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Ordinal or ordinal inscriptions are the byproduct of inscribing code, text, or image data on the smallest unit of Bitcoin - the Satoshi. Inscribing data on Bitcoin was not possible until <a href="https://trustmachines.co/learn/bitcoin-taproot-upgrade-basic-breakdown/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">2021&#39;s Taproot upgrade</a>. This upgrade laid the foundation for launching the Bitcoin Ordinals Protocol by Casey Rodarmor in early 2023.A year later, the protocol has seen a proliferation of immutable non-fungible tokens on the leading blockchain. The process of creating a Bitcoin Ordinal or NFT begins with writing data onchain and having a transaction as the witness.Related: <a href="https://hodl.fm/bitcoin-runes-launch" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Runes Launch: Bitcoin’s New Token Standard Shakes Up the Crypto Market</a><h2 id="header-0">A Brief History of Bitcoin Ordinals</h2>The first work around Ordinals began in 2012. Meni Rosenfeld,  president of the Israeli Bitcoin Association, published a concept called colored coins. His idea was to distinguish units of bitcoin by coloring them, that is tracing their history, differentiating them from the rest, and assigning them with special properties or data.<img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/11cf8dd7a48d48798ce27b5f578adeeb.gif" />The ultimate goal for coloring was to utilize the colored units across smart property, and commodity certificates, among others. Nonetheless, these early ordinals did not immediately facilitate the PFPs as they are now but helped <a href="https://trustmachines.co/learn/introduction-bitcoin-nfts/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">lay the foundation of Bitcoin NFTs</a>.Again in 2014, Kevin and Jennifer McCoy are credited for creating history’s first non fungible token, Quantum. The two digital artists created the generative art piece on Namecoin, a blockchain forked on Bitcoin. Their goal was to prove ownership of their art creation but they also ended up pioneering a generation of Bitcoin-based NFTs for artworks.EverdreamSoft in 2015 used the Bitcoin network to launch the first NFT trading cards game. Spells of Genesis provides players with historical nonfungible tokens where each one represents a specific moment in history. At this time, many projects had already joined the space. Rare Pepes, the popular digital collectible cards platform launched in 2016 with approximately 1,800 cards featuring distinct meme characters for Pepe the Frog. Each of the cards represents Pepe as Trump, Satoshi Nakamoto, Homer Simpson, or Andreas Antonopoulos, among others. The Homer Pepe card gained popularity in 2018 when it sold for $38,500 in a blockchain art live auction.<img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/8f3f28fb903a47309d12caf0dcd0746f.jpeg" />Source: <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/news/homer-simpson-rare-pepe-nft-crypto-art-sells-for-over-312000" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Knowyourmeme</a>However, most of the work in NFTs started happening on Ethereum and Solana after the launch of Rare Pepes. Fast forward to 2023, Casey Rodarmor deployed Ordinals on the Bitcoin Network and set the stage for quality standard NFTs on the mainnet. Two upgrades were particularly important for making ordinals possible, 2017’s Segregated Witness (SegWit) and 2021’s Taproot.<img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/8015ef2ae8814350aea329521a0bdd53.png" />Source: <a href="https://www.google.com/search?client&#61;safari&amp;sca_esv&#61;0e7f67614aa28a61&amp;rls&#61;en&amp;q&#61;The&#43;Homer&#43;Pepe&#43;card&amp;uds&#61;AMwkrPvOx_YccP_8fuolhIO5y-t2fGb3lfidyhcWSRJd87R2aDFWx4qvMhikhzrYaC6NRDKo1WY_6kE-n3oX8frFg0-6wMrf_mfBPImhK9ZYQtcQVFDiwkIwPKqTU0C_0fPgNuUbvZUp0taD9Av-H_Fgdio79zt6-5-XpM283ykA6fCMUYzFHaky3NLWaFiP-4k9kqZyElE4dnkt53eh1wF7DzXeoYISBPHLd8QQjcAmUrT0shPNFSfC21mvI3ZKS8O_ASVycdE6PVuT-sx_0G8_vusapz2nMuWYe5SlClcN9qnrEO-CeLvi1z-jVKpe06L0YPPKfKUz&amp;udm&#61;2&amp;prmd&#61;isvnmbtz&amp;sa&#61;X&amp;ved&#61;2ahUKEwiz2rDrmeCFAxVERuUKHdc1BhQQtKgLegQIDBAB&amp;biw&#61;1419&amp;bih&#61;751&amp;dpr&#61;2#vhid&#61;-1H5t056G4lWFM&amp;vssid&#61;mosaic" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Rare Pepes</a><h2 id="header-1">Understanding Ordinals</h2>The NFT space faced massive growth in 2021, thanks to the effectiveness of the <a href="https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/standards/tokens/erc-721/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ERC-721 token standard</a>. Bitcoin developers had always wanted to inscribe data on Bitcoin as early as 2014, which convinced Rodarmor to create a similar NFT experience on the blockchain.By implementing the ordinal theory, the artist and developer built a way for identifying, tracking, and transferring media on Bitcoin. It did not take long for the project to gain traction. Within no time, the volume of inscriptions continued doubling weekly.  The emergence and growth of Ordinals have seen an explosion in the usage of Bitcoin, storage space, and transaction fees.<img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/067b39a772da4f9b8ba109dc9db05dff.jpeg" />Source: <a href="https://pintu.co.id/en/academy/post/differences-between-erc1155-and-erc-721" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Pintu</a><h3 id="a-href-https-hodl-fm-bitcoin-ordinals-nfts-rel-noopener-noreferrer-nofollow-read-more-on-hodl-fm-a"><a href="https://hodl.fm/bitcoin-ordinals-nfts" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">READ MORE ON HODL.FM</a></h3>

What Are Ordinals? A Beginner’s Guide to Bitcoin NFTs

What Are Ordinals? A Beginner’s Guide to Bitcoin NFTs

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