Ethereum NFTs Offered a One-Way Ticket to the Bitcoin Network
As the Bitcoin NFT trend continues unabated, Ethereum token holders have been given a chance to migrate their assets to the network. However, what is being dubbed as a ‘bridge,’ could be better described as an ‘exile.’
Milady Maker tribute project, Bitcoin Miladys, has partnered with Ordinals Market and Xverse to launch the ‘Ordinals Bridge.’ Effectively, this new portal will offer Ethereum ERC-721 NFT holders the opportunity to migrate their assets to the Bitcoin Network. The team will achieve this feat by consigning the original NFT to a burning wallet, then recreating it on the other side with a new ‘BRC-721e’ token standard.
The potential of moving Ethereum NFTs ignites a philosophical conundrum within the folds of the blockchain. Essentially, the term ‘burn’ represents something of a misnomer, as the NFT is not erased or destroyed. Instead, it is consigned to a wallet that no one has control over, effectively removing it from circulation.
Previously, when bridging NFTs to another blockchain, the original is held in situ until a time that the owner wishes to restore it to its original chain. However, as the Bitcoin solution involves removing the original from circulation, and replicating it on the new chain, it raises the question of whether it’s a true representation of the original at all. Despite these questions, however, it will, as always, be the market that decides.
Bitcoin Ordinals Race Past the 1 Million Inscriptions Milestone
Less than three months after the Ordinals project launched, the number of inscriptions has passed the 1 million mark. As of April 10, there are 1,058,189 Ordinals NFTs that have earned miners over 170 BTC in fees or $4.8 million as of press time.
The major milestone was hit at 17:44:24 UTC on April 8 with an inscription that consists of the single, now immortal word, ‘Piggy.’ An enviable asset attributed to the ‘Piggies World‘ project that consists of hand-drawn images etched onto the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol. Despite its popularity, Ordinals has proven divisive amongst both Bitcoin and NFT circles, with some believing it detracts from the overarching message of the world’s biggest blockchain network. However, with a million inscriptions and counting, the Ordinals freight train is showing no signs of slowing down.
Helping the project gain traction, Magic Eden recently introduced a marketplace to specifically trade Bitcoin NFTs. This has made inscriptions more accessible to the average collector and is reflected in the overall volumes. Currently, Bitcoin NFTs have turned over $19.5 million across various marketplaces, with 54,174 individual trades, emanating from 18,462 unique users.
An Adventurers Guide to the Bitcoin-Based Ordinals NFT:
Ordinals are inscriptions of content onto individual satoshis that can be tracked and held by users. The data is purely on the chain, doesn’t rely on other protocols, and will therefore survive as long as the Bitcoin blockchain is up and running. Many new services have emerged that allow users to inscribe, hold, and sell inscriptions. Everyone is doing it. It’s all the rage.
Ordinals are called ordinals because in number theory it denotes that numbers signify an order. Ordinal numbers are integers (natural numbers like 1, 2, 3…) and can be used to identify an object’s place in a list. Satoshis, the fundamental unit of Bitcoin where each Satoshi is worth 1 / 100,000,000) of bitcoin is not naturally ordered and do not have unique identifiers. When people transfer Satoshis between each other, as Casey Rodarmor puts it, they are held in a Satoshi goo superposition, indistinguishable from one another. This was the first basic
nnovation of Ordinals, creating a protocol that identifies and tracks individual satoshis. The details are somewhat complex, so feel free to read more about ordinal theory on the Ordinals website.
Luckily, with the enthusiasm for Ordinals, several companies have developed tools that accomplish all this for you… and they are growing and developing at a blistering pace. Let’s start with wallets. As mentioned, you need a Bitcoin Taproot wallet that plays nicely with the ordinal client to ensure you can hold your inscriptions without accidentally transferring them. Several wallets have stepped up to the plate. Two of the best available are Sparrow Wallet and Hiro Wallet. These are both fairly WYSIWYG, and there are good guides on how to use them for managing inscriptions. Additional available ordinals wallets include ordinalswallet.com and xverse.app.- source: https://nftplazas.com/
