

The recent addition of the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol to the Bitcoin blockchain brings a lot to talk about. This new protocol will allow the storage of NFTs. Find out all the details here.
At the beginning of 2023 the Bitcoin blockchain has incorporated a new protocol called Bitcoin Ordinals. This new protocol endows the Bitcoin network with a new capability that consists of allowing users to assign unique numbers of individual satoshis and transfer them along with attached images, videos or text, these are inscriptions that can be made within the chain thanks to this new protocol, these inscriptions are called "Ordinals", a kind of meta-data within the blockchain.
Already in mid-February 2023, 120 thousand Bitcoin Ordinals were registered on the Bitcoin blockchain.
It should be noted that there is a notable difference between Bitcoin's NFTs and the NFTs of other blockchains such as Ethereum, we will go into this difference and the controversy it has generated in more detail.
This new protocol was created by software engineer Casey Rodarmor, a Bitcoin network rethinking enthusiast.
Rodarmor, a native of the state of California, USA, is a Bitcoiner who got involved in cryptocurrency because of his disdain for government and his belief in sound money without state control. Although he is also interested in NFTs, especially the generative art they propose. He has worked in technology since 2010, including a brief stint at Chaincode Labs working on Bitcoin Core. He now co-hosts SF Bitcoin BitDevs, a community dedicated to testing new Bitcoin ideas and innovating in the ecosystem, such as Ordinals.
According to Rodarmor, the idea for Ordinals was born in early 2022 when NFTs started to gain traction. Its uniqueness is that it seeks to bring NFTs directly into the Bitcoin network, creating immortal NFTs within the cryptocurrency's decentralized, secure and immutable network.
According to Casey Roadmor, Bitcoin Ordinals are "digital artifacts," a level above the NFTs we've known so far. Casey says that digital artifacts are NFT, but not all NFT are digital artifacts. Digital artifacts are NFTs held to a higher standard, closer to their ideal. For an NFT to be a digital artifact, it must be decentralized, immutable, on-chain, and unconstrained.
But not all NFT supporters agree with the idea of Ordinals. Even @OGDfarmer, an influencer on Twitter, argues that they don't fully meet the characteristics of an NFT because they lack the ability to program for projects, which greatly limits their potential use cases. Despite this, most people in the Crypto Twitter community are starting to use the word "Ordinals" to refer to these new digital assets on the Bitcoin blockchain, whether they are tokens, digital artifacts or NFTs. While some may criticize them, Ordinals are opening up new creative possibilities in the cryptocurrency world and are catching the attention of many.
Unlike most NFTs that are created and tracked through a smart contract, ordinals are written directly to and stored on the Bitcoin blockchain.
This means they are validated and stored in blocks along with other transactions and stored in the network's distributed ledger, this includes images, photos, videos and accompanying text within the blockchain itself.
In contrast, the assets that represent the smart contracts of most NFTs such as those minted on the Ethreum network for example are typically hosted elsewhere, such as on IPFS decentralized storage systems. That is, the "heavy" data referenced by the smart contract is not written to the blockchain, but points to a decentralized server.
Some experts claim that due to "heavy" data such as images, videos and attached text that are stored within the blockchain itself and are not linked to an external server that hosts them, the Bitcoin network may be affected in its performance and stability.
No wonder, just thinking about the weight in KiloBytes that a video or an image can have and that this binary information has to be stored in the blockchain generates at least shivers.
Uploading unnecessary information to the Bitcoin network can generate several problems. First, it can increase the size of the blockchain unexpectedly, which can saturate the network and make it difficult to validate transactions. As a result, a debate may ensue over how to control the amount of space used on the network and what incentives can be created for miners to censor transactions that consume too much space.
In addition, the use of Bitcoin as a database for storing general data goes against the principles laid out by the currency's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. He argued that projects using Bitcoin should work independently and should not download the entire blockchain to use only a part of it.
On the other hand, there is a dilemma about what can and cannot be done in Bitcoin. While some argue that wasting resources is immoral, others claim that anyone is free to do whatever they want on the network. This has generated debates among important personalities within the Bitcoin ecosystem, who offer different points of view. For example, some suggest limiting the block size, while others consider that Bitcoin is there for us to use for our purposes, whatever they may be.
In conclusion, uploading unnecessary information to the Bitcoin network can generate problems and controversies. It is important to keep in mind the principles established by the creator of the currency and carefully consider the uses to which the network will be put.
The following is a list of the first digital artifacts or Bitcoin Ordinals NFT Bitcoins registered on the Bitcoin blockchain. You can also consult these registrations at the following link:
Record 0
The first Bitcoin ordinal inscribed in December 2022.
