14 September 2023
Fresh off its $1 million migration to the Bitcoin blockchain, the OnChainMonkey Ordinals project has completed one of its biggest sales to date,
Announced Wednesday, the artwork, part of the OCM Dimensions collection unveiled in June, sought to demonstrate the unique attributes of Bitcoin Ordinals when compared to less secure crypto NFTs.
As an example, the 300 OCM Dimensions Ordinals were minted on 300 consecutive satoshis, using the numbering system defined by the Ordinals protocol. Further, the first 300 Ordinals were inscribed on satoshis mined in Block 78, one of the oldest Bitcoin blocks to see the value it unlocked trade in the public market.
The buyer was identified as crypto venture capitalist Jason Fang, according to posts on social media.
Sales figures aside, the sale of the Ordinal showcases the increasing appeal of Bitcoin Ordinals, a unique type of digital collectible that has gained traction as an alternative to traditional crypto NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
Unlike NFTs, Bitcoin ordinals are stored on Bitcoin’s native blockchain and are often considered more secure due to the fact they are stored directly by Bitcoin nodes.
Derided as a waste of Bitcoin’s valuable block space by detractors, the OCM project argues that this project is proof that Ordinals projects can be responsible users of this resource, boasting its use of the recursion technique that helps lower the data required to store even programmable art. (Due to the way the Bitcoin Ordinals project works, all Ordinals are stored by all Bitcoin nodes).
As such, public figures within the Ordinals space have weighed on the sale, including Leonidas, who wrote on X: “Ordinals are dead. Long live Ordinals.”
Leonidas’ statement reflects the notion that Bitcoin Ordinals have died off due to declining sales figures since the the massive surge in minting earlier this year.
Still, the sale provides evidence the Ordinals market may yet challenge the wider NFT space. While crypto NFTs remain popular, ordinals are emerging as an alternative, as they are intrinsically tied to the most secure blockchain network in existence.