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Bitcoin NFTs Taking Over: Ordinals Inscriptions Approach All-Time High with Low Fees

Published 11 July 2023
Omar Elorfaly
Authors

Key Takeaways

  • Ordinals have already increased activity on the BTC blockchain while maintaining low fees
  • BRC-69’s creator’s dream of creating an “internal internet” might come true 
  • Ordinals are coming to Ethereum

Ordinals, NFTs on the BTC blockchain made the headlines last week as it adopted a new protocol named BRC-69. The protocol utilizes a method called Recursive Inscription which allows users to make the most of the space provided on each block.

Ordinals are now back in the headlines for their staggering success. Crypto analytics firms are reporting a huge increase in transaction rates on the BTC blockchain while maintaining transaction fees. 

With such mass technology adoption, is it possible to achieve the dream predicted by BRC-69 creators?

A Busy Day On The BlockChain

According to Dune, Ordinals saw 385,920 inscriptions over the weekend, making it the second-busiest day ever for Ordinals. The busiest day for the NFTs was May 7th, which saw around 400,000 inscriptions.

The huge surge of activity on the blockchain is likely due to the introduction of BRC-69, a technology that allows users to bypass the 4-megabyte limit on each block. More importantly, the Dune dashboard recorded the average transaction fee to be around 2.5 BTC, which is a huge discount from previous inscription fees. 

BRC-69 Tl;Dr

Every block allows 4 megabytes of data to be stored. With the BTC blockchain gaining more users, blocks are becoming more scarce, and transaction fees are increasing over time.

The idea behind BRC-69 lies with recursive inscription. Recursive Inscription uses coding lines that allow blocks to retrieve information from other blocks. So, users may now use most of their block to store new information and utilize a fraction of the storage memory to insert an inscription that recalls data from another block, effectively giving it access to eight megabytes of data instead. 

The technology doesn’t just allow the recollection of data from a single block but from whatever number of blocks utilize recursive inscription. So, if 300,000 blocks use Ordinals BRC-69, a user may use recursive inscription to retrieve data from all of them, accessing Gigabytes of data through a mere 4-megabyte block.

A New Bitcoin-based Internet?

“We can think even bigger, though. What if lots of people upload lots of packages of code? So now there is a huge repository of packages for developers to build on top of. This would unlock powerful use cases that could never be done in under 4 MB. The most complex pieces of software are just a bunch of code compiled together, after all. 

Now it becomes possible to put a complex 3D video game on-chain on Bitcoin fully. The sky is the limit. Bitcoin is essentially getting an internal internet where every file can request data from the other files on Bitcoin,” – reads the tweet above. 

Essentially the technology creator dreams of a Bitcoin-based network of information that would use recursive inscriptions to allow the creation of huge programs based on a single block.

With increased interest in Ordinals, BRC-69 is increasing the likelihood of such a future.

ORDI and OXBT, have partnered with Emblem to bring BRC-20 tokens to the Ethereum blockchain. While it is yet to provide a bridge for recursive inscription, it definitely increases the potential for such a future.

Omar Elorfaly

Omar is a journalist with a passion for unraveling the intricacies of emerging technologies. With a keen interest in AI, blockchains, cryptocurrencies and machine learning, he is fully immersed in the tech industry.

Having covered news in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, Omar stands out for his ability to describe the future of humanity using current technologies through the art of storytelling. Whether he's delving into the potential of AI to revolutionize industries or exploring the transformative power of blockchain in reshaping economies, Omar aims to captivate readers, seamlessly blending technology, economics and politics. Omar's global perspective fuels his ability to connect the dots and paint a vivid picture of the ever-evolving tech landscape.

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