Ordgies, The "Slurpening," and why Bitcoin Ordinals may be the greatest collectibles ever created

When I first discovered ordinals, I hardly slept for four days. Mad, untoward thoughts entered my mind. Things like: This is it. This is why I’ve been in crypto for a decade.

Everything that came before – mining, ICOs, CryptoKitties, DeFi summer (setting alarms for 3 a.m. to ape into pool2s), NFTs, algo-stables, L2s, etc. – was merely training for the launch of ordinals…

I was B-Rabbit. Ordinals were the mic standing open, and I was going to take my gd shot.

I was going to take it because virtually the second I found out about ordinals, I felt like the world had tilted on a new axis and things would never be the same.

I may be wrong, of course…

And I’m certainly biased (since I own ordinals), but I believe one of the most important moments in crypto’s history is unfolding before our eyes.

The launch of ordinals is a dividing line.

Just like there is crypto before Ethereum and after Ethereum, there is crypto before ordinals and crypto after ordinals. 

Lez talk about why.

How ordinals change our fate

Before ordinals, bitcoin’s main selling point was as a “store of value” or digital gold.

There’s a crazy thing about digital gold, though. Specifically, it’s this: 

YOU DON’T SPEND YOUR GOLD.

And that means:

YOU DON’T GENERATE FEES.

As we speak, there are 900 bitcoin a day being mined… That’s about $25 million per day of new money that needs to enter the bitcoin ecosystem in order to keep the price of bitcoin from going down.

The maxis say transaction fees will ultimately replace the mining subsidy, but transaction volumes on bitcoin peaked in 2017 and have been trending down since a brief respite in 2018.

The fee problem does not solve itself. But ordinals could.

Source: https://twitter.com/LeonidasNFT/status/1640178812108275715?s=20

The benefits of ordinals for bitcoin’s sustainability, security and economics are profound.

Butttttt……. they’re also the least interesting part about ordinals.

What I find interesting is this: we now have a neutral, censorship-resistant publishing layer built directly on top of the world’s longest-standing, most decentralized and unassailably powerful blockchain.

The implications are profound… and they’ll first be felt in the world of art. In fact, I think the odds are growing that ALL of the world’s most expensive and sought-after digital artwork ends up on bitcoin (not Ethereum, not Solana, not some L2). Here’s why:

1. Ordinals are embedded directly on-chain (no pointers to centralized servers, IPFS or Arweave). The files literally get downloaded in the 470gb file you need to set up Bitcoin core.

2. Bitcoin’s branding is elite. Grandmums have heard of it (and they probably haven’t heard of Ethereum). It’s evidence that bitcoin’s branding is currently more powerful and normie-friendly than ethereum’s. Just as athletes and performers have chosen to get paid in bitcoin, many will likely opt to issue NFTs on bitcoin over Ethereum. My guess is “top shelf” artists like Hirst and Murakami will do the same — migrating one by one to the OG of OGs, and the big brands will quickly follow suit (Bugatti’s just the first).

3. Just as fungible tokens will all be cross-chain one day, so will NFTs. If that’s the case, why not issue them first on the world’s most secure and longest-running blockchain? If you need advanced functionality, you’ll be able to send them cross-chain (in fact, you already can — more below). 

4. Creating and minting ordinals is more standardized and straightforward than creating NFTs on ethereum. No smart contracts required. You don’t have to be a dev. All you need to do is send a bitcoin transaction with a four-word command [ord wallet inscribe FILE]. Or use an automation tool like ordinalsbot.com. This standardized process sounds like a limitation, but I believe it’s that simplicity that enables profound composability. Much like Twitter character count forces us to cut to the marrow of a thought, design limitations can supercharge adoption by focusing the output.

5. While regulators vulture around everything in DeFi, there’s low or no risk that bitcoin will be labeled a security by the U.S. government. It’s cryptoland’s greenest pasture.

6. NFTs on bitcoin require a transaction fee and inclusion in a bitcoin block. That imbues them with a scarcity or sacredness that’s absent on other platforms.

