Bitcoin Maximalists Divided: The Rise of Ordinals
Bitcoin maximalists, who have long been strong supporters of the crypto asset, are now facing a split within their community. The introduction of Ordinals has shaken up the narrative, leading to two warring factions emerging in the Bitcoin community.
Key Points:
– The first group consists of skeptics who believe in “staying true” to Bitcoin by using it solely for processing transactions.
– The second group are fans of Ordinals, who believe its popularity has revitalized the developers of the network.
– Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, praised Ordinals for bringing a “culture of actually doing things” to the Bitcoin ecosystem, which he sees as a positive development.
– Ordinals played a crucial role in enabling NFTs on the Bitcoin network, attracting NFT creators from Ethereum and causing transaction fees to increase.
– The BRC-20 token standard has gained prominence and is seen as a move away from stagnant politics within the Bitcoin ecosystem, according to Buterin.
Ordinals have had an explosive year, with trading volume rising by 2,834% from Q1 to Q2 of 2023, reaching $210.7 million. The number of trades and unique traders has also increased significantly, indicating growing interest in exploring new types of digital assets.
Furthermore, there are currently over 15 million Ordinals inscriptions on the Bitcoin network, showing its widespread adoption.
In recent news, a proposal was released to reduce inscription costs by 90% and introduce new on-chain features through the BRC69 standard. This highlights the ongoing innovation and development happening within the Ordinals ecosystem.
Hot Take
The rise of Ordinals has caused a rift within the Bitcoin community, with skeptics and fans clashing over the future of the cryptocurrency. While some see Ordinals as a positive force that brings new opportunities and developers to the network, others worry about straying from Bitcoin’s original purpose. Regardless, Ordinals’ explosive growth and increasing prominence in the crypto space cannot be ignored. It will be interesting to see how this divide plays out and how it will shape the future of Bitcoin and the broader crypto ecosystem.