Bitcoin’s blockchain has 40.49 gigabytes (GB) left until it hits half a terabyte (TB), and with the recent trend of ordinal enrollments, it’s likely to get there faster. The average block size peaked at 2.52 megabytes (MB) on February 12, 2023, but block sizes decreased and dropped to an average of 1.634 MB on February 27. Still, the blockchain grew at a rate of 0.288 GB per day, compared to the previous rate of 0.173 GB per day recorded before the Ordinal enrollment trend began.
The Impact of Ordinal Enrollments on Bitcoin Network Metrics
ordinal inscriptions started on December 16, 2022, but didn’t really pick up steam until February 2, 2023. That was the day a 3.96MB block was mined, and since then 214,028 signups have been added to the chain of Bitcoin blocks. The trend of ordinal signups between February 2 and February 27, or roughly 26 days, increased Bitcoin’s average network fee and average block size. Both the network fee and block size metrics peaked around February 12 and have been declining ever since. During that time span, the data shows that the size of the Bitcoin chain grew at a faster rate.
For example, statistics show that the Bitcoin blockchain was 459.51GB in size on February 27, 2023. Metrics show that over the span of 26 days, the blockchain grew by 7.77 GB, or about 0.288 GB per day. The spike can be seen visually by looking at a chart of the size of the Bitcoin blockchain from February 2 to today. However, before ordinal signups began to trend and larger blocks were mined more regularly, the growth of the blockchain was much slower. It took 45 days, from December 19, 2022 to February 2, 2023, to reach 7.77 GB.
At that time, over the span of 45 days, the Bitcoin blockchain grew at a rate of 0.173 GB per day. Bitcoin average rate on February 28, 2023, it is 0.000077 BTCor $1.82, per transaction, while the median rate is 0.000033 BTC, or $0.777, per transaction. Transactions are also confirmed at rates ranging from 2 satoshis per byte, or $0.07, up to 19 satoshis per byte, or $0.62, per transaction. He revenue Cumulative miners per day amid the Ordinal enrollment trend peaked on February 16, 2023, at $28.21 million (block subsidy + fees), compared to $21.36 million today. Still, bitcoin (BTC) miners are earning more revenue than on December 24, 2022.
It will be interesting to see how another month of ordinal signups affects metrics like average block size, median and average fees, and the overall growth of the Bitcoin blockchain. Although the hype around ordinal enrollments has subsided, these metrics remain elevated compared to before February 2 and the subsequent influx of enrollments. Average and median fees remain higher than before the ordinal trend, and average block sizes remain above the 1.60 MB threshold after remaining under him for months.
What do you think about the impact of ordinal signups on the growth of the Bitcoin blockchain? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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