I have to admit that in the past month, BTC Inscription has become the undisputed traffic king in the Web3 industry. However, due to market changes, the current situation is relatively "calm". Therefore, Ahan would like to share some of his thoughts on Inscription in the past few months at this time. Although it may seem a bit hindsight now, this view was actually put forward in the first half of the year and has been shared with a small range of friends around me, who have also gained some market returns as a result. #铭文 #btc铭文
First, let's talk about gold. As a precious metal with thousands of years of history, gold was first discovered in Asia Minor (Turkey) around 6000 BC. However, the ancient Egyptians were the first civilization to discover and mine gold, and they mined gold in the Nubia region around 2450 BC.
The ancient Egyptians believed that gold was the skin of the sun god Ra, and often used it to make spiritual objects, such as pure gold spires, statues and death masks, and then gradually extended to the production of some gold jewelry. Starting from the Old Kingdom in ancient Egyptian history, gold was stored in temples for both trade and to show status.
Around 550 BC, King Croesus of Lydia (now part of Turkey) minted gold coins for the first time, marking the first time gold was used as currency. Thousands of years later, the "gold standard" was formed around gold, and it became an indispensable component of many industrial manufacturing or electronic products (accounting for 20%), and more than 40% of gold is still used in jewelry making.
In contrast, BTC, known as "digital gold", has played a more gold-like value storage function in the past few decades, but is constrained by technological limitations and does not have the same industrial uses and jewelry properties as gold.
However, it was the key upgrade Taproot implemented by BTC last year that subtly changed its properties and once again attracted the attention of the BTC ecosystem. Subsequently, we witnessed the birth of Ordinals, and the discussions of Drivechain, BitVM, and Taproot Asset. The emergence of these new protocols laid an important foundation for BTC to break through from financial attributes to adoption attributes.
The value of BTC inscriptions is more like the jewelry in the properties of gold, which can be used to display and condense a part of the "aesthetic consensus" that has been split. Of course, the similarity mentioned here is not exactly the same, but refers to the similarity in value form. Only by understanding this logic can we understand why inscriptions, which seemed to be a flash in the pan in March this year, have recently regained new vitality.
The special feature of the inscriptions is not only the various pictures or characters they carry at present, but also that they may carry more information in the future. The value of this information will far exceed BTC itself, because they may become new value anchors, just like the bowls used by Qin Shihuang. Even if it is the same bowl, different historical and cultural backgrounds will make their values vary greatly.
Secondly, the BTC L2 currently being prepared is more like an extension of the industrial properties of gold. If it is only for aesthetics and value storage functions, it cannot fully reflect the value of gold. Only when it is applied to production and life can its remaining 20% value be brought into play. Of course, the application of BTC may have just begun, which is why the BTC ecosystem has returned to mainstream attention.
However, Akan does not want to elaborate more on the value of BTC here. After all, BTC has proven its significance to the world in the past decade. Now, we need to examine the new ideas emerging in the BTC ecosystem based on some ancient propositions to clarify its true value. However, there is no doubt that gold has become an indispensable part of people's production and life after thousands of years of long development. And the young BTC seems to have a long way to go.
Finally, Akan does not want to use this article as a reference for value judgment. Instead, Akan hopes that it can be seen as a brainstorming session to explore initial ideas. Perhaps there are more wonderful ideas that can be explored. After all, consensus is created by us together. There is no right or wrong, only a common understanding that is constantly shaped and improved.