Ordinal protocol enables the issuance of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) on the Bitcoin blockchain. You can think of the Ordinal protocol as a system that assigns a unique serial number to each satoshi, similar to our identification card system. This gives each satoshi its uniqueness, and the protocol supports Inscriptions, which can write text, images, audio, video, and other content into sats. This is different from NFTs on Ethereum, where the data is stored on other infrastructure networks. NFT data on Bitcoin is directly recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Since there can only be 21 million BTC in total, the total number of sats is also limited to 2.1 * 10^7 * 10^9 (1$BTC = 100,000,000 SAT).
Ordinal numbers have several different representations:
Integer notation: ă2099994106992659ăOrdinal number assigned based on the order in which the satoshis were mined.
Decimal notation: ă3891094.16797ăThe first number is the block height where the satoshi was mined, and the second number is the position of the satoshi in the current block (also known as an offset).
Degree notation: ă3°111094â214â16797ââăExpresses the rarity of a satoshi using degree notation.
Percentile notation: ă99.99971949060254%ăExpresses the position of a satoshi in the Bitcoin supply as a percentage.
Name: ăsatoshiăEncoded using ordinal numbers from a to z.
In addition, the Ordinal protocol defines the rarity level of each satoshi based on some periodic time intervals in Bitcoin:
Blocks: A new block is produced on the Bitcoin chain approximately every 10 minutes.
Difficulty adjustments: The Bitcoin network adjusts the mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks (approximately every 2 weeks) based on the current network hash rate.
Halvings: Every 210,000 blocks (approximately every 4 years), the number of bitcoins created in each block is halved.
Cycles: After 6 halvings, something special happens: halving and difficulty adjustment occur at the same time. This phase is called a cycle and happens approximately every 24 years. We have not yet experienced the end of the first cycle, which will occur around 2032.
Based on these periodic events, we have defined the following rarity levels for sats:
Common: Any sat that is not the first sat in its block.
Uncommon: The first sat in each block.
Rare: The first sat in each difficulty adjustment period.
Epic: The first sat in each halving period.
Legendary: The first sat in each cycle.
Mythic: The first sat in the genesis block.
Is Ordinals the only NFT protocol on Bitcoin? Actually, before Ordinals, many projects tried to issue NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain, with RGB and Taro being typical examples.
RGB and Taro are both second-layer asset protocols built on top of Bitcoin. Compared to Ordinals, they are much more complex, and their main use cases are for fungible tokens. Therefore, the user experience of Ordinals may be simpler and more refined compared to the NFTs on RGB and Taro. On the other hand, RGB and Taro store content off-chain, which requires additional infrastructure and may be lost. In contrast, Ordinals stores content on-chain and will not be lost. Overall, Ordinals is very simple and pure, and the content files are completely preserved on the Bitcoin network. It does not require the issuance of additional tokens, the construction of sidechains, or any changes to Bitcoin, which is the biggest difference from various Bitcoin NFT projects in the past.
The birth of Ordinals has sparked a lot of controversy, but this is also the charm of the Bitcoin community, which is completely decentralized. The development path is entirely determined by the community, allowing Bitcoin users to determine the direction and path of its development. Regarding the appearance of Ordinals, there are pros and cons, supporters and opponents, and different standpoints and demands. We only need to let time and the market verify it, and believe that Ordinals will become the choice of more users.
