Ordinals Brings NFTs to Bitcoin, Raising Vital Questions for the Network
• Ordinals, a Bitcoin-native protocol, is launching on the blockchain and enabling On-Chain NFTs.
• Led by former Bitcoin Core contributor Casey Rodarmor, the protocol allows for numbering and transferring individual satoshis on the Bitcoin network.
• The introduction of ordinals and inscriptions to bitcoin has sparked debate in regards to potential impacts on block space and bandwidth as well as censorship resistance.
Project Overview: Ordinals
A project called Ordinals has launched on the Bitcoin blockchain, effectively enabling Bitcoin-native on-chain NFTs. Led by former Bitcoin Core contributor Casey Rodarmor, the protocol is a convention for numbering and transferring individual satoshis on the Bitcoin network.
Introducing Ord
Ord, a specific implementation of Ordinals, “is a wallet and explorer that allows tracking the location of specific satoshis and their ordinal numbers – assigned by the Ordinals protocol – as well viewing, creating, and transferring inscriptions, that is, individual satoshis inscribed with arbitrary content,” according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine. The introduction of this feature brings NFTs to bitcoin.
Debate Surrounding Inscriptions
The introduction of ordinals and inscriptions has attracted much debate in regards to its potential impact on block space and bandwidth necessary to run nodes as well as censorship resistance. Supporters of ordinals have praised it for bringing increased financial use cases while critics have raised concerns about wastefulness or inefficiency of encoding.
Continued Development
Regardless of ongoing debates regarding its effects on bitcoin’s social dynamics, contributors are continuing to add new features such as provenance collections composability and decentralized marketplace capabilities.
Conclusion
Ordinals may prove an interesting catalyst for re-examining how projects are built onto bitcoin networks both positively or negatively impacting its development depending upon perspective. Regardless debates continue unphased with developers actively working towards improving features associated with this protocol
