• Ordinals inscriptions, a kind of Bitcoin-native NFTs, are becoming popular.
• More than 7,000 inscriptions have already been included on the Bitcoin blockchain.
• The protocol was unveiled in January and has spurred controversy over the effects it could have on the size of the Bitcoin blockchain in the future.
Ordinals Inscriptions Becoming Popular
Ordinals inscriptions, viewed as a kind of Bitcoin-native NFTs, are picking up steam among some Bitcoin circles. The protocol, which was unveiled in January, has already served to bring more than 7,000 inscriptions directly to the Bitcoin chain, with some collections already present.
Procedures for Issuing Ordinals
The procedures to issue ordinals is far from user-friendly as each user must run a full bitcoin node to make an inscription. Most inscriptions contain images which will be conserved forever as part of the blockchain. This feature has sparked controversy around its potential effects on the size of the bitcoin blockchain.
Taproot Wizards and Other Collections
Taproot Wizards is a recognizable collection being issued featuring an image of a magic internet money meme wizard introduced by Mavensbot back in 2013 and there are six different inscriptions with art derived from this meme. Ordinal Rocks and Ordinal Punks also claim to have 100 inscriptions among the first 650 issued respectively.
Creator’s Response to Controversy
Casey Rodarmord, creator of Ordinals has declared that the idea behind this protocol is to bring fun and interest back into bitcoin again despite its impact on size of blockchain memory usage.
Conclusion
Ordinals’ popularity is increasing amongst certain circles despite its difficult procedures for issuing them onto the blockchain due to their unique ability to store any type of content within them permanently. Despite this increase in popularity however there remains some debate around its potential effect on memory usage within blockchains which will need further examination before it can be fully accepted into mainstream use cases for bitcoin and other digital currencies alike.