After the Ordinal signup process gained significant traction on the Bitcoin blockchain with over 800,000 signups to date, a new trend of non-fungible token (NFT) technology emerged called Bitcoin Stamps. The image storage technique is a new way of storing images in Bitcoin and more than 8,000 stamps have been minted so far.
From ordinals to stamps: a new way of storing images in Bitcoin materializes
Bitcoin enthusiasts were introduced to a new method of storing images on the Bitcoin network that is different from the Ordinal enrollment process that has become a popular trend in recent months.
The new Bitcoin Stamp scheme was created by the Twitter user mike in spaceand a summary of the project is hosted on Github. Basically, the technology provides a way to split an image into numerous Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXOs) by encoding them into Base64 text and leveraging the Counterparty protocol to stream them to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin seals cannot be removed like witness or signature data, and creating a seal is more expensive than ordinal inscriptions. Due to cost, the Bitcoin Stamps Github summary says, “the fewer bytes, the better,” and recommends using “24×24 pixel, 8 color deep PNG or GIF files.”
On March 31, 2023, the first 600 Bitcoin stamps they were stamped, and at the time of writing, there are over 8,000 stamps. A directory of Bitcoin Stamps is hosted at stampchain.ioand the project is also supported by Counterparty xchain.io. There are also collections like pixel godsand Bitcoin stamps can be found on the counterparty asset portal kaleidoscopexcp.com.
You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.#Bitcoin Seals pic.twitter.com/xzpjR7sZCC
— Mike in space! (@mikeinspace) April 3, 2023
The first Bitcoin Seal, Seal 0, was created four weeks ago, on March 7, 2023, at 1:19 am UTC. Of course, similar to ordinals, there have been criticism of Bitcoin stamps. When Mike in Space shared an image of a flowchart showing Bitcoin Stamp transactions, one person answered“This is intentionally bloating the UTXO array instead of putting data into the token… Why would you do this…?”
Miguel answered, saying: “The data of the witnesses can be cut out. The intention is permanence.” Others were enthusiastic about the project and asked How could they participate? Despite some opposition, at the end of the day, anyone can mint Bitcoin Stamps at any time without permission.
What do you think about the emergence of Bitcoin Stamps as a new image storage trend on the Bitcoin blockchain? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
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