Ordinals

Ordinals are heating and converting even the biggest Bitcoin maximalists into believers of the brilliant innovation.
You’ve probably heard terms like ‘Ordinal Theory’ and ‘Digital Artifacts’ fly around. But what do these terms really mean?

Casey Rodarmor is the mastermind behind Ordinals, but there’s still some debate (or confusion) around his vision. There are several layers to this, so let’s break it down (in his own words):

1. “Inscriptions inscribe sats (satoshis) with arbitrary content, creating bitcoin-native digital artifacts, more commonly known as NFTs.”

   Remember: Bitcoin can be subdivided into 100,000,000 satoshis. So, a satoshi is simply the smallest unit of bitcoin. Satoshis inscribed with arbitrary content create ‘digital artifacts.’ Easy enough… How are inscriptions enabled?

   This is where Ordinal theory comes into play.

2. “Ordinal theory enables inscriptions, a protocol for attaching arbitrary content to individual satoshis, turning them into bitcoin-native digital artifacts.”

   Now, for the answer to the golden question: “What is considered arbitrary content?”

3. “Arbitrary assets, such as NFTs, security tokens, accounts, or stablecoins can be attached to Ordinals.”

Ordinal inscriptions are digital artifacts.
Ordinals are sats inscribed with arbitrary content.
Arbitrary assets attached to Ordinals can be anything.
In short: Ordinals are whatever you or I want them to be.

What’s the current deal with Ordinals? Does it have staying power? A problem that arose shortly after the inception was the fact that they could mostly only be traded over the counter (OTC).

Thankfully, new marketplaces like OrdSwap and ORDX have come to the rescue. The pricier inscriptions tend to have a lower number. This is something briefly touched on in last week’s article.

We’ve seen extremely hyped projects like ‘Bitcoin Bandits’ sell-out with ease. Of course, some people are salty. But more than that, they simply don’t know where to find information on new releases, drops and projects in general.

Recently, a Bitcoin Ordinals drop Calendar website launched. The purpose of the website is to keep the community informed on upcoming and current mints. Overall, it’s a pretty helpful and handy resource.

The Ordinals space continues to grow and evolve at a shocking pace, despite the FUD and pushback from key opinion leaders in the ETH, SOL and BTC communities.

Source: Magic Eden