarer than “common.” Still, within the rarity classification, there's also a specific category — “rare sats” — that includes the first satoshis of the blocks mined right after the fortnightly adjustment.
Rare sats are indeed exceedingly rare, with a maximum supply of 3,437 and only 416 currently in circulation. The estimated value of rare sats is close to half a million dollars ($460,485).
Epic Sats
An “epic” sat is the first sat of a block mined right after the Bitcoin reward halving event, which happens approximately once every four years. As of the Apr 19, 2024 halving, Bitcoin has gone through four such events. Thus, only four epic sats are in circulation, though the supply is capped at 32. None are currently listed for sale, which makes any estimates of their potential price extremely hypothetical. Many industry observers believe that an epic sat might be worth millions of dollars.
Legendary Sats
It's estimated that the fortnightly interval adjustment and the reward halving coincide after exactly six halvings. The first satoshi of the first block mined right after this co-occurrence is classified as “legendary.” There’s an estimated total of five legendary sats.
It must be noted that the co-occurrence of these two events as described above is extremely rare, taking place only once every 24 years. It's forecast to first occur on the network in 2032. This is when the very first legendary sat will become available.
Mythic Sats
The mythic sat is the first satoshi of the first block ever mined on Bitcoin. It was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto himself (or should we say themselves, as the true identity of this creator is unknown) on Jan 3, 2009.
Exotic Sats
Exotic sats are custom categories of rare satoshis created outside of Rodarmor's original rarity index. These include a variety of rare sat types, such as:
Satoshis mined in block 78 by early Bitcoin contributor Hal Finney
Vintage sats — satoshis from the initial 1,000 mined blocks
Nakamoto sats — elusive sats mined by none other than Satoshi Nakamoto himself
Two intriguing types of exotic sats are black sats and pizza sats, as detailed below.
Black Sats
The concept of “black sats” can be described as the reversal of the standard “rare sats” classification. A “black uncommon sat” is the last satoshi in a block, a “black rare sat” is the last satoshi of the previous block before the block time adjustment, and so on. While rare sats signify the beginning of pivotal events on the Bitcoin blockchain, black rare sats mark the conclusion of such events.
Pizza Sats
Pizza sats are satoshis from the legendary purchase of two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 BTC on May 22, 2010 — the first ever real-world Bitcoin transaction.
How to Know if You Have Rare Sats
To find out if you possess any rare sats, you can usethe discovery tool provided by the Magic Eden NFT marketplace. This tool allows you to enter your Bitcoin wallet address, and then provides a detailed classification of your satoshis by rarity categories.
How to Find Rare Sats
Currently, the best sources for finding rare sats are the Magic Eden and Magisat marketplaces. The latter specializes precisely in rare sats, along with Ordinal Bitcoin NFTs.
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