Times, they are a-changin’.
The recent hype around Bitcoin NTFs, also called Ordinals, has driven a key thorn in the side of the maximalist community.
Instead of laying down the rails for “thermodynamically sound money,” it’s being used for printing more jpegs. Bitcoin proponents are also concerned about the scarce amount of block space available, a resource apparently too precious to share with digital art.
The rise of Bitcoin NFTs is also a symptom of a bear market, he said. With prices low, block space is inexpensive. “In a bull market, it [Ordinals] would be costing people thousands of dollars to do this,” Casa CTO Jameson Lopp told Decrypt.
To say it’s irked Bitcoin advocates is an understatement.
“I understand that because I’ve thought all along that NFT art is fairly silly. Personally, I’ve never found value in tokenized art,” he said. “It’s not something that I would pay tens of thousands of dollars for so that I could say that it gives me pleasure that no one else is the owner of this art.”
Lopp’s in a unique position to view the crypto culture wars too, having had to face a similar variety once his wallet firm announced it would add support for Ethereum. Previously, the self-custody wallet provider Casa had only offered Bitcoin services since 2018.
In the belly of the Bitcoin beast
The move to add Ethereum, announced last November, generated similar outrage from many of the same individuals complaining about new inscriptions on Bitcoin.
“Not something to be proud of,” tweeted Samson Mow, CEO of Jan3 and noted Bitcoin promoter, at the time. “RIP Casa ” and “embarrassing,” read some of the milder responses.
