Over the weekend, an owner of a valuable digital collectible made a bold move by permanently removing it from circulation. The purpose was to symbolically transfer the asset’s underlying blockchain from Ethereum to Bitcoin.
The individual responsible for this daring action is Jason Williams, also known as “GoingParabolic”. Williams burned BAYC 1626, which was nicknamed “The Blonde Don,” on the Ethereum blockchain.
He then utilized TeleBurn to transfer the inscription of the collectible onto the Bitcoin blockchain using ordinals. Williams believes that Bitcoin is the most secure and scarce chain in the world.
The emergence of the Apes’ Bitcoin
GoingParabolic, the proud owner of BAYC 1626, which is one of the most valuable Bored Ape NFTs, has made a brave move by leveraging TeleBurn, a creative platform for creating Bitcoin NFTs using ordinals, to affix it to the Bitcoin blockchain.
The NFT, which was sold for 105 ETH, equivalent to around $432,000 in November 2022, is currently valued at approximately $165,000, according to OpenSea.
The owner of BAYC 1626 claimed that the NFT community is gradually moving towards Bitcoin, where ordinals have brought about a true scarcity of collectibles. The owner argued that they had “burned” the NFT off Ethereum by removing it from circulation and transferring it to a unique ‘burn address’.
To validate their Bitcoin NFT, GoingParabolic argued that the inscription points to a unique burn location. However, the Crypto Twitter community, including Yuga Labs’ co-founder, had mixed reactions to the owner’s actions. Founders and native users debated the legitimacy of the unconventional mechanism, leaving the legitimacy of the act unclear.
The experiment has brought attention to Bitcoin NFTs and the ambiguity of burning mechanisms and NFT licensing, leading to more questions than answers. Despite the symbolic gesture, it has sparked a conversation around the future of NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain.
A monkey off the old block?
On Monday, Greg Solano, co-founder of Yuga Labs, shared his thoughts on the Bored Ape burn situation after news of it spread on Twitter. According to Solano, the Inscription associated with BAYC #1626 is an unlicensed copy of the original NFT because its ownership is no longer held by Williams on Ethereum’s network.
He added that transferring an ape to an address that is no longer under your control, even the “burn” address, means that you have forfeited your license. Solano also disagreed with the statement that BAYC #1626 is lost forever on Ethereum, stating that it still exists on-chain even though people cannot access it.
The news reports that Yuga Labs, the creator of the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection, has confirmed that an inscription of BAYC #1626 on the Bitcoin network is not a legitimate BAYC NFT. Yuga Labs stated that only NFTs minted from the Ethereum smart contract are legitimate.
The news also discusses the potential of Bitcoin’s new Ordinals function for hosting digital art and the challenges of establishing digital art’s provenance across blockchains. The CEO of the Web3 development platform Hiro Alex Miller believes that Bitcoin is unlikely to replace.
Ethereum as the primary platform for NFTs shortly, but Inscriptions could provide a solution for tracking digital art’s provenance. Finally, Miller predicts that the unofficial Inscription of BAYC #1626 on Bitcoin’s blockchain will carry value due to its rarity and first-of-a-kind nature.
Final Thoughts
The burning of BAYC 1626 highlights the fact that the NFT industry is still in its early stages and requires more development, licensing, and regulations. The resulting controversy has exposed various challenges in the NFT space, indicating that there is a significant amount of work that needs to be done to address them.
Ken Emmanuel is a Blockchain Content writer, a Web3 Enthusiast and a Social Media Management Strategist, he likes writing educative contents to help people gain more knowledge and get inspired. The growth of any organization he work with is always his priority. He is a Geographer by profession and loves reading.
