Ordinals Inscription Sales Reach New Milestone on Bitcoin Blockchain
The controversial but popular Ordinals inscription on the Bitcoin blockchain achieved another milestone on Thursday. The eighth inscription from the Honey Badger collection sold for 10.4 BTC on Magic Eden, a leading NFT marketplace.
The Honey Badger collection consists of 10K Ordinal Inscriptions ranging from 8 to 1029518. The purchaser of the eighth inscription was a pseudonymous Twitter user known as “OG General.”
Magic Eden, which is already the top marketplace for NFTs on the Solana blockchain, launched an Ordinals NFT marketplace in March. According to Chris Akhavan, General Manager of Bitcoin at Magic Eden, high-profile sales like this one demonstrate the value that people see in digital artifacts permanently inscribed on the Bitcoin blockchain.
OG General Celebrated as a “Legend”
OG General, who bought the eighth inscription, has been hailed as a “legend” by Magic Eden’s Twitter account. OG General expressed enthusiasm for Ordinals inscriptions and their unstoppable nature.
🪖 Inscription #8 was inscribed when almost no one cared about inscriptions, on Jan 15 at 1 sat/vB. ” Ordinals Can not be stopped !! ” Back to work , I am just warming up. LFG !! Thanks to the legends @mfigge and @huuep for providing an early insight to me months ago about… pic.twitter.com/V6cOmY3sLF
— OG General (@TheOG_General) December 8, 2023
Ordinals Inscriptions and the Bitcoin Blockchain
Magic Eden introduced support for BRC-20 tokens in June, allowing Ordinals enthusiasts to create inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain as well as meme coins. Ordinals inscriptions are digital assets that can be inscribed on a satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin. The Taproot upgrade in November 2021 enabled the inscription of various media types on satoshis.
Since its launch in January by Casey Rodarmor, the Ordinals project has seen over 46 million inscriptions created on the Bitcoin blockchain, according to a report from Dune.
Controversy and Calls for Removal
The popularity of Ordinals inscriptions has led to increased network traffic and fees, resulting in criticism and calls for their removal. Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr considers Ordinals inscriptions as spam on the Bitcoin network. However, miners are benefiting from the surge in demand for block space utilization.
Luxor Technology founder and CEO Nick Hansen supports the use of block space and sees Ordinals as a valuable way to achieve it.
Hot Take: The Growing Impact of Ordinals Inscriptions on the Bitcoin Blockchain
Ordinals inscriptions continue to make waves in the crypto world, with sales reaching new milestones. Despite controversy and criticism, these digital artifacts permanently inscribed on the Bitcoin blockchain hold significant value for enthusiasts. As more high-profile sales occur, it becomes clear that the demand for Ordinals inscriptions is here to stay. While some may view them as spam or unnecessary, the benefits to miners and the utilization of block space cannot be ignored. The Ordinals project has captured the attention of crypto enthusiasts and has become a prominent feature on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.