Despite backlash from Bitcoin purists, Ordinals – the NFT-like project on the Bitcoin blockchain – shows no signs of slowing down, as over 76,400 inscriptions have been created to date. The number of Ordinals increased on February 9, 2023, surpassing 20,800 inscriptions for the day, according to data from Dune.
Launched last month, Ordinals is the latest project aiming to bring NFTs into the Bitcoin ecosystem. Counterpart, launched in 2014, was the first project to introduce non-fungible tokens to Bitcoin with the Rare Pepes collection, followed by the 2017 launch of Stacks.
What sets Ordinals apart from previous projects is that the digital assets are written directly into satoshis, the lowest denomination of a Bitcoin, without the need for a sidechain or token.
Developers have entered JPEGs, audio files, videos, and even video games to test the limits of what can go on the Bitcoin blockchain. While the total number of Bitcoin NFTs is unknown, the Ordinals website and Gamma, a Bitcoin NFT marketplace on Stacks, seem to point to several thousand minted on the network.
Bitcoin NFTs may be having a moment, but the technology is still in its infancy, especially compared to Ethereum and Solana, which have had years to perfect minting, trading and displaying digital collectibles.
“Ordinals has been live for a few months now, but it’s really only a week old in terms of mass adoption,” said Satoshibles developer Brian Laughlan Decrypt on Discord. “It’s going to be a while before we see general wallet support.” Launched in 2021, Satoshibles is the first NFT collection that bridges Ethereum NFTs with Bitcoin using stacks.
As Bitcoin Twitter continues to argue the merits of filling blocks with photos and videos, Bitcoin miners are raking in a tidal wave of fees that peaked at $92,220 on February 12, 2023, for Ordinal transactions alone.
Not surprisingly, clones of popular NFT projects such as CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have made their way onto the Bitcoin Blockchain. On February 8, a single Ordinal Punk sold for 9.5 BTC, or nearly $215,000.
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