Hello and welcome to the definitive guide on Bitcoin Ordinals. We have everything you need to know packed into a single post.
Key Definitions
Satoshi: the smallest unit of Bitcoin. There are 100M Satoshis in 1 BTC. Satoshis are commonly referred to as “sats”.
Digital Artifact: content, images, data, and/or messages stored immutably and forever in a decentralized censorship resistant database (like Bitcoin).
Ordinal theory: give each Satoshi a sequential number starting at 0, and use first in first out (FIFO) logic to track sats across Bitcoin transactions.
Ordinal: Using Ordinal Theory, each numbered satoshi is an ordinal. Instead of cardinal Bitcoin, ordinals are ordinal Bitcoin. The term Ordinal is often used to describe a numbered sat associated with an inscription (the token + the digital artifact) rather than just the sat itself.
Inscription: An inscription is content, images, data, or messages which have been stored on Bitcoin as digital artifacts. Inscriptions are stored in the input of a Bitcoin transaction.
Meta-protocol: a protocol (like Ordinals) that stores data on Bitcoin. These messages are then interpreted by indexing software running on top of Bitcoin nodes.
A Brief History of Ordinals
Dec 14: The very first inscription.
Jan 19: 10 inscriptions
Feb 2: 1,000 inscriptions
Feb 9: @Bitcoin_Punks_ does a 10k public fair mint
Feb 10: An Ordinal Punk sold for 11.5 BTC
Feb 13: @DeGodsNFT inscribe in a single block
Feb 15: 100k inscriptions
Feb 19: @TaprootWizards inscribe a 4MB block
Feb 23: @sats_names starts SNS
Feb 28: Ordinals hit $1M daily volume for the first time
Mar 6: @yugalabs auction Twelvefold and make $16M
How to get your own Bitcoin Ordinal?
1. Go to bioniq.io and sign-in with your preferred authentication method (Google, MetaMask, Wallet Connect, etc.)
2. Create an account on your preferred exchange (Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken, Binance), purchase BTC, and send it to your Bioniq BTC address.
3. Convert BTC to wrapped BTC (ckBTC) in Bioniq.
4. Find an Ordinal you like on Bioniq and buy it or place an offer on it.
5. Or, if you already own an Ordinal, send it to your Bioniq address and list it on the marketplace or auction it.
