A guide to the fastest growing Bitcoin Ordinals project
In early 2023, with Ordinals Inscriptions growing in popularity daily, it seemed like every collector worth their salt was looking to cash in on the Bitcoin NFT craze. While most turned their attention to CryptoPunks, OnChainMonkey, and other Ethereum-native projects bridging the gap to the world’s oldest blockchain, a Bitcoin-centric effort emerged to establish a new narrative around digital artifacts.
Helmed by an independent developer and longtime Bitcoin advocate, Taproot Wizards (TW) stepped in not just as the new kid on the Ordinals block, but with a mission to become much more than just a generative avatar project. With the slogan “Make Bitcoin Magical Again” and with art that has historical significance within the Bitcoin community, the wizardry-themed project completely disrupted the ever-evolving Bitcoin NFT ecosystem in one fell swoop.
What is Taproot Wizards?
At its core, Taproot Wizards seems akin to the dozens of PFP (profile picture) projects that preceded it. With 2.121 unique, sorcery-themed Ordinals, the collection grew over time, teased bit by bit via the project’s Discord before being fully revealed on February 18, 2023. Although the project has yet to impress at the time of writing, it continues to receive accolades for its avant-garde sensibility that nests on a critical part of Bitcoin history: the Bitcoin Wizard.
18 February 2013, exactly ten years before Taproot Wizards revealsa user passing by moniker “mavensbot” uploaded a rough drawing of a Bitcoin swinging wizard to r/Bitcoin on Reddit. The image, which quickly became iconic in the crypto community as a mascot of sorts for BTC, existed in many forms before finding new life in Web3 with the help of Taproot Wizards.
It was originally thought that those behind Taproot Wizards had simply chosen the original Bitcoin Wizard as inspiration for a PFP project. But on the 10th anniversary of the first release, it was announced that mavensbot was actually involved in the creation of the art for the TW collection. Subsequently, a secondary collection of Bitcoin Wizard was launched, regardless of the amount of Taproot Wizards already revealed. It both benefited onboard users of Bitcoin’s Lightning network and benefits mavensbot for his masterful creation and years of blockchain advocacy.
Who created Taproot Wizards and why?
Taproot Wizards would be nothing without mavensbot’s original contribution to Bitcoin Reddit. But the impact of the Wizard drawing goes beyond just inspiring the art of TW. As Udi Wertheimer — a developer, crypto advocate, and member of r/Bitcoin when the original Bitcoin Wizard was posted — says the mavensbot’s drawing was a major event that nearly doubled the size of Bitcoin Reddit at the time. This event, and the cultural shift it marks, would eventually inspire Wertheimer to exploit the Wizard IP to create its modern, non-fungible counterparts.
“The 2013 Bitcoin Wizard brought in a lot of new people [to r/Bitcoin]. The cool thing about it was that it was this very simple drawing. It looks like it was made in Microsoft Paint and it just says ‘magic internet money – join us,’ Wertheimer said in an interview with nft now.
“People really enjoyed it. So we put a twist on it. We said, ‘Okay, we’re going to say the magical internet JPEG files and invite people to join us.’ This collection of wizards should really be for people who believe in Bitcoin and want it to succeed.”
When Ordinals first hit its stride, Wertheimer – a big proponent of Bitcoin over the years – was apparently already light years ahead of most in Web3. Due to his nature as a Bitcoin native, he saw Ordinals as a chance to shake up the seemingly stagnant bitcoin community and took it upon himself to do so in a grandiose way. On February 1st, in an event to announce Taproot Wizards to the world, Wertheimer purposefully orchestrated the largest block and transaction in Bitcoin’s history, achieving the absolute maximum BTC block size of 4MB – something many up until this point thought was impossible.
Still, perhaps as expected, not everyone was happy with the big block, or the Taproot Wizards, for that matter. Considering that a large number of Bitcoin maximalists were already opposed to Ordinals for various reasons – including their nature of causing congestion on the blockchain – Wertheimer’s purposeful act of maxing out a BTC block meant that network usage would stop if only for a short while at the same time as. While this was not well received by the guardians of tradition, it was of course just one show of force in Wertheimer’s battle plan to bring innovation back to Bitcoin.
The intention behind the project
At face value, Taproot Wizards is a PFP collection containing thousands of crudely drawn ordinary NFTs. So much is true. But by capitalizing on the obvious hype factor and tradability that comes with PFP projects, Wertheimer aims to create a sort of Trojan horse of Bitcoin awareness. While collectors may come for the art, through disruption, community building and by re-establishing the longstanding BTC ethos of rebellion, Wertheimer hopes to inspire a new wave of interest and innovation in Bitcoin.
Driven by the belief that Bitcoin has essentially lost momentum in the wake of Ethereum’s NFT successes, Wertheimer says he would love to see the unique, creative and humorous culture once established by early crypto adopters return to the Bitcoin blockchain. But for this to happen, he feels that Bitcoin maximalists need to come down from their high horses and accept that the blockchain can be used for more than just transactions. This is why he chose to launch TW with a 4MB Bitcoin block.
“The statement we were trying to make is, ‘look, whatever the Bitcoin protocol allows us to do, we’re going to do.'” You might have some preconceptions about what’s okay and what’s not okay, but we’re just going to do what the Bitcoin protocol allows us to do,” Wertheimer said. “I don’t think every single thing we do is going to be brilliant, but we’re going to try. We’re going to start trying things that are missing in Bitcoin culture.”
Wertheimer noted that while he doesn’t expect everyone to appreciate Ordinals, users don’t have to believe they’re good to take advantage of them. But in the spirit of innovation, he says he disagrees with the current Bitcoin ethos of perfectionism and believes failure must be achieved in order for progress to be made.
“It is not possible to have software that is absolutely perfect. I think a much better approach to life, and Bitcoin as well, is that mistakes and failures are going to happen, but they should be embraced because that’s how you direct your path. This is how progress is made in all fields, said Wertheimer.
“It seems like people at Bitcoin have been very focused on avoiding errors and mistakes when they’ve really been avoiding his progress. The only way to not make mistakes is to not move at all. So I hope that [Taproot Wizards] can revive this passion to experiment, try things and learn from mistakes.”
The future of Taproot Wizards
Whether or not Taproot Wizards catches fire as the next big NFT project is anyone’s guess. But while speculation can only take users so far, it appears that Wertheimer’s efforts are intended to have a much larger effect on the Bitcoin blockchain than a simple PFP collection could. In the spirit of bringing renewed interest to BTC, Wertheimer says he will focus heavily on education – getting TW community members to act for themselves rather than offering periodic incentives to those who stick around.
While Taproot Wizards fans will certainly be rewarded for their support and participation over time, as we’ve recently seen the NFT landscape (and collector rewards) change significantly in 2023, Wertheimer’s methodology may very well inspire new forms of Ordinals project management. But as Web3 matures, Taproot Wizards may have served the blockchain best by highlighting a salient truth: stagnation and complacency certainly won’t help NFTs move from niche to mainstream.
