Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs Minted Surpasses 500,000 Mark – What’s Next?
Bitcoin ordinal NFTs are the trending asset on the bitcoin network, with over 500,000 newly minted NFTs. These unique digital assets have taken over the crypto community, with creators shifting from popular blockchains like Ethereum to minting their NFTs on the Bitcoin network.
More than 500,000 ordinal NFTs minted in two months
At the time of writing, 520,200 NFT ordinals have been minted on the bitcoin network in the past two months, according to data from Dune Analysis. This growth is remarkable considering less than 50,000 NFTs were minted just five weeks ago.
Onchain data further reveals that March 9, 2023 saw the highest number of Ordinal transactions. More than 31,000 ordinals were minted that day, with the vast majority of images followed by videos and text. Additionally, around $2.6 million was spent on transaction fees to mint this unique form of digital assets. On average, around 10,000 Ordinal NFTs are minted daily, and this number is expected to grow due to increased demand for this form of NFT.
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Bitcoin NFTs are created by assigning what are called ‘ordinals’ to each satoshi. Ordinals are linked to information such as videos, text, images, etc — thus creating NFTs in Bitcoin. Unlike Ethereum NFTs, there are no specific token standards and the entries made are permanent and cannot be edited or changed.
The growing popularity of Ordinal NFTs is largely linked to the ease of creating them. Initially, creating and managing Ordinal NFTs was only possible through the native wallet developed by Casey Rodarmor, creator of this protocol. However, the tool required managing a full Bitcoin node locally and using lines of code that could be easier to use.
Over time, different companies and programmers developed products that made it easier to adopt this technology. Wallet providers like Hiro and Sparrow allow users to manage Bitcoin NFT Ordinals effectively. While UniSat Wallet recently overhauled a feature that allows users to create and manage their ordinal NFTs from their wallets.
Concerns continue to rise over ordinal NFTs
Despite the growing adoption of Ordinal NFTs, much of the Bitcoin community continues to oppose this form of digital asset. Leading developers such as Adam Back and Luke Dashjr have already spoken out against this type of NFTs on the Bitcoin network.
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Critics argue that ordinal NFTs threaten the privacy, security and efficiency of the Bitcoin network. They see storing data like images, videos and games as a waste of space and believe this causes congestion on the Bitcoin network.
They might not be wrong, as the Bitcoin network has recently experienced congestion. According to data from mempool.space, more than 50,000 transactions have yet to be confirmed on the Bitcoin network. This equates to over 160 blocks, leading to increased transaction fees.
Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView