Celestial Convergence: Exploring the Cosmic Intersection
During a recent podcast, Tesla's highly prominent CEO, Elon Musk, known for his humorous wit, amusingly poked fun at non-fungible tokens (NFTs), while simultaneously, albeit unintentionally, sparking a thought-provoking discussion about the potential of Bitcoin Ordinals, which are sometimes playfully referred to as Bitcoin NFTs.
In a released interview on October 31st through The Joe Rogan Experience, Musk charmingly quipped, "What's rather entertaining is that the NFT, in all its glory, doesn't even reside on the blockchain; it's simply a humble URL that leads to a humble JPEG image." He cleverly suggested that NFT projects might want to consider taking the bold step of encoding these seemingly humble JPEG files directly onto the immutable blockchain. His reasoning? Well, he surmised that in the unfortunate event of the company hosting the image going out of business, the digital art piece would still remain safely preserved for posterity.
The cryptocurrency community, always quick to seize upon trending topics, swiftly took this opportunity to underscore how Musk's seemingly lighthearted remarks actually encapsulate the profound potential of Bitcoin Ordinals. These Ordinals, Bitcoin's answer to NFTs, made their debut in January thanks to developer Casey Rodarmor and the groundbreaking Taproot soft fork of November 2021.
One of the fervent advocates of Musk's comments is the cryptocurrency analyst Will Clemente. He emphasized that there are now over 38 million Ordinals inscriptions firmly etched into the annals of Bitcoin's blockchain. "This is precisely why Ordinals are destined to flourish and endure," proclaimed Rohun "Frank" Vora, the creative mind behind NFT projects like DeGods and y00ts. Many see it as an elegant solution to one of the most pervasive criticisms of NFTs.
.@elonmusk you just laid out the case for Bitcoin ordinals - image/text inscriptions directly on the most secure open source monetary network on the planet. There are currently 38 million of these inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain. pic.twitter.com/WASj1qpkz8
— Will Clemente (@WClementeIII) November 1, 2023
In an interesting twist, "Leonidas," the brilliant developer behind Ordinals, was so inspired by Musk's stance that they went a step further and immortalized a 19-second video directly into the blockchain of Bitcoin, marking it for posterity at block 814,773.
Video of Elon Musk inscribed on Bitcoin’s blockchain via the Ordinals protocol. Source: Ord.io
It's crucial to acknowledge that Musk's jests and critiques of NFTs have a history dating back to December 2021 when he humorously labeled them as a form of mental illness, artfully depicted in a meme featuring a patient on a therapist's couch.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2021
Nonetheless, it's important to highlight that Musk's assertions may not apply universally to all NFT projects within the Ethereum ecosystem. For instance, Larva Labs took the commendable step of migrating their Cryptopunks NFTs onto the blockchain in August 2021 after spending their formative years off-chain. They explained that this strategic move was aimed at ensuring the long-term preservation of Cryptopunks' iconic images and attributes, enabling seamless accessibility for anyone with an Ethereum client.
.@elonmusk is correct that having NFT merely provide an http link to someone's domain is silly.
— Arthur B. ???? (@ArthurB) November 1, 2023
However, with rare exceptions, it's also silly to insist NFT content be on chain,
IPFS links, with the content backed by whoever owns the NFT is the natural solution.
In a related development, Metagood, the innovative team behind the Ethereum-native OnChainMonkeys, revealed their intention to transition their NFTs to the Bitcoin platform. While they didn't directly address the JPEG quandary, they passionately argued that NFTs would find their true home on the Bitcoin network due to its superior security and decentralized nature.
Nevertheless, it's worth noting that Ethereum continues to maintain a dominant presence in the NFT arena, commanding a staggering 84% of all NFT trading volumes, as per CoinGecko's data from June. Bitcoin, along with ImmutableX, occupies a respectable second and third position with market shares of 11% and 2.5%, respectively.
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