Bitcoin NFTs are all the rage right now, due to the launch and massive success of the ‘Ordinals’ protocol. Ordinals provide a novel way to mint NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain. The latest increase in Bitcoin assets is due to the launch of the CryptoPunks (Ethereum-based NFT) collection equivalent to Bitcoins. Although all the hoopla and hype is met with mixed reactions from the web3 community. So what are Bitcoin ordinals? Learn more below
What are ordinal NFTs in Bitcoin?
On January 21, software engineer Casey Rodarmor released the Ordinals protocol on the Bitcoin blockchain. Each Bitcoin can be divided into 100,000,000 units called “sats” (short for Satoshi). This new protocol allows users and builders to inscribe each ‘sat’ with data, known as ordinals. This data can also be smart contracts and therefore NFTs can be minted on it. In essence, the Ordinal protocol allows builders to create NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Furthermore, one of the main differences between Ethereum and Bitcoin based NFTs is that Ethereum NFTs generally target off-chain data in the IPFS system. With this protocol, all data is written to the chain. “An Ordinal is meant to reflect what NFTs should be, what inscriptions sometimes are and what inscriptions always are, by their very nature,” says Rodarmor. This new ecosystem can be a boon for the NFT industry in general, enhancing the very concept of digital collectibles. To add to this, due to the completely on-chain data enrollment for Ordinals, Rodarmor refers to them as something beyond NFTs, calling them Digital Artifacts.
How are Ordinal Punk’s NFTs game changing?
In many ways, Ordinal Punks signifies a new wave of Bitcoin NFTs, digital collectibles, and marketplaces. 100 pixel pfp avatars are tradable digital artifacts enrolled in the Bitcoin blockchain. The project is supposedly a clone of a spin-off project “Mutant Punks”, a clone of the original CryptoPunks on Ethereum. Although founder Rodarmor claims that the project uses “an open source algorithm and a CC0 Punk sprite sheet to spawn new punks”.
The entire 10K collection is out now, with one Ordinal Punk (#620) selling for 9.6 BTC (~$214,766.50). However, one of the problems with the project at the moment is that there is simply no market to buy and sell the crypto art once minted. But this of course does not stop the web3 community from buying and selling the digital pieces.
So far, more than 40,000 ordinals have been registered on the Bitcoin blockchain. There has also been a backlash against the entire protocol from Bitcoin maximalists. According to them, the whole idea of Bitcoin NFTs is against Bitcoin as a financial asset. Some even claim that Ordinals are just a waste of network space. Bitcoin-compatible
How to buy really ordinals?
to buy a ordinal NFTs, you must first download a Bitcoin compatible wallet. Once this is done, the user needs to follow a detailed guide from GitHub to make the BTC wallet compatible with Ordinals. After this, the user must run their own Bitcoin node and enroll an ordinal (which would not be possible now as the project is dead). So there are two other options available for people to buy a BTC Ordinal NFT.
The simple way is to find an Ordinal owner and buy it from him. The owners can be found on the official Discord server. Navigating to the link-your-project channel on your discord allows users to explore what Bitcoin projects exist. This is obviously a huge risk for potential customers, as sites and discords can be completely wrong. Also, unless there is trust between the buyers and sellers of the project, it can lead to scams and fraud. Also, BTC ordinals can take hours or even days before they appear in your BTC wallet.
Continuing, if one wishes to create/register an Ordinal by oneself, there are services that allow it. Services allow users to register them without having to run a node themselves. For example, the popular Bitcoin Satoshibles project has created a ordinary robotthat allows users to enroll NFTs in their Bitcoin wallets.
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This article is educational material.
As always, do your own research before making any type of investment.
