Element

How DMT registers a Bitcoin block field as a mintable namespace, and the element $BIT references.

What an element is

An .element is a text inscription on Bitcoin that registers a namespace tied to a specific block-data field (and optionally a pattern within that field). DMT indexers honor the first valid inscription for a given name as the canonical owner of that namespace. Once registered, the element becomes the reference point that any DMT deploy must point at via its elem parameter.

Element name format

Element names follow one of two shapes:

With pattern: <name>.<pattern>.<field>.element
Whole-field (no pattern): <name>.<field>.element

The four components:

name — the project's namespace claim. Case-insensitive. First inscription wins.
pattern — optional. Hex, string, or numeric value to match against the field. Mint quantity per block equals the count of pattern occurrences. Omit entirely for whole-field minting.
field — required. Numeric index into the Bitcoin block JSON. See the field table below.
.element — required suffix. Marks the inscription as an element registration.

Field parameter table

Field	Block JSON key	Type
4	`height`	numeric
10	`nonce`	numeric
11	`bits`	hex
12	`difficulty`	numeric
13	`chainwork`	hex
16	`tx` (txid array)	array

Full field table is in the DMT GitBook. The fields most commonly referenced for DMT tokens are 4, 10, 11, and 16.

The element $BIT references

$BIT references dmt.11.element — a whole-field reference to Bitcoin's per-block bits value. This element is the canonical namespace for "DMT tokens of the bits field." It is shared infrastructure: any DMT token that wants to derive supply from bits points its deploy at this element.

Multiple DMT tokens may reference the same element. The element is the namespace registry — a shared pointer to a block-data field. The token is the deploy. One element can underlie many deploys with different tickers and supply rules. Element ≠ token.

Whole-field vs pattern matching

Whole-field (no <pattern>): mint quantity per block equals the numeric interpretation of the field's value. The deploy's dt flag tells indexers how to decode the raw field (hex, numeric, string, etc.) into a number. $BIT uses this mode against the bits field.

Pattern matching (with <pattern>): mint quantity per block equals the count of pattern occurrences inside the field's value. This requires the dt flag in the deploy to specify the data type and dim to specify the matching dimension (h, v, d, a). Used for some other DMT tokens; not used by $BIT.

Canonical references

Resource	Inscription ID
`dmt.11.element` (element)	Resolved via the deploy inscription's `elem` field
$BIT deploy (`dmt-deploy`)	`9424802e38fc889969417cd90df4c4147209d2a83ed83798c0c4aa4391ad36e5i0`

Always verify the deploy inscription ID before transacting. Tickers in TAP are case-insensitive and unique-first-deploy. Imposters can inscribe lookalikes — the inscription ID is the only source of truth.