The Bitcoin protocol has its personal serialization format for transactions, blocks, scripts and many others. These codecs optimize for area, which suggests they are not significantly human-readable, so there are bitcoin-cli instructions that can be utilized to decode them right into a extra human-readable kind.

Think about the transaction 60267bfd9494e1a6a5218184c36bf4c97adccbbde40487a2f92fcfffc10d0500. Right here is its serialization in hexadecimal:

010000000001018154f1677366e5799f61646e5cea1ea13ef23c0bd3ba4cc845dcdc3f061c47570100000000ffffffff01035a28000000000016001486918c31af903a4c7ed2dc8191156c0ef44a11b40141f33812c31e4c1ae9a46c55e1463121d42c1c5cd64afc86fe94d2a126b2e515823954b079e11bf1251aa9d585cf4a83a0473634f1c22891249dacf9f93c976ff40100000000

Whenever you feed this into decoderawtransaction, you get this:

{
  "txid": "60267bfd9494e1a6a5218184c36bf4c97adccbbde40487a2f92fcfffc10d0500",
  "hash": "9aab2076ba5b8f2656d1a2b9f9928c6cb6a4d6f607ef88589ea6b6e842f3f320",
  "model": 1,
  "dimension": 151,
  "vsize": 100,
  "weight": 397,
  "locktime": 0,
  "vin": [
    {
      "txid": "57471c063fdcdc45c84cbad30b3cf23ea11eea5c6e64619f79e5667367f15481",
      "vout": 1,
      "scriptSig": {
        "asm": "",
        "hex": ""
      },
      "txinwitness": [
        "f33812c31e4c1ae9a46c55e1463121d42c1c5cd64afc86fe94d2a126b2e515823954b079e11bf1251aa9d585cf4a83a0473634f1c22891249dacf9f93c976ff401"
      ],
      "sequence": 4294967295
    }
  ],
  "vout": [
    {
      "value": 0.02644483,
      "n": 0,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "0 86918c31af903a4c7ed2dc8191156c0ef44a11b4",
        "desc": "addr(bc1qs6gccvd0jqayclkjmjqez9tvpm6y5yd5azp9qs)#h6rkqret",
        "hex": "001486918c31af903a4c7ed2dc8191156c0ef44a11b4",
        "address": "bc1qs6gccvd0jqayclkjmjqez9tvpm6y5yd5azp9qs",
        "type": "witness_v0_keyhash"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Amongst many different issues, this additionally decodes the transaction’s output scripts (beneath scriptPubKey). Nonetheless, you probably have a serialized script outdoors the context of a transaction, which on this case can be 001486918c31af903a4c7ed2dc8191156c0ef44a11b4, you should use decodescript on it:

{
  "asm": "0 86918c31af903a4c7ed2dc8191156c0ef44a11b4",
  "desc": "addr(bc1qs6gccvd0jqayclkjmjqez9tvpm6y5yd5azp9qs)#h6rkqret",
  "tackle": "bc1qs6gccvd0jqayclkjmjqez9tvpm6y5yd5azp9qs",
  "sort": "witness_v0_keyhash",
  "p2sh": "3Np3NnSFbrdMjRi9ECcnoWCfHBPVVHe5iw"
}

Moreover, there are scripts that decoderawtransaction will not decode, for instance redeem scripts in witnesses of P2WSH inputs.

Take transaction b4bb98f79c50ef7fe74fb9fac705e3952650161477bd82b2687c953b71a44594 which spends one P2WSH enter with a 2-of-3 multisignature script. The serialized script can be given by decoderawtransaction because the final merchandise of txinwitness:

5221020fc49e0380f0ba7d849609e746e36557d1ad457cb88888a73fdbd9a7d7ab3b6a210211bcd0fc487c5ed1c60adb5379c9b078874b4e525a4df2c27540c9db856760082102e8033bc9956afcd3abba9cfe0817ab16c5ec84e2f8edc1da4373bac54dacf57253ae

Decoded by decodescript as:

{
  "asm": "2 020fc49e0380f0ba7d849609e746e36557d1ad457cb88888a73fdbd9a7d7ab3b6a 0211bcd0fc487c5ed1c60adb5379c9b078874b4e525a4df2c27540c9db85676008 02e8033bc9956afcd3abba9cfe0817ab16c5ec84e2f8edc1da4373bac54dacf572 3 OP_CHECKMULTISIG",
  "desc": "multi(2,020fc49e0380f0ba7d849609e746e36557d1ad457cb88888a73fdbd9a7d7ab3b6a,0211bcd0fc487c5ed1c60adb5379c9b078874b4e525a4df2c27540c9db85676008,02e8033bc9956afcd3abba9cfe0817ab16c5ec84e2f8edc1da4373bac54dacf572)#d63cpu6r",
  "sort": "multisig",
  "p2sh": "37CYRhHBjdgoTC7KQpUuTH3zAcm9akWqAd",
  "segwit": {
    "asm": "0 ec21a1b4e8cdaa89737895168ead0c3210fc2d1c6bf9805e45a475f714c75140",
    "desc": "addr(bc1qass6rd8gek4gjumcj5tgatgvxgg0ctgud0ucqhj9536lw9x829qqpnu64e)#2wsw9unx",
    "hex": "0020ec21a1b4e8cdaa89737895168ead0c3210fc2d1c6bf9805e45a475f714c75140",
    "tackle": "bc1qass6rd8gek4gjumcj5tgatgvxgg0ctgud0ucqhj9536lw9x829qqpnu64e",
    "sort": "witness_v0_scripthash",
    "p2sh-segwit": "3PCgTmZsCjK6KHJeEHJ7iCjVPqb3ygf5jF"
  }
}