When Ordinals came out in January, Bitcoin fans, activists, and developers talked about whether or not JPEG should be added to the blockchain. According to a report by Dune, the number of Ordinals used in Bitcoin inscriptions passed 11,000 on Tuesday. The heated discussion is still going on.
Ordinals is the most recent attempt to add non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to Bitcoin. Counterparty gave Bitcoin its first non-fungible tokens with the Rare Pepes collection in 2014, and Stacks did the same in 2017. The Ordinals project, on the other hand, is unique because assets, like JPEGs and even video games, are written directly on satoshis on the Bitcoin blockchain, without the need for a sidechain or extra token.
The Ordinals project has brought the Bitcoin community together and started new debates and questions about the network’s purpose. Some people thought that Ordinals opened up Pandora’s box of problems for the Bitcoin network, like virus attacks and rising transaction fees.
The Ordinals block explorer should be browsed with caution, IMO.
— Pledditor (@Pledditor) February 7, 2023
It has auto executing, unvetted pieces of JS code executing in your browser that possibly could be malware. Seems like a minefield you should probably avoid.
Dan Held, who has been using Bitcoin for a long time, tweeted his support for Ordinals and said that the project is “excellent for Bitcoin.” Held gave out copies of an email that Hal Finney, who has since died, wrote about “crypto trading cards.” Held said that Bitcoin NFTs were good for Finney. Finney, who died in 2014, is one of several people who are thought to have been Satoshi Nakamoto, the fake name of the person who created Bitcoin.
Hal Finney would like Bitcoin NFTs. pic.twitter.com/z4cO468pcA
— Dan Held (@danheld) February 6, 2023
Ordinals, unlike Ethereum and Solana, calls its non-fungible tokens (NFTs) “digital artifacts,” while others in the Bitcoin community call them “inscriptions.” Ordinal inscriptions are possible because the Bitcoin Taproot upgrade in November 2021 added a feature that lets a satoshi’s witness store any kind of data.
The Ordinals: innovative or not?
Bullish on ordinals increasing the #Bitcoin fee market (even if temporarily). Miners could use a little revenue these days.
— Dennis Porter (@Dennis_Porter_) January 30, 2023
Developer Casey Rodarmor started the Ordinals project on January 21, 2023. Since then, interest in them has slowly grown, and some people have tried to see how much they can fit on a satoshi.
Ordinal inscriptions of random JPEGs is boring
— Eric Podwojski
Ordinal inscriptions of JPEGs containing text of banned books, the Bible, leaked documents from governments, etc is ALOT more interesting(@epodrulz) February 7, 2023
Alex Adelman, co-founder and CEO of Lolli, said in an email, “The Ordinals project is a milestone for bitcoin, demonstrating how innovation on the bitcoin network can give rise to a breadth of new applications beyond its use as sound money.”
Adelman says that Bitcoin NFTs will attract a new wave of interest and capital, which will give developers new chances to build new solutions to help with scalability and efficiency. This is because Bitcoin is far behind Ethereum in terms of investment and talent committed to innovating and making new applications.
“If every transaction had a jpeg it’s like 200gb of space in a year” – @CryptoLanroc #bullish? #bitcoin #ordinals #btc #ordinal #jpeg #nft #spam #69 #earthquake picture is of current state of jpegs on btc pic.twitter.com/J7ML19uA19
— Good Guy Biker – Not A Spy Balloon Pinky Swear (@goodguybiker) February 7, 2023
Even though the idea of minting NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain has sparked new interest among OG blockchain fans, Ordinal inscriptions don’t have typical NFT features like smart contracts, which the Bitcoin blockchain doesn’t support out of the box.
Brian Laughlan, who made Satoshibles, thinks that the limitations of Ordinals will make people more interested in projects like Stacks.
“The reason I am bullish on Stacks even more now is that people will eventually start to feel the limitations of ordinals—high main chain fees, no smart contracts, etc. They will look to L2 solutions, and Stacks is ready to fill that gap,” Laughlan said.
Laughlan says that Bitcoin maximalists’ resistance has made it hard for Stacks to “be heard.” He also says that Ordinals is the best thing Stacks could have hoped for.
He said, “Now more people are looking at Bitcoin than ever,” he said. “You got ETH Maxis running Bitcoin nodes and Bitcoin Maxis loving jpegs all of a sudden! The world has gone mad.”
As the Ordinals debate goes on, it’s clear that Bitcoin blockchain inscriptions are here to stay, whether Bitcoin maximalists like it or not.
Content Source: decrypt.co