7. Ordinals will unlock new use cases, which go far beyond the world of art.

Now, I’m not being Pollyanna here. I have zero pretensions that bitcoin NFTs will replace NFTs on other chains. I’m merely arguing that the most collectible, exclusive and rare pieces of art could end up on bitcoin. Ethereum NFTs aren’t going anywhere. On the contrary, Ethereum NFTs will continue to be the most important NFTs based on functionality, speed, etc. 

But the grails of tomorrow could very well end up issuing first on bitcoin. Then, for those who want the functionality on Ethereum, they could be ported over to Ethereum using Emblem Vaults or similar technology.

If all the world’s high-value digital art ends up transmuted into ordinals, so too could real-world assets (RWAs) like bonds, deeds, and other securities.

Death to Filecoin

The launch of ordinals positions bitcoin as the world’s most important permanent “cloud hosting” platform.

If you asked me to publish something online that I was sure my great-great-grandkids could one day find, I’d post it on bitcoin over filecoin, arweave and IPFS.

Ordinals can’t be censored. They can’t be “taken down” by the RIAA or deleted by Amazon or Google. Overnight, bitcoin has become the freest, easiest-to-use public forum on the planet.

And it’s a forum for a lot more than JPGs. You can inscribe not just images but audio files, web pages, videos, json – basically, anything that a browser can display.

Bitcoin’s radical freedom means we’re setting the stage for some important clashes around free speech, but ultimately, I think humanity needs that freedom more than it needs “protected” from “dangerous” content.

If you’re truly frightened and prudish about uncensorable content, don’t worry, though… Front-end ordinals explorers can and will use filtering software to block the display of obscene or unsafe content (this will have zero impact on the content that lurks directly in bitcoin’s roughly 470gb of data, but at least it will make it very difficult to unearth in your web browser).

For the non-prudish, non-authoritarian, freedom-loving, double-cheeseburger eating rest of us, it’s all pretty fucking exciting.

Since anyone can publish absolutely anything as an inscription, it makes bitcoin humanity’s time capsule. Publishing an ordinal is nothing like publishing a website, which can be taken down by any number of intermediaries.

Publishing an ordinal is different. It’s publishing into eternity. 

And there will always be demand for pitching our voices into eternity. The timechain is no longer a mere ledger. It’s a wall stretching toward the end of time. And now any of us can pick up a rattlecan and spray onto it that we were here… that we lived, that we believed in and fought for freedom and the eventual, inevitable separation of money and state. 

Or we can spraypaint a dickbutt.

And there’s no one in the world who can stop us.

The greatest collectibles ever created?

Ordinals – as their name implies – are sequential. That means the first ordinal will always be the first ordinal and the 999th ordinal will always be the 999th, and the 10 millionth will always be the 10 millionth.

They’re ordered this way on the primary explorer at Ordinals.com. Here’s Ordinal No. 0, which was inscribed by Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor.

And No. 1 (a much beloved, cultural milestone known as a cryptodickbutt):

As I pen this, Ordinal. No. 915,416 was among the latest minted. Here it is in all its glory:

The serialized nature of ordinals grounds them in time. For example, a decade from now, you can tell someone you have a sub-1 million ordinal, and they’ll know: dayuuumm… this dude…. he got an ordinal within a few months of their launch.

It really does imbue the pieces with a chronological significance. Ordinals are stamped into humanity’s timechain at a verifiable moment – one that will always be represented by an ever-ascending ordinal number.

Like the never-ending ticking of a clock, that number cascades higher. And when you see a given number, you can instantly associate it with a date.

That means these numbers will be of supreme importance. 

That’s why I’ve focused my ordinals collecting journey on sub-10k ordinals. I wrote a long thread on why I think sub-10ks ords could become the greatest collectibles of all time, but let me regurgitate a few high points:

1. 10k is the perfect collection size: 10,000 pieces are the size of the typical collection on Ethereum, after all. It's a proven # for establishing a cult-like following (cults = gud, right?)

