Imagine owning a digital trading card or a piece of artwork, but instead of it existing on a separate platform, it's etched directly onto the Bitcoin blockchain itself. That's the basic idea behind Ordinals.Ordinals are a relatively new development in the Bitcoin world.
They allow people to attach data like images, videos, and text to individual Satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin). This data becomes part of the permanent Bitcoin ledger, potentially imbuing it with value and uniqueness.Here's a breakdown of the key points:
- What are Satoshis? One Bitcoin can be divided into 100 million smaller units called Satoshis. Think of them as cents to a dollar.
- How do Ordinals work? A special technique is used to encode data into the Bitcoin blockchain alongside a specific Satoshi. This data becomes part of the permanent record, similar to how a transaction is recorded.
- What kind of data can be Ordinals? Potentially anything that can be digitized - images (like memes or digital art), videos, text documents, and even audio files.
Why are Ordinals interesting?
- Uniqueness: Each Ordinal is tied to a specific Satoshi, potentially making it one-of-a-kind and valuable to collectors.
- Immutability: Since the data is on the Bitcoin blockchain, it's considered highly secure and tamper-proof.
- New use cases for Bitcoin: Ordinals open doors for Bitcoin to be used beyond just a currency, potentially creating a new wave of digital collectibles and applications.
June 2024, CryptoniteUae