Bitcoin thought leaders weigh the pros and cons of Ordinals

by · March 8, 2023

Ordinals are here to stay. Ordinals, or the ability to permanently whitewash the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain with data, usually in the format of an image or JPEG, is a controversial topic among some members of the Bitcoin and broader crypto community. Not so for developers and CEOs of Bitcoin-focused companies in attendance at the Advancing Bitcoin conference in London.

Cointelegraph asked several CEOs, builders and key opinion leaders about their views on Ordinals throughout the conference. The overall feeling ranged from curiosity to indifference to esteem.

Alex Leishman, CEO of River, told Cointelegraph that he does not have a stance on ordinals yet, but that he recently acquired an Ordinal:

“In the abstract, the idea of ​​having such a meta-layer on top of Bitcoin that tracks Sats; that has a separate state or mapping to the blockchain is really fascinating and could potentially be interesting for other things.”

For example, Leishman said he recently played a clone of the classic computer game Doom (called Yet Another Doom Clone) on an Ordinal. “Someone had embedded Doom in JavaScript and in a little web page in an Ordinal,” which Leishman uploaded from the blockchain.

Real gameplay of Yet Another Doom Clone loaded from an Ordinal. Source

Eric Sirion, co-founder and advisor to Fedi, and maintainer of the Fedimint open source protocol, told Cointelegraph that he is also “pretty neutral” on Ordinals:

“Essentially, we can’t do anything about it in a way that’s morally consistent. Like if we try to fight it, what gives us the right to do that? And also, we can’t effectively fight it. […] So yes, why bother?”

Sirion added that he’s not necessarily a fan of Ordinals, as they can blow up the blockchain a bit, but said: “Who am I to tell other people what to do with the fees they pay as?”

Bitcoin blockchain has since ‘inflated’ reaching an average block size all-time high, but the fees have remained more or less consistent.

The average block size has risen higher since ordinals. Source: Blockchain.com

Benoit Mazouk, CEO of UK Bitcoin exchange BitcoinPoint, shared Sirion’s concerns about blockchain congestion. Mazouk explained that while he understands key Bitcoin opinion leaders, such as Blockstream CEO Adam Back, who commented that ordinals are “useless”, he is “more into Bitcoin as a currency”.

Perhaps a bigger concern is that users could upload graphic images and offensive data to the blockchain. Recently shock porn was uploaded as an Ordinal.

However, the permanence and censorship resistance works both ways: Leishman states that permanent records of potentially important or culturally significant events can be permanently etched into the blockchain. “Ordinals can eventually become composable, and that’s really really censorship-resistant content,” Leishman commented.

Related: Yuga Labs’ First Bitcoin NFT Auction Raises $16.5M in 24 Hours

Bitcoin Magazine CEO Christian Keroles recently posted a culturally relevant reference to the censorship of Roahl Dahl books, questioning whether imprinting banned books on the blockchain as a form of preservation would be worthwhile.

All in all, Ordinals is starting to change the way Bitcoin advocates use and approach Bitcoin. Ordinals offer a different use case to the Bitcoin network compared to the first: peer-to-peer cash.

“Maybe the Bitcoin database has value for other things and they’re willing to pay for it, which is good for miners and maybe actually is.”

Miners have earned more income per block since Ordinal’s introduction, while video game fans can rest assured that a remake of Doom is playable, loaded from the Bitcoin blockchain.