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Are Bitcoin NFTs the hottest new trend?
Bitcoin NFTs are all the rage right now, due to the launch and massive success of the ‘Ordinals’ protocol. Ordinals provide a new way to create NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain. The latest surge in Bitcoin assets is due to the launch of Bitcoin’s equivalent CryptoPunks (Ethereum-based NFT) collection. Although all the buzz and hype is met with mixed reactions from the web3 community. So, what are Bitcoin Ordinals? Find out more below
What is Ordinal NFT on Bitcoin?
On January 21, software engineer Casey Rodarmor launched the Ordinals protocol on the Bitcoin blockchain. Each Bitcoin can be divided into 100,000,000 units called “sats” (short for Satoshi). This new protocol allows users and developers to enter each “set” of data, known as Ordinals. This data can also be smart contracts and therefore NFTs can be minted on them. Essentially, the Ordinal protocol allows developers to create NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Also, one of the core differences between Ethereum-based NFTs and Bitcoin is that Ethereum NFTs typically point to off-chain data on the IPFS system. With this protocol, all data is written into the chain. “An Ordinal is intended to reflect what NFTs should be, sometimes are, and what inscriptions always are, by their nature,” says Rodarmor. This new ecosystem could be a boon to the NFT industry in general, improving the very concept of digital collectibles. To add to this, due to the complete chain inscription of data for Ordinals, Rodarmor refers to them as something beyond NFTs, calling them Digital Artifacts.
How will Ordinal Punk NFT change the game?
In many ways, Ordinal Punks heralds a new wave of Bitcoin NFTs, digital collectibles, and marketplaces. 100px pfp avatars are tradable digital artifacts inscribed on the Bitcoin blockchain. The project is reportedly a clone of a derivative project “Mutant Punks”, a clone of the original CryptoPunks on Ethereum. Although founder Rodarmor claims that the project uses “an open source algorithm and CC0 Punk sprite sheet for generating new punks.”
The entire 10K collection is already off the shelf, with an Ordinal Punk (#620) selling for 9.6 BTC (~$214,766.50). However, one of the problems with the project at the moment is that there simply isn’t a marketplace to buy and sell the crypto art once minted. But of course this does not stop the web3 community from buying and selling the digital chips.
More than 40,000 Ordinals have been entered on the Bitcoin blockchain so far. There has also been a backlash against the entire protocol from Bitcoin maximalists. According to them, the whole idea of Bitcoin NFTs is against Bitcoin as a financial asset. Some even argue that Ordinals are just a waste of network space.
How to actually buy Bitcoin NFTs?
To buy one Ordinal NFT, one must first download a Bitcoin compatible wallet. Once that is done, the user must follow a detailed GitHub guide to make the BTC wallet compatible with Ordinals. After this, the user has to run their own Bitcoin node and enter an ordinal (which would not be possible now since the project is designed). So there are two other options available for people to buy a BTC Ordinal NFT.
The easy way is to find an Ordinal owner and buy it from them. Owners can be found on the official Discord server. Navigating to the link-your-project channel on discord allows users to explore what Bitcoin projects are out there. This is obviously a big risk for potential customers, as the pages and disagreements can be completely wrong. Moreover, unless there is trust between project buyers and sellers, it can lead to fraud and fraud. Also, BTC Ordinals can take hours or even days to appear in your BTC wallet.
If you want to create/enter an Ordinal yourself, there are services out there that allow this. The services allow users to enter them without running a node themselves. For example, the popular Bitcoin project Satoshibles has created an Ordinal Bot, which allows users to enter NFTs into their Bitcoin wallets.
