In recent years, we have been inundated with NFTs in the form of funny pictures, collectible collections, and memes on the Ethereum network and other chains. However, they have never been natively found on the Bitcoin network before. Now that “NFTs” are also possible on Bitcoin, this has sparked much discussion, as the Bitcoin community is generally not known for being NFT enthusiasts.
What’s new?
There is a significant difference with the NFTs we’ve seen before. These Bitcoin NFTs (also referred to as digital artifacts) are fully stored on-chain, unlike NFTs on other smart contract blockchains. Typically, this image data is stored off-chain on IPFS for scalability reasons.
Ordinals haters can either protest at the corner of Seethe St. and Cope Ave., or they can build. 🧵
— Casey Rodarmor (@rodarmor) February 6, 2023
The advantage of Bitcoin NFTs is that they are therefore more decentralized and independent of external systems. The downside is that you cannot assign as many properties to them using smart contracts.
How does the technology work?
The creator of the Ordinals protocol, Casey Rodarmor, describes it on his blog as “a numeric namespace for Bitcoin.” Ordinals offer the possibility to make each Satoshi unique and trackable. You can add an inscription to such a Satoshi in the form of a jpeg, for example.
It’s a bit like engraving a 1 euro cent coin (perhaps with something of value) so that this 1 euro cent is unique and always traceable. While this is difficult with a physical coin, it is now possible with a Satoshi.
1/ You’ve probably seen it by now: the Ordinals project by @rodarmor. You might be wondering why everyone seems to be making such a fuss about it. In the first Alpha Deepen, we’ll take you through the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
— BitcoinAlpha (@BitcoinAlpha_) February 8, 2023
Do you want to send an inscription to a Bitcoin wallet? It’s quite simple via https://gamma.io/. You don’t need to install anything for this; just make sure to use a Taproot Bitcoin wallet address.
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