Bitcoin Ordinals are akin to NFTs, as they are digital assets associated with satoshis, Bitcoin’s smallest unit.
They harness the Inscription process enabled by the Taproot upgrade in November 2021 to store data within Bitcoin transactions.
Earlier Bitcoin upgrades, including SegWit, improved transaction capacity and fueled innovations like the Lightning Network, laying the foundation for Ordinals.
Despite the intricate nature of Ordinals creation through Command Line or Terminal interfaces and the substantial size of the Bitcoin blockchain, developers assert that this process doesn’t strain the network’s resources.
How to Create an Ordinal on Bitcoin
To create Ordinals, users can either:
- Download Bitcoin Core, sync the node to the blockchain, create an Ordinals Wallet, and send some satoshis to it. Refer to the Inscriptions handbook for detailed instructions from the creators of the first Ordinal.
- Use a trusted third-party Bitcoin NFT Marketplace like Gamma, where you can connect a Stacks Wallet or an alternative BTC Wallet to mint an Ordinal, similar to minting an Ethereum-based NFT on platforms like OpenSea or Magic Eden.
Growth of Ordinals
Since its January launch, Ordinals and inscriptions have rapidly grown, exceeding 130,000 inscriptions, per Dune Research via Dataalaways.
They leverage the Taproot soft fork, which has witnessed a surge in adoption, hitting new all-time highs of 12.68% (adoption) and 5.59% (utilization) on a 7-day moving average.
This increased Taproot adoption has led to a rise in the mean block size, going from 1.5 to 2MB to 3 and 3.5MB in the past week.
Consequently, there has been a significant increase in fees on the Bitcoin network, with inscriptions contributing over $1 million in cumulative fees to the network.
What is Next for Ordinals?
The next step for Ordinals involves creating easier ways to inscribe on Bitcoin and user-friendly wallets for viewing Bitcoin NFTs.
Projects like Gamma, a Stacks-based Bitcoin NFT marketplace, and Oridalsbot by the Satoshibles NFT creators are already working on this.
Hiro Systems is also adding Ordinals support to its Hiro Wallet for seamless Bitcoin NFT creation and management.
Furthermore, Xverse, a Bitcoin-based web wallet, now supports Bitcoin NFTs.
These developments highlight growing interest in Ordinals and Bitcoin NFTs, suggesting more innovations in the future.
Conclusion
Bitcoin Ordinals, a groundbreaking NFT tech, allows unique, verifiable digital assets on Bitcoin.
With Ordinals inscriptions and network upgrades like SegWit and Taproot, they’re gaining crypto momentum.
As Bitcoin NFT interest rises, devs aim for user-friendly Ordinals solutions.
Projects like Gamma, Oridalsbot, Hiro Wallet, and Xverse signal a promising future for Bitcoin Ordinals and NFTs.