Where to buy Ordinals
What are Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs?
Ordinals are essentially native Bitcoin non-fungible tokens you can mint directly on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Before the rise of Ordinals, Bitcoin NFTs were only possible through the Stacks blockchain, which aims to bring more scalability to the Bitcoin blockchain, enabling smart contract functionality, dApps, DeFi and NFTs which are all Bitcoin-secured. However, Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, and this new development could have many benefits in the crypto ecosystem, including further adoption of the chain and more incentives for miners. Some noteworthy Ordinal collections include Ordinal Punks, Taproot Wizards and TwelveFold.
Here's a quick look at how Ordinals work. Each bitcoin token (BTC) is broken into smaller units called satoshis, which are serially numbered. Each individual satoshi can be inscribed with content, creating a Bitcoin-native digital artifact. The Ordinals protocol was created by Casey Rodarmor, and was made possible by the Taproot network upgrade. Ordinal NFTs can be kept in Bitcoin wallets and transferred using Bitcoin transactions.
You may be wondering how Bitcoin Ordinal inscriptions are different from traditional NFTs such as ETH or Solana NFTs. There are a few key differences: Ethereum NFTs are enabled by smart contracts, and the metadata lives off-chain, generally on a decentralized storage service such as IPFS. With Ordinals, the metadata lives on-chain, directly inscribed on the Satoshi, and can never be updated or deleted. Because Ordinals live directly on the Bitcoin network where block size is limited, the size of the inscription is also limited, meaning creators may have to compress their work to be able to inscribe it and avoid paying very high transaction fees.
Inscribing Ordinals requires a specific set of technical skills, can be quite costly and requires running a Bitcoin node. However, platforms such as Gamma.io quickly rose to release tools allowing creators to inscribe their work and launch their Ordinal collections in minutes, no code needed.
Where can I buy Ordinals?
To purchase these digital assets, you'll need to head over to an Ordinals marketplace and connect your Ordinals wallet to the platform. Several important players in the space launched their Bitcoin NFT marketplaces, such as Gamma.io and Magic Eden. While leading Ethereum NFT marketplace OpenSea doesn't yet support the Bitcoin blockchain, users can trade the wrapped version of their Ordinals using Emblem Vault.
Gamma's trustless Ordinal marketplace
Gamma.io, the leading NFT marketplace for Bitcoin NFTs on the Stacks blockchain, offers several Ordinals services, including a no-code Ordinals launchpad for creators, and an Ordinal marketplace.
The Ordinals marketplace allows users, collectors and creators to explore, sell, trade and buy crypto assets directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. The Gamma marketplace is built with a Bitcoin L1 infrastructure, meaning it doesn't leverage other chains such as ETH for Ordinal trading.
Gamma puts user safety and creators first, and insures that the platform's solutions will remain trustless over time. Users can confidently participate in decentralized exchanges without compromising their assets. The platform also offers a crypto on-ramp, allowing users to purchase BTC with their fiat (such as USD), directly from the platform. BTC can also be purchased through cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase, which allow for several payment methods such as credit card, apple pay, and more.
Supported Ordinals wallets include Leather and Xverse, as well as Sparrow Wallet which allows for a little more customization.