The Ordinal Loops project is designed to drive artistic activism and help end fiat through the latest innovation on the Bitcoin blockchain.
This is an editorial opinion by T, a member of the Ordinal Loops team.
It’s been almost a month since Ordinals actually appeared and Bitcoin isn’t what it used to be. For some background, this article by Stephan Livera introduces the basic concepts and explores the technical areas as well as the political challenges presented by Ordinals. While there are some debatable views and unpredictable assumptions, the article provides an excellent entry point into the world of data logging.
The first days of building Ordinal were messy, with Bitcoiners spending hours telling people how the protocol works, navigating through ways to open their own nodes and inscribing art. One has to wonder how many orange-colored light bulb moments have happened recently, but judging by the number of incoming requests and peer-to-peer (P2P) conversations, it must have been a lot. Looking at the data since the end of January, according to bitnodes.io, the number of Bitcoin nodes has grown by more than 28% and the adoption of Taproot has increased by almost 10% with a dramatic boost in recent times, as illustrated by Glassnode. The use of the latest soft fork supported by Ordinals has been very successful and there is no reason to expect it to slow down.
However, due to the artistic element and creative activism that Ordinals brought to Bitcoin, there is still a desire to see the evolution of this technology from a different point of view: as the arrival of culture in the expansion of Bitcoin and its continued development.
Introducing Ordinal Loops
Thus, it allows us to present Ordinal Loops (OL), a review of the contemporary existence of Bitcoin, along with some historical precedence, in the form of 21 ASCII-format, low-byte size artifacts (or Ordinal inscriptions), guiding the novel explorer. from various streams to capture the fundamental pillars of this important discovery.
At the moment of realization and the introduction of the energy that comes with the start of Ordinals, the OL team will be remiss not to participate with our own project to support the growth of the Bitcoin network effect, including the security budget.
Before forming OL, our team focused on the organization of Bitcoin meetups and other cultural events, usually culminating in making art that supports NGOs. Then, Ordinals offer a new way forward, but also some novel challenges due to the large amount of traffic and interest from people and projects that were previously unaware of Bitcoin’s conceptual framework.
Chapter one: Don’t Fiat
Observing the Loops, chapter one, called “Do Not Fiat,” describes one of the core aspects of Bitcoin’s existence: the emergence of a better and more inclusive monetary system. Objects zero to six in this chapter are formed chronologically from the beginning, a peaceful intersection to a catastrophe and a final preview of the future where the depicted Bitcoin “vulva” uses all fiat money. With this vision, Bitcoin defeats the ongoing financial oppression and slavery. The eternal battle can be observed in a progressive way, directed to the contemporary situation of our present existence with great but painful expectations.
These loops are written in the first 500 Ordinal inscriptions, ensuring that ASCII movements and mathematical magic are reflected in the Bitcoin block. As of this writing, every inscription, but “Object 4” has been taken over by a new owner through a transparent Discord auction.
Community Considerations
The list of OL owners is designed to have an impact through the decisions made by the OL team, hopefully pushing Creative activism to a new paradigm that has not been explored in other Ordinal projects or through the Bitcoin protocol. But realizing that the artwork of one chapter may not be affordable for everyone, a solution has been proposed in the public discourse of the project: “Object 4” becomes the first artifact owned by the so-called “SATDAO,” including 21 members of the OL community each holding a single key for multisignature ownership via UTXO is given. Participation in SADTAO remains open and subject to change.
Because the fight against fiat will only succeed if we strengthen the barricades, OL also continuously funds the Open Sats Legal Defense Fund, Brink, the Bitcoin Policy Institute and Casey Rodarmor’s 21st OpenDime during the chapter one auction. These activities and ownership are now transparently disclosed in the Discord treasury channel with transaction hashes included.
It is not only the best move for the orange pill new entrants brought by the excitement around Ordinals, but Ordinals also provide a chance to protect and strengthen developer resources or experiment with novel forms of community ownership. Digital art has the capacity to continue the wave of creative activism and deconstruct current narratives.
And, as always, actions speak louder than words:
Chapter II: Roots Of Immutability
Chapter two of OL intersects into the current period and is meant to allow the observer to step back to Bitcoin’s historical blocks, which have been built on the shoulders of giants.
“Block 0” is a tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto himself, who advocated a fiat war with “The Times,” calling out the destruction of the current world order. The inscription “Block O” has been sent directly to the genesis address “1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa”, because we are all Nakamoto.
“Block 1” pays tribute to the one and only Hal Finney, showing the hash of the block containing the transaction received from Nakamoto. The abstract art of this block relates to the impact of ALS – a neurodegenerative disease that affects Finney’s health. The upcoming auction for this Ordinal plans to distribute 58% of the funds received to the ALS Association, continuing this research on behalf of Finney’s wife, Fran Finney. It will be announced at the upcoming NFT Paris event to attract more interest in the movement of Ordinals.
“Block 2” represents the block height hash of Laszlo Hanyecz’s pizza transaction. With Hanyecz being an advanced GPU miner, it is our motto to mine the narrative changes.
“Block 3” celebrates SegWit, removing transaction flexibility and UASF actions from the Blocksize Wars, as well as a gateway to the Lightning Network, which has its own altar in “Block 4.” After passing, Taproot found itself abstracted to the cryptographic curve of the Schnorr sign as “Block 5 5” raising the page to the soft fork activation agreement coordinated with the improvements to the privacy-focused technology stack brought.
As the rarest aspect of OL, “Object 6” is the main arc for Ordinals, exploring the convulsions of square and round objects coupled with hyper-futuristic synth waves created by c7rr3n7 with an artistic dedication to create uniqueness – uniqueness in the sense. from the occasion that the Ordinals have been sent.
We invite our readers to consider what Ordinals can do for Bitcoin and open a new path forward. Digital art with a digital ecosystem is just the beginning. Bitcoin is freedom.
This is a guest post by T. Opinions are entirely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.