Ordinals’ Mainnet Launch Splits Bitcoin Community

The recent launch of an NFT protocol on the Bitcoin mainnet has sparked a heated debate within the crypto community over its potential impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The protocol, referred to as “Ordinals,” was introduced by software engineer Casey Rodarmor, with some welcoming its potential to bring more financial use cases to BTC. While others are concerned, it may deviate from Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision of a peer-to-peer cash system.

Dan Held, a well-known BTC educator and marketing advisor expressed optimism about integrating NFTs into the Bitcoin network. In a tweet, Held highlighted the potential benefits of NFTs on Bitcoin, including introducing new financial use cases and increasing demand for block space and transaction fees.

Ordinals = NFTs on Bitcoin.

This is good for Bitcoin. — Dan Held (@danheld) January 29, 2023

However, ValentinoZ, a BTC enthusiast, shared positive sentiments about NFTs as the largest digital asset. He believes the market will eventually choose the best solution. ValentinoZ also mentioned that the recent low-fee transactions are just a temporary phenomenon.

Why it’s good: – Brings more financial use cases to Bitcoin – Drives more demand for block space (aka fees) My take: – If you pay a tx fee, it’s not spam. – Bitcoin is permissionless. Can’t stop anyone from building it anyway.

— Dan Held (@danheld) January 29, 2023

Some people remain skeptical that NFTs on Bitcoin will have a positive outcome despite positive perspectives. NFTs Integration may cause network bloat, negatively impacting the decentralized nature of Bitcoin, according to some opinions.

As the debate continues, it remains unclear what the future holds for NFTs on the BTC network. Only time will tell if this integration will drive Bitcoin’s growth or threaten its decentralization and security. Currently, the crypto community has different opinions on the effect of NFTs on the largest cryptocurrency.

Inscriptions”: A Milestone for Digital Artifacts on Bitcoin

On January 21st, the latest release of Ordinals (ord,) 0.4.0 made it possible to create “inscriptions” on the mainnet, a new form of digital artifacts native to the Bitcoin blockchain.

Writing material on sats using the open-source application or results in inscriptions. This content may be photos, text, SVG, or HTML. It is impossible to change the material once it is processed since it has been permanently written.

Inscriptions offer advantages over regular NFTs, like being secure, unchangeable, directly on the blockchain, and without restrictions. They also do not require a separate token, a side chain, or any changes to the BTC protocol. Two important features, origin and decentralized marketplaces, are currently missing but are predicted to be added soon.

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Inscriptions differ from traditional NFTs in several ways, offering a more decentralized, immutable, and unrestricted option for creating digital artifacts.

The system writes inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain without requiring additional tokens or modifications. Other NFTs may need extra tokens and may not be as secure or unchangeable as inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain.