The sudden surge of Ordinal projects has brought about a renewed interest in the oldest most successful blockchain in the world, the Bitcoin network. Although not an entirely new discovery, the rising popularity of these kinds of projects is seen to benefit Bitcoin or even the entire crypto landscape in a lot of ways.
Ordinal projects refer to projects that are built within the Bitcoin blockchain, using its underlying technology to create new and innovative applications. Initially, it enables one to inscribe images or NFTs as well as other forms of digital data directly in each satoshi or a hundred millionth of a Bitcoin.
The proponent of the system is Udi Wertheimer, a self-employed developer and consultant in blockchain projects. The first of these digital artifacts was only launched in January this year, but they have experienced a boom since then. These were recorded spiking over 100,000 during the Valentine’s Day celebration, which brought about system congestion within the Bitcoin network.
Despite this rather unfortunate event, crypto enthusiasts are more than hopeful about the promises of these new projects. Ordinal projects are foreseen to benefit the Bitcoin ecosystem in many ways, including the following:
1. Incentivizing Miners
The spike in the creation of Ordinals in the past couple of weeks has contributed to the increase in the transaction fees and typical block size on the Bitcoin blockchain. The demand is particularly boosted by the scarcity of block space in the system for inscriptions. These will hopefully be enough to incentivize miners as revenues coming from mining rewards are expected to go down at each halving of Bitcoin.
2. Enhanced Security
Higher transaction fees are projected by Wertheimer to bring about better incentivization for miners to further secure the Bitcoin network. He strongly believes that the rising demand for Ordinals will attract more people willing to pay fees to keep the blockchain safeguarded.
3. More Profitability
In addition, the Ordinal projects developer believes that new use cases may be discovered later on that can potentially make Bitcoin more commercially profitable in the future.
4. Enhanced Functionality
Ordinal projects can add new features and capabilities to the Bitcoin blockchain that were not realized in its original design. As shown recently, the scope of Ordinal projects encompasses more than just the realm of NFTs. Aside from JPEG images, they can be used to inscribe other forms of digital art, profile picture (PFP) projects, and even the original 1993 version of the Doom video game.
5. Increased Adoption
By making it easier and more efficient to use Bitcoin, ordinal projects can help further promote the adoption and usage of this cryptocurrency. This can lead to more users, more transactions, and more overall value in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Conclusion
Overall, ordinal projects can help expand the utility of the Bitcoin blockchain in ways never fully explored before. Likewise, the introduction of these at the forefront of the crypto industry can support the Bitcoin ecosystem in widening its reach in various niches, making it a more useful and valuable technology for different users and businesses going onward.
