Keeping it simple from starting, The ordinals are nothing but just providing a way to mint an NFT on the BTC network. Minting an NFT on the BTC network was not possible earlier. But after the involvement of the idea of Ordinals, it is possible now. Here in this article will see how it becomes possible and how one can mint, buy and sell Bitcoin NFTs. If you are unaware of NFTs then you can read them Here.
What are Ordinals?
The origin of the name Ordinals is from the word ‘order’. So? Order of what? Well. The simple answer is the order of sats (satoshis). The sats are the smallest part of a Bitcoin. One Bitcoin can be divided into 100,000,000 sats. The Ordinal Protocol helps the user to inscribe data along with each sats. NFTs are enabled by inscribed data on Bitcoin that includes smart contracts. It is merely a method of minting NFTs directly on the Bitcoin blockchain.
This means you can track, transfer, and assign meaning to each satoshi just like you would with any other currency.
And the best part is, you don’t need to make any changes to the Bitcoin network to use it, thanks to the Ordinal protocol.
The minting of NFTs on the BTC chain is not like minting on ETH, Solana, etc. It has some steps which will be discussed below in simple ways.
Is there any difference between Traditional NFTs and Ordinal?
Yes, they are different and another name given to these Bitcoin NFTs is ‘Digital Artifact’.
Here are the key difference between NFTs and Digital Artifacts (Ordinals).
- Digital artifacts are complete. An NFT that points to off-chain content on IPFS or Arweave is incomplete, and thus not a digital artifact.
- Digital artifacts are permissionless. The sale of an NFT that requires royalty payment is not permissionless, so it is not a digital artifact.
- Digital artifacts are uncensorable. There may be a possibility of changing a database entry on a centralized ledger today, but not tomorrow, so it is impossible for it to be considered a digital artifact.
- Digital artifacts are immutable. Having an upgrade key on an NFT does not make it a digital artifact.
How to Mint, Buy, and Trade Ordinals?
Step:1– Selection of a suitable wallet
Step:2– Wallet Setup
Step:3– Acquiring an Ordinals
I) Find an Ordinals owner and buy it from them.
II) Use a website for the inscription of ordinal (Without running your own node)
III) Run your own node to inscribe an ordinal on chain
Step:1- Selection of a suitable wallet
Unlike traditional NFTs, one can not hold these ordinals or Bitcoin NFTs on browser wallers like metamask. To keep an Ordinals you must set up a Bitcoin wallet with customization. And Sparrow Wallet is the best for serving this purpose.
-Go to Sparrow Wallet
-Download a suitable version of it according to your operating system. (Currently, it is only available for PC users, but we are finding a way for android and IOS users.)
Step:2- Wallet Setup
To set up Sparrow Wallet one must follow some step-wise guide to make it handy for ordinals. For full setup of the wallet, we will recommend following the steps mention in Detailed Git Hub Tutorial. Or for Hindi Guide, you can see this YT Video.
N.B- i) you should not use this sparrow wallet for sending BTC to other wallets. The only purpose of using it should be to keep an inscription of ordinals. Because sending BTC from this wallet may result sent ordinals along with BTC.
ii) One sparrow wallet address should be used only once. ( Either for receiving or for inscribing ordinals.)
Step:3- Acquiring an Ordinals
Once you have a compatible BTC wallet you can get ordinals in 3 different ways which are listed below:
I) Find an Ordinals owner and buy it from them
The most popular way to sell NFTs in the Ordinals ecosystem is to use the owner as a trusted collateral, but you can also hire someone from the trusted space as collateral. They usually charge around 5%. The marketplace for NFTs is located on discord, with separate channels for WTS (want to sell) and WTB (want to buy). It’s pretty basic and ancient, but it’s a cool way to trade.
II) Use a website for the inscription of ordinal
If you don’t know about running a node on a blockchain network and don’t want to go into the P2P trading system then you must take advantage of a website which is providing the inscription service.
The service provider website will ask you to enter the BTC address where you want to keep your ordinal AKA Bitcoin NFTs. Then you can add the address of the sparrow wallet which you have created in step-1. Also, on their website, you can see the amount of Sats required for completing the inscription which will include the service fee for the node running. Usually, these transaction fees are between $30-$50 BTC.
III) Run your own node to inscribe an ordinal on chain
Running your own node is for professional node runners and we will not suggest you go here. This required almost 500GB+ of free storage on your PC. Although if you want to know about it you can get the information from official resources.
Final Words
The NFTs on the Bitcoin chain could be very potential and worthy. You should keep your eyes on it. Some projects are really promising. The inclusion of an ordinal marketplace will act as a catalyst in this high-potential race. To keep yourself updated on the new ordinals project be here and we will provide what you all are looking for.