2. The first 10,000 ordinals are better than any 10k Ethereum collection, though, because of the staggering variety. Within the first 10,000 ordinals, there are 2 dozen+ projects of say between 69 and 200ish pieces. That means there’s something for anyone (memes, homages, original 1 of 1 art pieces, micro-PFP collections, music, videos, games, etc.).

3. The first 10k ordinals will be nearly impossible to obtain. Only 3.5% of the Bored Ape supply is listed on OpenSea and 10.3% of cryptopunks. So maybe 350 to 1,000ish of the earliest ordinals will be up for sale at any given time (and that number will likely shrink over time).

4. As mentioned above, digital collectables have already begun their journey to cross-chain-i-fication. Already, @EmblemVault by Circuits of Value allows ordinals to flow onto Ethereum (where they can trade on marketplaces like Opensea) then back onto bitcoin quite easily. In a world of cross-chain NFTs, the *fundamentals* begin to matter… and being part of a hallowed collection (like the first 10k ordinals) is a sacred absolute. Crosschain-i-fication also means ordinals can be a part of the broader movement toward financializing NFTs via NFT lending protocols like BendDao.

One day in the not-so-distant future, NFTs will be as commonplace as owning underwear. Humans may call NFTs many different names, but they will all possess them in browser wallets, on their phones, in games, etc. And they will be as important to them as their favorite hoodies and shoes today.

Since ordinals are inscribed on the freest, most secure, most censorship-resistant platform with the longest running chain and best branding in crypto, I imagine they will have a very secure place in this emerging NFT-drenched future.

In this future, I think it’s increasingly likely that a single ordinals collection (probably sub-10ks, which are already listed as a standalone collection on many ordinals exchanges) will flip Ethereum’s most valuable collections and never look back.

In this future, value will get sucked from Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon over to Bitcoin. This Slurpening will continue until it’s simply common knowledge that you release rare, high-value, low-volume, historically significant, censorship-resistant pieces on bitcoin… and you go elsewhere for other things.

The Slurpening is still incredibly early

It always amuses me when people say they “missed out” on ordinals.

Eventually, The Slurpening will produce tens of millions of NFTs on bitcoin – quite possibly billions one day. In such a world, holding a sub-10k will be like Bill Gates holding one of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. They will be the Honus Wagners or Mickey Mantle rookie cards of future generations. 

And there will be no need to guess at their provenance or authenticity. It will all be there on-chain.

Humans will pay ludicrous sums to collect these precious shards from the past.

No one knows how much they’ll pay, but we can look at the short history of Ethereum NFTs to see how insane things could get.

The top two collections on Ethereum are Bored Apes and Cryptopunks. Both hit floor prices as high as $400,000 during peak bull vibes around Q2 2022.

Let’s call that a reasonable target for sub-10ks in the future (not financial advice, of course… I’m a biased ord-holder). Right now, you can find ordinals in the first 10,000 for ~$2,000 to $4,000. If they hit $400,000 one day, that’s a 100-200x. And that’s just for the weakest, least desirable of sub-10ks.

Some insanely irreverent, artistic, beautiful and haunting sub-10ks are trading as you read this for anywhere from 0.4 to 1 BTC. If we someday see an ord mania – an Ordgie, perhaps? – they could go for well over $1 million. 

That’s a 500x or more. And since ords are predominantly priced in BTC (and assuming BTC is also mooning), we could see things get truly out of hand.

Now, I say all this with caveats.

First, ordinals could be a flash in the pan… forgotten, purged, reviled.

(I tend to think that won’t be the case since collectors and miners love them.).

Second, governments could also go on an all-out assault on our precious crypto-fiat gateways, plunging crypto into a decade-long nuclear winter.

(In that case, ords will be the least of our worries).

Third, I hate talking about price + ordinals. It feels like sacrilege.

But I’ve come to believe that price is ultimately a proxy for attention and importance. No one can tell the future, but we can state what we know – and that’s this:

Uncensorability matters. 

Permanence matters. 

