How Ordinal Inscriptions brought innovation to Bitcoin and Ethereum

Bitcoin and Ethereum started to compete against each other regarding who is the strongest and most functional cryptocurrency. Still, considering they offer different services, these two digital assets have different paths to take. On the other hand, their blockchains are developing in similar ways because the technology and challenges are comparable. For example, both struggled with making their networks faster due to network congestion and dealing with the outdated PoW consensus mechanism.

One of the latest updates that both Bitcoin and Ethereum will benefit from includes Ordinal Inscriptions. These assets are similar to NFTs and were first intended to be brought to Bitcoin, but it wasn’t that easy, considering the blockchain wasn’t packed with data and tools like Ethereum is. Ordinals allowed users to create and share digital objects on blockchains, a huge success for Bitcoin. Now, the same technology is coming to Ethereum, although it already has NFTs. Let’s see what’s the deal with inscriptions.

Ordinals and the Bitcoin Core

Ordinal Inscriptions are something that many developers have worked hard to get to since 2014. In simpler terms, the process showcases the writing of the content’s data stored in a Bitcoin transaction. Basically, Bitcoin NFTs are possible to view. A famous project is the Satoshibles NFT collection available on the marketplace Gamma.

Most of these Bitcoin collections work with satoshis, so users must have an Ordinals wallet and acquire these coins to access Bitcoin NFTs. This is one of the best updates for Bitcoin this year, as many believed it was only meant to be used as a store of value. However, Ethereum also wants to use this technology.

Ethscriptions, a more affordable way to use storage

Ethscriptions have a similar purpose on the Ethereum blockchain, like Ordinals on Bitcoin, but they operate differently on the platform. Overall, they work like NFTs even though they can only be seen as images, but developers might work on expanding Ethscriptions to more media content.

Ethscriptions might have more importance to the Web3 environment compared to the blockchain and cryptocurrency. That’s because the network already has NFTs, which are rapidly developing, but these technologies have been brought to provide affordable decentralized solutions for Ethereum and its features.

Why do Bitcoin and Ethereum need these ordinals?

Bitcoin and Ethereum must improve in order for worldwide adoption to happen as soon as possible, meaning that the networks have to be open to opportunities and possibilities. It may be possible for Bitcoin holders to want to use NFTs, but they would have to switch to Ethereum and access its features. On the other hand, Bitcoin wasn’t really up to improvements in the past years, with nodes and developers mainly maintaining the network.

And although Ethereum is trying out the same technology, it already has something similar. But that doesn’t mean ordinal inscriptions are not useful. The Ethereum blockchain is going through continuous work development, and any other update or new protocol is welcomed to help the blockchain evolve.

Are ordinal inscriptions NFTs?

Ordinal inscriptions and NFTs seem like the same thing considering they’re providing services in the same direction. Bitcoin ordinals may allow for the creation of content like images, text and HTML but don’t require a token to represent the asset on the blockchain. Some may say that ordinals are more open to creativity because creators have more space to embed digital artworks and music, providing enough authenticity and ownership in the market.

On the other hand, NFTs are linked with tokens and their value on the market is given by the number of people interested in a specific project and wanting to acquire these coins. In other words, NFTs are trends that come and go, building their fame on communities and being as volatile as cryptocurrencies since they’re linked with how well digital coins are going in a certain period.

There are some differences between NFTs and ordinal inscriptions that define each other well. For example, Bitcoin ordinals are immutable, making all assets added to the blockchain permanent. When it comes to NFTs, things are more complex because not all are immutable, and this feature is given in accordance with the way they’re minted.

Bitcoin ordinals only exist on its blockchain, which is why they can be accessed and verified fast and efficiently. But NFTs can develop on any other blockchain, so they’re more flexible to work with but also for buying and selling.

There’s also a big difference for markets. Although Bitcoin ordinals have been a hit on the web, and many welcomed the upgrade enthusiastically, the project is still in its early stages, so few platforms approached it. On the other hand, NFTs are already famous, and the market is constantly increasing, with many artists and developers contributing to the sector.

The potential of ordinals and NFTs for the development of the biggest assets

Bitcoin and Ethereum have the potential to become something greater in the future. While Bitcoin is already discussed as being adopted worldwide by multiple economies and becoming the first digital legal tender with no central authority, Ethereum is a little bit far from this goal. With more specific features, technologies and tools, Ethereum is set to be a high-tech solution for companies and individuals rather than a store of value.

However, ordinals and NFTs seem to complete each asset in regard to innovation. It’s too early to tell which feature is better and which will bring a more favorable outcome because timestamps are different, and they have deployed at other times. Measuring these two technologies doesn’t seem feasible, but it’s safe to say that they’re changing the crypto industry.

Final considerations

Bitcoin worked on a new project and deployed Ordinal Inscriptions as an alternative to NFTs. Although they are quite different, they work similarly and provide, more or less, the same features to users of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Such developments are welcomed to innovate the market, offer more assets for diversification, and strengthen the link between financial aspects and creativity for incentivization.