On December 15, 2023, a major milestone was reached in the Bitcoin blockchain world, just one day before the anniversary of the first Ordinal inscription. The total number of ordinal inscriptions has impressively reached the 48 million mark. Despite initial skepticism about their longevity, these inscriptions have not only persisted, but now make up half of all daily confirmed BTC transactions.
Bitcoin Marks 1st Anniversary of Ordinal Numbers: 48 Million Milestone Reached
In 2023, Ordinal inscriptions have gained massive traction, making a significant impact on Bitcoin’s ecosystem and rivaling other blockchains in the non-fungible token (NFT) space. This journey began almost a year earlier, on December 16, 2022, marking the creation of the first-ever Ordinal inscription on Bitcoin’s distributed ledger.
These ordinal inscriptions are an advanced process that converts a satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, into a separate digital asset. Major network upgrades, most notably the Segregated Witness (Segwit) protocol in 2017 and the Taproot upgrade in 2021 have been instrumental in making these inscriptions viable.
In particular, the introduction of Taproot enabled more complex transactions and the integration of additional data within a transaction. The essence of the Ordinal inscription process lies in embedding the data of the digital asset into the witness section of the transaction, thereby converting satoshis into unique, non-fungible entities.
This innovative process has also enabled the creation of fungible tokens known as BRC20s. To date, on the eve of the anniversary of the first inscription, a total of 48,054,267 inscriptions have been recorded on the chain.
In terms of monetary value, miners have collected approximately 3,697.38 BTC, which amounts to $158.36 million, for verifying these inscriptions. The increase in registrations has pushed the number of Bitcoin daily transactions to new records.
Notably, on November 19, 2023, the network saw over 710,000 transactions in a single day. Furthermore, on a record day on November 12, more than 505,000 ordinal inscriptions were on display. Currently, inscriptions are responsible for an estimated 40-50% of the daily transactions processed by bitcoin miners.
The introduction of Ordinals and BRC20s has sparked controversy within the Bitcoin community. A section of Bitcoin enthusiasts argue that the blockchain should only host financial transactions.
This debate has become more heated, especially as Luke Dashjr’s Ocean Pool begins to exclude inscriptions from his mining block template. While Ordinals have undoubtedly made their mark in their first year, the debate over their place in the Bitcoin ecosystem remains heated.
The rise in onchain BTC fees and continued mempool congestion due to unconfirmed transfers have been notable side effects of the enrollment trend. At the time of writing, more than 200,000 unconfirmed transactions are waiting for confirmation from miners. As of December 6, 2023, the average onchain transfer fee was $27.55.
In terms of NFT sales, Bitcoin has emerged as a strong competitor to other blockchains, even surpassing Ethereum in NFT sales in November. This trend continued in early December, with seven-day figures showing Bitcoin NFT sales at $199 million, doubling Ethereum’s $99 million.
Furthermore, according to cryptoslam.io, six of the ten largest NFT collections in weekly sales are Bitcoin-based. One of the most expensive NFT sales on Bitcoin this week was a Van Gogh painting embedded in the blockchain.
What is your opinion about the trend of ordinal inscriptions for 2023? Do you support the concept of inscriptions, or do you think Bitcoin should be reserved solely for financial transactions? We welcome your thoughts and opinions on this matter in the comments section below.