Plentyย of developers with roots in Webย 3.0 attended Bitcoinย (BTC) 2023 asย aย resultย of Ordinals, the protocol launched earlier this year thatโs taken Bitcoinย (BTC) by stormโsparking a wave of innovation, hype, and experimentation.
OrdinalSafe, a self-custodial Bitcoinย (BTC) wallet built for Ordinals, was amongย the startups present with Ethereumย (ETH) in its veins. The bulkย of its development team has experience working with the second- largest cryptoย token by marketย cap.
The startup participated in Bitcoinย (BTC) 2023โs โPitch Day,โ and it inย theย end won Second place in the competitionโs infrastructure category. The endeavor was a notable achievement and memorable experience, stated OrdinalSafe CEO Esad Yusuf Atik.
โItโs your 1st time on that stage, and youโre attemptingย to sell the vision of your product to other people, so you want to do a good job,โ he stated. โI was really nervous, but going to the stage for the prize, it felt great.โ
Atik, a 22-year-old developer from Turkey, 1st caught the Webย 3.0 bug when he attended a hackathon in 2020. He, along with a couple of other members from the OrdinalSafe team, previously developed a protocol wasย known Proof of Innocence under the company Chainway.
Built for Tornado Cashโan Ethereumย (ETH) coin mixer sanctioned by the U.S. last summerโProof of Innocence is designed toย assist users prove they didnโt deposit funds into the privacy tool from a sanctioned wallet address.
The project โgot really good attention,โ Atik stated, adding he and developers that worked on the protocol recently got to meet Ethereumย (ETH) co- founder Vitalik Buterin in Montenegro. He alsoย mentionedย that Buterin talked about Proof of Innocence on stage at the Community Ethereumย (ETH) Development Conference.
Onย theย otherย hand, in February, Atik learned about Ordinals onย Twitterย platform and became transfixed. And, he and his fellow developers dove head- 1st into creating OrdinalSafe, inย theย end leading the crew to Miami.
Ordinals: A Tale of Wizards and Maxis
Not all Bitcoiners see value in Ethereumโor any other coin, for that matter. At Bitcoinย (BTC) 2023, severalย vocal conference-goers booed BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes on stage when he informed author Michael Lewis he โabsolutelyโ owns Ethereumย (ETH) and other tokens.
โCome on, guys. Yโall know you trade some PepeCoin,โ Hayes stated in response to the boos, referring to Ethereumโs amphibious memeย cryptocurrency du jour. โ Doย not sit here like that.โ
Along similar lines, a company wasย known LayerTwo Labs invited attendees to smash piรฑatas resembling Ethereumย (ETH), Solanaย (SOL) and Shibaย Inuย (SHIB) symbols at its booth. People urged Bitcoiners to โsmash a shitcoinโ like carnival barkers.ย
Onย theย otherย hand, regardlessย of any sense of Bitcoin superiority permeating the air at Bitcoinย (BTC) 2023, Atik stated that the conferenceโs crowd was welcoming.
โ Despiteย theย factย that we came from an Ethereumย (ETH) background, it felt like home,โ Atik stated. โIf youโre developing on Bitcoin, youโre part of the community, right?โ
Whether Ordinals itself is accepted by the Bitcoinย (BTC) community is entirely up for debateโas evidenced by tension on stage during โThe Great Ordinal Debate.โ
The conversation touched on whether Ordinals mayย be considered an attack on Bitcoin, as some critics say. Their argument: Experimental BRC-20 cryptoย tokens, built using Ordinals, have put an enormous strain on BTCโs network and driven up transaction fees. BRC-20 cryptoย tokens, pioneered in March, are fungible cryptoย tokens that exist on Bitcoinโcomparable to ERC-20 cryptoย tokens on Ethereumย (ETH), like PepeCoin.
There was likewise discussion about projects that could potentially be built on Bitcoinย (BTC) using Ordinals, like a decentralized exchange. Matt Corallo, an Open Source Engineer at Spiral, expressed concerns during the panel that new innovations with Ordinals mightย propel Bitcoinย (BTC) miners more toward MEV to stay competitive and introduce centralization or censorship issues if not managed effectively.
MEV, or maximal extractable value, refers to the value that miners or validators can derive from changing the sequence of transactions in a block as itโs being added to the ledger. Althoughย while developers on Ethereumย (ETH) and other chains have spent years figuring out how to mitigate MEVโs negative aspects, itโs potentially a new hurdle for cryptocurrenciesย oldest coin, stated Corallo.
โThe Ethereumย (ETH) space has spent manyย of time doing this,โ Corallo stated, in terms of addressing MEV. โWe do must learn from that world, in so far as weโre building protocols that start to look more like that world. We definitely do.โ
Udi Wertheimer of Bitcoinย (BTC) Wizards stated itโs noteworthy that well- established Webย 3.0 tech and concepts have worked their way into Bitcoin-related dialogue, contrasting it with events held by Bitcoinย (BTC) Magazine in years past.
โ Inย theย year, weโre on [โฆ] the main stage of Bitcoinย (BTC) Magazine talking about rollups, weโre talking about MEV, weโre talking about decentralized exchanges on Bitcoin,โ Wertheimer stated. โI doย not have the answers [โฆ] but I think the culture is getting there.โ
Overcoming a Learning Curve
Before Bitcoinย (BTC) 2023, OrdinalSafe didnโt have any investors. Onย theย otherย hand, after the teamโs performance during Pitch Day, itโs already got wholeย lotย of commitments from investors, CEO Atik said.
Onย theย otherย hand, the OrdinalSafe team was not the only group represented by developers with an Ethereumย (ETH) background, using Ordinals to find their footing in the Bitcoinย (BTC) community.
Eril Ezerel is the founder of Subjective Labs. His team of crypto-natives has been building BestinSlot.xyz, an Ordinals explorer that lets people track inscriptions, NFT-like assets on Bitcoin, likewise as BRC-20 tokens.
The service asย ofย now tracks over 1,100 Ordinals collections, with names like Bitcoinย (BTC) Frogs, DogePunks, and Bitcoin Virus. It likewise collects data on the greaterย than 28,000 BRC-20 tokens.
Ezerel stated Ordinals as a hornโnow that itโs been blown, people are coming back to cryptocurrenciesย oldest coin en masse. Manyย of people in his projectโs Discord server are approaching Bitcoinย (BTC) with limited knowledge of how to use the network, he stated, but theyโre still passionate about the prospect of digital art and collectibles.
โAll day in Discord, weโre dealing with Non-Fungibleย Tokenย (NFT) degens from Solana (SOL) and Ethereum,โ Ezerel stated. Thereย is been a bit of a learning curve, he stated: Numerous people have been asking for help buying Bitcoinย (BTC) inscriptions.
Ordinals is in its infancy, and where the protocol goes is anybodyโs guess, as people from throughout Webย 3.0 enter the Bitcoinย (BTC) fold. And even if Ordinals has its critics, numerous approve of the experimentation, Ezerel said.
He put forth the idea that Bitcoinย (BTC) miners are on board with Ordinals asย aย resultย of the increased transaction charges they receive for validating transactions. There are likewise major developers and Bitcoinย (BTC) owners that are supportive of the protocol, he noted.
โEverybodyโs excited about it,โ Ezerel stated. โThe Bitcoinย (BTC) maxi stuff, itโs mostly in our heads.โ
