This may have been the first gathering of the bitcoin Ordinals community

Writing: Cookie, Beat BlockBeats

After discovering the Ordinals protocol late one night in early February, I was hooked on NFT on Bitcoin's main network.

Since the Ordinals protocol officially went live on January 29, more than 1.1 million "inscriptions" have been burned, and those 1.1 million Satoshi (Bitcoin's smallest unit, "deaf") have never been the same.

In just over two months, we've seen the likes of Yuga Labs, Degods, and even real-life supercar brand Bugatti. The associated infrastructure has developed rapidly, Transaction market (Magic Eden, Gamma, Ordswap, Ordinals Wallet, etc.), wallet for bitcoin NFT (Hiro, UniSat, Xverse Etc.), aggregators (bestinslot.xyz), and more sophisticated browsers (OrdinalHub, ordiscan) all make the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem experience more complete and friendly.

Despite the rapid development of bitcoin NFT, but in daily communication, I still feel that many players are unfamiliar with Bitcoin NFT. How many people know about Bitcoin NFT? How much interest is there in Bitcoin NFT? What do you think of Bitcoin NFT?

With these doubts in mind, I went to Hong Kong.

Ordinals at the Web3 Festival

Once inside the main venue, I quickly found my first Ordinals protocol-related project, BTCDOMAIN.

Unlike the.btc domain provided by btc.us on the Stacks Bitcoin side chain, BTCDOMAIN's.btc domain, like.sats,.unisat, etc., is built entirely on the main Bitcoin network through the Ordinals protocol. The.sats domain is by far the most widely accepted domain in the bitcoin NFT community, but it is also more "hardcore" in its use experience. Since domain names are valid according to the Bitcoin NFT's "First is First come, first served" rule, it is necessary to check the domain name has been "burned" through the official API before registering. BTCDOMAIN, on the other hand, is more similar to the familiar Ethereum domain name ENS in experience. You can directly search whether the domain name has been registered on the official website. BTCDOMAIN introduces zk proofs to ensure that domain names are not registered twice in the absence of smart contracts and that domains are resolved without the possibility of tampering.

After talking to the BTCDOMAIN staff, I started looking for a second Ordinals protocol project on site. And then, no... The only person who was able to pull off the Ordinals deal was Bitcoin Magazine, but unfortunately they had no staff at their booth that day and I was unable to speak with them about Ordinals. Bitcoin Magazine recently sold the first 23 issues of Bitcoin Magazine's cover "Inscription" in Gamma by way of Dutch auction. So far, 9 copies have been sold. The highest transaction is the first issue of Bitcoin Magazine's cover in history. Transaction price is 1.25 BTC, purchaser is trevor.btc.

I then interviewed about 20 attendees at random, and the results were both disappointing and pleasing. Only a handful of respondents knew about Ordinals or Bitcoin NFT, but they showed a high level of interest in "NFT on the main Bitcoin network." Some of the questions respondents are curious about include how bitcoin NFT differs from Ethereum NFT, whether it's a hassle to trade NFT on the main Bitcoin network, and what blue-chip projects have sprung up in the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem. My conclusion based on the interview is that "NFT on the main Bitcoin network" is an attractive concept, but the concept and Ordinals protocol are awaiting "value discovery" and need more publicity.

Fortunately, I got a chance to promote Bitcoin NFT that evening through a good friend of mine. The response from the scene confirmed my conviction that the above conclusion was correct.

At the NFT Social event, I gave a keynote speech on "The Difference between Bitcoin NFT and Ethereum NFT"

Ordcon and Ordinals Party

It is very rare to have two events on April 14th that are entirely Ordinals themed, Ordcon (@Ordcon_) and Ordinals Party.

Many Bitcoin NFT infrastructure projects attended Ordcon and shared their insights, Matthew Williams, core developer of Magic Eden, Jack Liu, Co-Founder of Ordswap, and Ethan Vera, COO of Luxor, which just bought the Bitcoin NFT data analytics site Ordinals Hub, Ken, Founder of Xverse, and Brutoshi, Co-Founder of AstroX.

Matthew Williams, the core developer of Magic Eden, used a short film to share the story behind the development of the Magic Eden Bitcoin NFT exchange market. The whole team gathered in a villa to complete the construction of the Magic Eden Bitcoin NFT exchange market. It's very interesting. Matthew highlighted what he sees as the advantages of Bitcoin NFTS over other on-chain NFTS, such as full-chain, non-modifiable, etc. At the same time, it also introduces some optimization made by Magic Eden in the transaction of Bitcoin NFT, such as PSBT, compatibility between different wallets in different markets, etc. Matthew was very funny and easygoing. After the speech, the friends in the audience asked him some questions about Solana NFT. He also gave his answers with a smile.

Jack Liu, Ordswap's Co-Founder, is tall and funny. Jack Liu has been working in Bitcoin ecology for a long time, and before Ordswap, he developed more in BSV ecology. When Ordinals protocol went live on the main Bitcoin network at the end of January, Ordswap quickly entered this new market and became the first Bitcoin NFT exchange using PSBT technology. Jack Liu, himself a Bitcoin NFT player, has often caught Jack in the wild during online discussions about the BRC-20 tokens, where he also highlighted the potential of the tokens.

