The emergence of ordinals on Bitcoin (BTC) has opened up new opportunities for developers and users alike, allowing for the permanent inscription of data on the Bitcoin blockchain. This enables digital objects — such as art — to have verified ownership, and also allows for the use of domain addresses, among other applications.
Untangling public wallet keys
Blockchain technology allows for a range of benefits, such as immutability and the ability to verify transactions. However, using crypto wallets and public keys can be intimidating for some users, with the potential for lost or misdirected funds due to small errors in the long strings of numbers and letters that make up public wallet keys.
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has helped to simplify Ethereum wallet addresses by turning them into easily-readable domain names — much like website URLs — for some time. However, the same solution has not been available for the Bitcoin network, until now.
A step toward ‘smart’ Bitcoin
BTCDomain has exploited the use of ordinals and zk-STARKs (zero-knowledge Succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge) to generate unique domain addresses that can be used on the Bitcoin network. Ordinals are inscriptions within Bitcoin transactions that are verifiable via a blockchain explorer. When users send btc to a registered domain, the platform resolves the underlying public key so that the funds end up as intended. Additionally, the zk-STARK technology helps users to ensure that this is happening correctly.
BTCDomain also grants users easier access to their own domain names and websites on the Bitcoin network, through the latest Miami update. The platform can now automatically resolve domain names to dedicated web2 websites, such as ordinal.btc.page.
Criticism against ordinals
The use of ordinals on Bitcoin has drawn some criticism due to the impact on the network’s transaction fees. However, BTCDomain founder Jay Lee argues that using Bitcoin as a financial transaction chain is still a valid choice, and that ordinals have provided the opportunity to build trustless applications that rely solely on the Bitcoin blockchain.
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