We matter.

And ordinals give us a venue to broadcast whatever the fuck we want straight into the face of power. 

That will never cease to be valuable.

Getting started with ordinals

In a moment, I’ll talk about some of my favorite ords, but first, here’s how to on-ramp into the ecosystem right now:

1. Read the docs (it’ll take five minutes).

2. Check out the original ordinals explorer at Ordinals.com. It’s a never-ending stream of the latest ordinals (click on an image to see its inscription number).

2. Get a wallet that supports ordinals (Hiro, Xverse, Unisat, XDefi, or – if you’re comfortable with command lines and full nodes, the OG Ord Wallet)

3. Check out some collections. Good places to start include Magic Eden and the Ordynals floor tracker (pay attention to the “range”, which indicates the inscription numbers for the pieces in a given collection… the lower the range, the earlier the collection was minted). Keep in mind that liquidity is fractured all over the ords space… if you want to buy a piece from a particular collection, find it on Ordynals and click “show markets” to see where the liquidity/floor prices are best.

4. Follow some ordinals fans: @leonidas.og, @trevor.btc, and the 🤡@redphonecrypto

5. Check out some of the amazing alternate use-cases for ordinals that are springing up including @satsnames (like .eth domains for bitcoin L1) and BRC-20s (a ridiculously experimental idea I proposed for issuing fungible tokens on ordinals/bitcoin. The idea has since spawned the launch of more than 1,400 tokens — including one with a market cap of $2m+ — listed here; h/t @domodata).

A peek at some of my favorite sub-10k collections

The variety of pieces in the first 10k ordinals is staggering. It truly was a free-for-all driven by passion, excitement and no “insider” mints.

Here are some of my faves that – imo – are somewhat under the radar and all selling for 1 BTC or less (I’ve collected at least 1 of each). Presenting them in no particular order:

#1. Diamond Finger Ordinals, Floor Price 0.5 BTC

From the project’s description: “100 subversive, unique, and original art pieces by artist, Grace Ng, celebrating Bitcoin’s permissionless and censorship resistant qualities. Stick up your middle finger to the traditional systems and institutions. NO ONE CONTROLS BITCOIN. Freedom technology for the world. Forever inscribed on Bitcoin #5720 - #5872.” Ordswap.io | MagicEden

#2. Plein Err, Floor Price, 0.49 BTC 

“Plein Err is the first landscape collection on Ordinals with inscriptions between #2100 - #2300.The collection is inspired by the work of the Plein Air Painters of the 19th century, and the pixel art of the 20th. Each pixel landscape is 128x64, scaled 3x, and consists of the same palette of 64 colors. The collection is limited to 42 inscriptions.” MagicEden

#3. Punks on Bitcoin, 0.39 BTC

“The first 1/1 original art sub 10k Punk collection on Bitcoin.” Ordswap | MagicEden

#4. The ORDROTHKO Collection, 1 BTC

Ordswap

#5. NoPFP, 0.25 BTC

Ordswap | Ordinalswallet.com

This one’s near and dear to my heart because I got to inscribe some of the pieces in Dr. Proact’s wide-ranging and maniacal NoPFP collection (including numbers 9299 and 9300 above). Read the full and twisted tale of how the inscriptions came to be here (the beginning of which is screenshotted below).

Closing thoughts

There has never and may never again be a collectibles launch like the chaotic launch of ordinals. 

I first heard about them when a fren posted a link to ord punks in a Telegram group 🙏. Between working + family + ordinals, I hardly slept for the next four days.

Instead, I was setting up a full node (something I hadn’t done in about 10 years), re-learning how to use my command line wallet and trolling discords to trade ordinals with complete anons (“sure! I’ll send some BTC to a cartoon boi named BaneneBallz#3266!”).

For four days and nights I did little else. I didn’t even shower.

Here’s why I did it:

because it was fun as fuck.

Ordinals made bitcoin cool again overnight. And the world will never be the same.

🎈

Disclosures

I’m long ordinals, $COVAL and $BEND.