The Ordinal Story Will Change Digital Collecting!

We all want to be early for the next big thing. Unfortunately, with digital assets, there are so many potential “next big things” it’s hard to determine where to devote our attention and budget. Will it be web3 social platforms, digital identification, insurance, artificial intelligence, gaming, or the metaverse…? The list goes on and on. In such an innovative space, it’s easy to get consumed by what so many consider the next big thing.

However, we already know that one of the biggest use cases and success stories of the last bull run was NFTs. So I don’t need to review how NFTs have brought millions of people and companies into the digital asset space. And I’m fairly confident that the NFT space will continue growing along with the entire crypto market.

But what if we are priced out of Bored Apes, Mutant Apes, Crypto Punks, or Azukis? And so many of us are tired of being taken advantage of by influencers shilling projects. To promote the project, we want to be part of real communities, not just synthetic communities.

If you want to be an early adopter and potentially open your NFT portfolio to massive returns, you must look at Ordinals.

What are Ordinals?

An easy definition for Ordinals is NFTs on Bitcoin. And, for the most part, this would be an accurate definition. However, technical factors differentiate Ordinals from traditional smart chain-based NFTs. Out of respect for your time, I will summarize the key differences between Ordinals and traditional NFTs.

• Ordinals are inscriptions (images, videos, or music files) on a Satoshi. And since they are on Bitcoin, they exist on a completely decentralized network making them more secure than traditional NFTs. No smart chains (including Ethereum) are as decentralized as Bitcoin.

• Ordinals are immutable. This means they can never be changed. Many like to describe Ordinals as artifacts. Since traditional NFTs exist on smart contracts, there is a counterparty risk that the NFT could be altered.

• Ordinals do not have royalties meaning Ordinal sellers don’t have to share a portion of their sales with creators.

• All Ordinals have an inscription number. This is important because it makes it significantly harder for scam projects to impersonate other projects (prevalent with traditional NFTs). It also serves as a living timeline, so you know which projects started on the blockchain earlier. At the time of writing, over 580,000 Ordinals have been created.

• Ordinals do not contain metadata like traditional NFTs. This can be interpreted as a good or bad thing. For example, you can’t check your Ordinals rarity ranking or easily see what the last five people paid for your NFT.

• They are priced in BTC instead of ETH or another crypto asset. I got rekt on Solana NFTs as the value of SOL collapsed. BTC has more durability and lower risk than altcoins.

Why every digital collector and investor should look closer at Ordinals

Everyone investing in crypto and digital assets is already an early adopter. But finding the next strong narrative can be a great way to build wealth. For example, Polygon’s $MATIC token went from $0.03 to nearly $3 in the last bull run. It’s highly unlikely that $MATIC will go to $100 in the next bull run. New opportunities open aggressive investors to asymmetric gains.

I’ve put a lot of thought and research into why the Ordinal story can take off in the next bull run. Here are the six primary reasons I am investing in and closely examining the Ordinal market.

1) We are super-early. Ordinals began in January 2023. So you don’t have thousands of projects to choose between, and if you are looking for original art, the choices are even smaller.

2) Ordinals are not a money grab like many NFT projects. Why would a developer start a Bitcoin project when it’s safer and more profitable to do it on Ethereum? Collectors buying Ordinals are taking a tremendous risk and likely have higher convictions than NFT traders (and bots) on Ethereum.

3) Because Ordinal collectors are super early, successful Ordinal projects emphasize building out their communities more. Being part of a group in a growing, non-entitled space is fun. There is a camaraderie in not conforming to the crowd and being a part of something that can grow exponentially.

4) You can still affordably buy tomorrow’s blue-chip Ordinals. Purchasing a Bored Ape, Mutant Ape, Crypto Punk, or an Azuki is out of most collectors’ budgets. Meanwhile, tomorrow’s top-tier Ordinals will be created in the next NFT frenzy. You can position yourself for this early.

5) Owning an Ordinal (especially an early Ordinal collection), you own a piece of blockchain history. Ordinals are the first on-chain utility for Bitcoin outside of the monetary and financial space. Ordinals will still be the first on-chain utility on Bitcoin outside of finance in fifty years.

6) There is an entirely new market of Bitcoin investors who can purchase Ordinals. Most NFT collecting has been in the Ethereum community. Savvy Ethereum NFT collectors will want to participate in Ordinals’ growth, as will smart Bitcoin whales and holders.

I expect the Ordinal space to grow much larger.

This week, the Ordinal marketplace launched on MagicEdeni.io. This is the first step in widening Ordinal adoption. Collectors, investors, and speculators can purchase Ordinals in a safe, trusted, and familiar platform. I anticipate that other NFT marketplaces like Opensea will also need to host Ordinals to compete.

Most investors haven’t explored Ordinals yet. There is so much going on between the government attacking crypto, the growing bank crisis, and the dozens of other things in crypto that many people haven’t taken the time or effort to research Ordinals.

It will take a few notable sales and projects, and the word will spread quickly. But, it also means Bitcoin maxis can own digital art and still not look like hypocrites because the Ordinals are immutable and decentralized.

What you should know about Ordinals

Since Ordinals are not on Ethereum or Ethereum-compatible chains, you need a separate wallet to purchase and store your Ordinals. The three most popular wallets are the Ordinals wallet, Xverse wallet, and Hiro wallet. I used Hiro wallet, which was extremely easy and familiar to set up.

There are several marketplaces other than MagicEden.io. However, I primarily use Magic Eden because it seems like the safest marketplace. Most Ordinal communities are on Discord, so if you aren’t on Discord, you may want to consider joining it if becoming an active community member is important to you. Of curse, they all have Twitter so that you can stay updated there too.

Like most early adopter projects, exploring different options for potential airdrops makes sense. I understand that Unordinal holders will receive an airdrop for their next collection. In addition, there are and will be more copycat projects as Ordinals. I am more interested in original art projects, but you may like owning a clone on Bitcoin.

Some popular projects are as low as 0.0036 BTC, like Bitcoin Frogs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t join their Discord server for technical reasons, so I know little about this project. However, it is the second-highest sales ranking for Bitcoin projects on MagicEden. Like traditional NFTs, you can create your own Ordinal but don’t expect it to have value.

Finally, since there is no metadata, the only determining differentiator I can see is aesthetics, project, and inscription number. I have heard something may be added to account for rarities and rankings, but no such system exists on Bitcoin yet.

Final Thoughts

I am excited to be an early Ordinal adopter. I am confident I will buy more as I study and explore the different projects. The community feels like it has a lot of momentum, and the value proposition can be extremely rewarding.

^{_{These materials should not be taken as investment advice. These are my opinions and investments I have made. They should only be used to provide you with ideas and projects to research. Digital assets, including crypto and NFTs, are high risk, and any investments could result in a total loss. So do your own research and perform due diligence before making any investments.}}