Emblem Vault for Ordinals

With many new developments in blockchain technology over the past few years, including smart contracts enabling DeFi and dApps, the crypto ecosystem has been thriving. Emblem Vault has contributed to this growth, providing a means to store and exchange digital assets across different blockchains. In this article, we'll take a look at it is, how it works, and how it is used with Bitcoin Ordinals.

A solution for NFTs from different blockchains

Emblem Vaults act as multi-asset wallets that are transferable, and can contain both fungible tokens (think cryptocurrencies) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). They can enable cross-chain activity, such as transferring digital assets across different blockchains without the need for bridging.

Emblem Vault was released in September 2020 and has now become the leading solution for trading historical NFTs that were minted on non-EVM chains such as Bitcoin. The Emblem Vault ecosystem is open-source, ensuring that developers can contribute to the project's growth. The Vault' functionality is not limited to Ethereum and Bitcoin, as they can be used on other blockchain networks like Polygon, Namecoin, Counterparty, Dogecoin, Coval, and many more.

How does Emblem Vault work?

Emblem Vaults are created as unique ERC-721 NFTs (the token standard for Ethereum NFTs), and each vault contains a series of blockchain addresses, generated from a single secret phrase. In practice, this means you can store digital assets in each address, and only the person with the secret phrase can send assets to other wallets. One or more digital assets, along with some cryptocurrency, can be stored in one vault. Multiple assets can be combined into a single token, making it easy to trade and manage your portfolio. For example, you could create a portfolio that contains a percentage of ETH, a percentage of Bitcoin, a percentage of Doge, and trade all of these assets as a single ERC-721 NFT. Emblem Vault also enables users to create liquidity pools, and to create a vault that multiple people hold. This could be useful for organizations or individuals looking to pool their resources.

Users can buy and sell assets that predate, or aren't compatible with the ERC-721 standard, and wrap them into ERC-721 NFTs. This means collectors can trade NFT collections such as the Rare Pepes and Bitcoin Punks, on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea that don't support the Bitcoin blockchain.

Emblem Vault and Ordinals

Ever since their release, Ordinal inscriptions have taken over the NFT market, and many well-known NFT projects have joined the movement, including Yuga Labs, who created the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).

Ordinals are Bitcoin NFTs minted directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. They do not leverage side-chains, and are inscribed on satoshis, the smallest unit of Bitcoin. These digital assets are completely immutable and can never be updated or deleted. The Ordinals Protocol was made possible by the Taproot Upgrade and was introduced by Casey Rodarmor in January 2023.

Because Ordinals live directly on the Bitcoin blockchain, they are kept in Bitcoin wallets, and they aren't supported by every NFT marketplace. Emblem Vaults allow users to wrap their Ordinals and trade them as ERC-721 tokens on non-Ordinal marketplaces.

Vaulting assets with Emblem Vault is generally the same process across various blockchains. When it comes to wrapping Ordinal NFTs, users should be very cautious and take a few extra steps to ensure they're doing things in a secure way and keeping their BTC wallets safe. The vault contains the private keys to the Bitcoin wallet holding the Ordinal inscription. The Ordinal remains on the Bitcoin network, and a new version which is compatible with the Ethereum blockchain, a "representation" of sorts, is created.

Even though Emblem Vault do have some benefits, when it comes to buying and trading Ordinal inscriptions, we strongly recommend that users do their research and choose what's best for them. Trustless Ordinals marketplaces such as Gamma.io ensure a safe and secure means of trading Ordinals without the need to vault their assets, directly on the Bitcoin L1 blockchain. The Bitcoin NFT marketplace builds tools ensuring that it will remain trustless over time, and always puts user safety first.