The launch of Ordinals – a protocol that stores NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain – is causing division among the Bitcoin community. Purists believe the blockchain should only be for financial transactions, while others see it as a versatile network capable of hosting multiple use cases, including meme-themed art.
The Ordinals protocol will now allow the creation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that can be held and transferred on the Bitcoin network. This was made possible by the recent upgrades to Bitcoin's Segregated Witness and Taproot.
The launch of Ordinals has reignited the debate on whether Bitcoin should be used for non-financial purposes, with some calling it an believing it to be futile and worthless while others embrace it as a solution to the decreasing Bitcoin block subsidy which Bitcoin miners rely on to secure the network. The debate started way back in 2010 when Satoshi Nakamoto rejected the idea of incorporating a domain name system (BitDNS) into Bitcoin.
Ordinals is being hailed by some as a potential solution for miners to continue securing the Bitcoin network if the increased transaction fees can incentivize miners to continue investing in and deploying computing power. However, those with more maximalist-leaning viewpoints consider Bitcoin as a network which should be solely focused solely on facilitating censorship-resistance wealth storage and financial transactions.