A Primer on the Debate Around Ordinal Inscriptions, aka Bitcoin NFTs

Are on-chain Bitcoin NFTs an interesting innovation or a censorable misallocation of resources?

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ABOUT

For the last week, the Bitcoin community has been locked in fierce debate around Ordinal Inscriptions, a type of Bitcoin-native NFT that allows people to associate data like JPEGs with individual sats. Some find it an interesting, novel experiment. Others – including at least one core dev – think they should be censored as an illegitimate usage of the Bitcoin blockchain. NLW breaks down the debate(s).

“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and research by Scott Hill. Jared Schwartz is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. Music behind our sponsor today is “Swoon” by Falls. Image credit: Takoyaki Tech/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.

HOST

Nathaniel Whittemore

NLW is an independent strategy and communications consultant for leading crypto companies as well as host of The Breakdown – the fastest-growing podcast in crypto. Whittemore has been a VC with Learn Capital, was on the founding team of Change.org, and founded a program design center at his alma mater Northwestern University that helped inspire the largest donation in the school’s history.