Bitcoin Rocks
The 100 Bitcoin Rocks collection is a tribute to Ether Rock on Ethereum and represents the first complete collection of its kind on the Bitcoin blockchain. @ordrocks is the creator of this collection, which includes the first 250 inscriptions and whose first rock was minted in Inscription #71. The value of Inscription #180 is surprisingly high, reaching up to 1,000 BTC.
Bitcoin Shrooms
Dotta, the CEO of "Forgotten Runes" (www.forgottenrunes.com) a metaverse mounted on the Ethereum network that has nearly 100 thousand followers on Twitter, reported that some of the earliest inscriptions in the Bitcoin Mushrooms collection predated those of Bitcoin Rocks, starting at Inscription #19. Currently, the project's Discord is temporarily closed and the Mushrooms collection has not yet been put up for sale.
Ordinal Punks
The Ordinal Punks, a major collection of Ordinals, consists of 100 PFPs that have been algorithmically generated from CryptoPunks. One such PFP, known as Punk94, sold remarkably for 9.5 BTC. The hype generated around this project sparked a debate among diehard Bitcoin supporters and influencers about the need to include JPEG images in the Bitcoin blockchain.
Ordinal loops
The ordinal loops project has as its first chapter a series examining the hostile FIAT environment in which Bitcoin was born and how it struggles against major government currencies. Currently, there are no direct OTC buying opportunities available for Ordinal Loops NFTs, and one must participate in auctions according to the project's Discord.
Shadow Hats
The mystery figure collection, which starts from inscription 957, is dedicated to Satoshi Nakamoto, the enigmatic developer behind Bitcoin. Like Nakamoto, little is known about the creator of the collection. So far, no ordinal of the collection has been sold.
While most of the first 1,000 Bitcoin Ordinals registrations are not available for sale or are too expensive, it is recommended to buy among the first 1,000 ordinals. Those who can't afford it might consider buying among the first 10,000, as older inscriptions have more value.
One of the most notable collections within the first 10,000 inscriptions is Ordinal Birds, an offshoot of the successful Moonbirds on Ethereum. All 100 Ordinal Birds are sold out, except for four that the team is reserving for Kevin Rose, the CEO of Moonbirds' parent company PROOF, to thank him for inspiring the project. However, OTC sales of Ordinal Birds are through an escrow service on Discord from the project.
Another notable collection is DeGods, a former top-tier NFT collection in Solana, which announced its bridge to Ethereum. The project's co-founder, Frank DeGods, joined Ordinals and worked with Ordinals collector and software engineer Nick Hansen to enroll 535 DeGods on the Bitcoin blockchain, all in a single block.
To buy Bitcoin Ordinals, you can use Ordinal Protocol's wallet software called "ord". However, Bitcoin ordinals cannot interact with blockchain networks that use smart contract technology such as Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Chain and Avalanche due to Bitcoin network limitations.
There are not many marketplaces that support trading ordinals, as the concept of NFT in Bitcoin is in its nascent stage. However, you can buy most Ordinals peer-to-peer over the counter through Discord from the individual Bitcoin Ordinal project. Auctions on platforms such as Scarce City are also an option.
To mint, sell, transfer or exchange an Ordinal, users must run a full node on the Bitcoin blockchain. In summary, investing in Bitcoin Ordinals can be an exciting option, but thorough research should be done before making a purchase decision.
Initially, early adopters had to create a wallet that was compatible with "ord" in order to start receiving registrations. However, to meet the demand for more user-friendly solutions, new wallets for Bitcoin Ordinals have been launched in recent days. Here are a few of them.
Ordinals Wallet
The launch took place on February 16, and since then, users have been able to view and store Bitcoin Ordinals in the wallet. In addition, they will soon be able to transfer, send, enroll, buy and sell the enrollments.
Xverse
Xverse is an application that allows users to enroll Bitcoin Ordinals without having to run a full Bitcoin node. Users upload an image or text into the app and send a transaction to the Ordinals address, paying a transaction fee in BTC that can also be purchased in the app. Gamma.io handles the actual Ordinals enrollment and Stacks is integrated with Xverse. The wallet is available in App Store, Google Play and as a Google Chrome extension.
Hiro
Hiro Wallet operates similarly to Xverse: ordinals are enrolled through Gamma.io and deposited directly into the user's account. The wallet has plans to add support for Stacks and Ordinal-based NFTs enrollments, which will allow users to display a full gallery of their NFT Stacks and Ordinal enrollments in Hiro's new "Bitcoin Web3" web application. This was announced by Hiro Wallet product leader Mark Hendrickson.
Here are some of the marketplaces where Bitcoin Ordinals NFTs can be traded:
NFT Trends