‘Bitcoin Stamps’ NFTs Increase in Ordinals
There’s another wave of NFTs starting to flood the Bitcoin blockchain—and they’re not in the form of Ordinals.
The emerging STAMPS (Secure Tradeable Art Maintained Securely) protocol proposes a different method of embedding image data into the OG blockchain, which makes different trade-offs compared to the inscription technology that exploded in popularity earlier this year.
Instead of storing image data within cropable transaction witness data, “Bitcoin Stamps” store it directly in consumable transaction outputs.
“By doing so, the data is preserved in such a way that it is impossible to prune from a full node, and the data is preserved immutably forever,” wrote pseudonymous Stamps creator Mike In Space on the project’s GitHub page. The developer noted that he is already in discussions with Emblem and Hiro wallet to arrange protocol integrations, the former of which will allow users to buy and sell stamps on OpenSea.
When Ordinals surged in early February, proponents claimed they were superior to NFTs on other platforms because they store image data on the Bitcoin blockchain. In contrast, Ethereum NFTs are usually just image pointers to centralized hosting services, which can be changed by anyone who has control over the URL of the image.
Yet even Ordinals data can be pruned by the selection of individual node runners, limiting the immutability and decentralization benefits of such NFTs. As such, Bitcoin Stamps go all the way, forcing nodes to store their image data across many different unused transaction outputs (UTXOs).
The NFT is then broadcast across the network using Counterparty – an old protocol that ushered in Bitcoin images back in 2014 before the term “NFT” even existed.
“They are great for the preservation of art forever by storing them safely on the strongest ledger ever devised by man, backed by Proof of Work,” said the creator Decrypt via DM. He added that other services are already being built on top of the STAMPS protocol, such as one Name service by Rarity Garden.
But storing data across all Bitcoin nodes comes at a cost – literally. In fact, the protocol creator suggests using stamps for lightweight “24×24 pixel, 8-color depth PNG or GIF” files to compensate for their implicit storage overhead.
“The limitations of this ‘canvas’ are ideal for pixel art,” he wrote on GitHub. “CryptoPunks in particular uses a native resolution of 24×24 pixels.”
Stamps also come with the advantage of being “semi-fungible”: they can be issued as “1 of 1” or “1 of many” digital assets. Trevor.btc on Twitter, host of The Ordinals Show, recognized this feature is similar to Ethereum ERC-1155 multi-token standardand as a reason for their remarkably rapid growth.
Frimerker’s website shows that over 8,300 stamps have been struck since the launch on March 7, compared to less than 500 ordinals within the same time period after the launch.
That said, the number of Ordinals on Bitcoin only continues to grow, now standing at over 910,000 inscriptions to date, according to Dune Analytics. Major brands included Bored Ape Yacht Club and Bugatti has already adopted the technology.