The topic that impressed me most was put forward by my friends at the scene. Currently, all bitcoin NFT trading markets do not support royalty, and the lack of royalty is a great obstacle to the development of NFT project parties. Is there any solution for this issue in the trading market? In fact, the answers from various bitcoin NFT exchange markets are not quite satisfactory to me. For example, the project side can reserve part of NFT as funds to grow together with the holders. It's not unreasonable, but it doesn't quite fit with the current Bitcoin NFT ecology. Many Bitcoin NFT projects are currently in the full stage of "generating electricity with love", following the "spirit of Bitcoin" in their hearts, insisting on a fair, free and optional start-up method, which means that the successful launch of the project will not bring any income to the project. As I told Blueberry, Founder of PixelBirds Sparrow, I didn't smile when the project was launched. I felt like I had more on my shoulders. Blueberry was also honest with me that they've invested a lot of money in PixelBirds Sparrow, and that going from "doing a cool experiment" to "being accountable to the holders" was a struggle to be sustainable.

In the lounge area I ran into one of the big NFT tech guys named Stone. Stone told me that royalties are not impossible to achieve through PSBT, and that the market can solve the current royalty problem by inserting the corresponding code in the signature. I really hope that the Bitcoin NFT exchange market can solve the royalty problem as soon as possible, because the prosperity of Ethereum NFT is closely related to the creators. What attracts people in the mall is not only the decoration of the mall, but also the wide variety of goods in the mall. The creator ecology of Ethereum NFT has been tested for a long time. Many artistic creators have actually made money here, which not only encourages existing creators to continue to play, but also continuously attracts more creators to enter the world of Ethereum NFT. The Bitcoin NFT ecosystem is really short of creators. No matter how different the underlying value logic is, it needs a lot of good creators to come in and give full play to their talents.

After Ordcon, most of the friends headed to the Ordinals Party. Ordinals Party was organized by Ordz Games, the first GameFi project on the Bitcoin NFT. Ordz Games is a GameFi project that combines BRC-20 tokens and "burn" small games onto bitcoin. It's interesting. I was walking with Stone on the way to Ordinals Party, and we were both very excited when we first learned about the Ordinals protocol. I said, I didn't even look at the protocol that night. I was excited about Bitcoin Main + NFT. Stone smiled and said +10086.

Casey Rodarmor, founder of the Ordinals Agreement, has sent a wave of remote blessings to the Ordinals Party

One of the biggest things I learned at Ordinals Party was getting to know Ivan, the developer of BRC-1155. As luck would have it, Ivan was standing next to me and we suddenly started chatting for over an hour. Ivan and I agree that Bitcoin NFT is really "free" and that the Ordinals protocol doesn't just create "NFT series" like it does on Ethereum, but gives everyone the right to explore Bitcoin's value diversity fairly freely. You can certainly create an "NFT series", or use the Bitcoin network as your "diary", recording the words you write, the pictures you draw, the songs you sing... Since ancient times, people have recorded their information on cave walls, bamboo slips, paper, computers, and now on the Bitcoin network. As long as you think the Bitcoin network is eternal, so is the information written on it, and the vehicle for that information is the bitcoin itself. Nothing could be cooler than that.

What is the value of permanence? Perhaps the permanence of storage itself is one of the greatest values of NFT. It's impossible to know what it means to keep something perfectly preserved 20, 200 or even 2,000 years from now, but often time will tell.

I told Ivan I looked up to him. Everyone who creates in the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem, be it a developer, an NFT project or a collector, is more of an experimenter. Behind every ecological success and growth, there are countless builders like him to "experiment" because of the meaning they pursue in their hearts. Whether or not the experiment is remembered, if the Ordinals agreement ever becomes a towering tree, it will be because of the hard work of countless such experimenters.

With one last drink with Ivan, my trip to Hong Kong was almost over.

conclusion

Perhaps because bitcoin NFT is still a small circle, this circle let me relive the kind of touching when I just entered the world of NFT. Every Ordinals Builder I met on my trip to Hong Kong was full of praise for their work or projects. Orders help orders, build together, grow together, the future of Bitcoin NFT must be bright.

Magic Eden core developer Matthew Williams poses with Ordswap Co-Founder Jack Liu at Ordcon

I also asked some Ordinals players to describe the difference between Bitcoin NFT and Ethereum NFT in one word, what would you choose?

Some say Bitcoin NFT is "brand new." One of the most OG blockchain networks with the youngest NFT market. Here the stage is not controlled by big stars, as long as the heart, as long as love, here will be someone to see you, will applaud for you.

Some people say that Bitcoin NFT is "eternal." As long as you believe that the Bitcoin network is eternal, all the data that has been "burned" into Bitcoin will last forever. Don't play down the chain, just up the chain.

Some people say that Bitcoin NFT is "bitcoin." In fact, there is no Bitcoin NFT, there are just one by one people freely "burn" Bitcoin. As the Ordcon session began, the moderator pulled out a Hong Kong dollar and introduced it -- it's a note with a serial number. If you write something on it, does it make a difference? The Hong Kong dollar doesn't know, but Bitcoin does! 1 Satoshi = Whatever you inscribed, this is the biggest underlying value logic difference between Bitcoin NFT and Ethereum NFT.

Some say Bitcoin NFT is "historic." Because the "burning" of Bitcoin NFT will lead to the difference of serial number and size of Bitcoin NFT, the earlier the "burning" of Bitcoin may be more valuable in the future, just like the dinosaur fossils of Jurassic, bronze of Shang Dynasty and modern steel bars.

Some people say that Bitcoin NFT is "free." From Slik Road to online shopping malls to Amazon and eBay, Bitcoin has been evolving along the path of a more widely accepted currency. With the Ordinals protocol, Bitcoin became freer. Who knows what additional value a "burned" Satoshi might have? The free flow of the market gives new value to the bitcoins being "burned." One day, we will have the answer to this question.

These answers show us the unique charm of bitcoin NFT compared to Ethereum NFT.

I hope I can meet more interesting Ordinals Builder at the next Ordinals event. By the way, I must thank BlockBeats for giving me the green light to Hong Kong:)

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