Why Yugalabo’s entry into Bitcoin NFT is important[Column]| coindesk JAPAN | Coindesk Japan

It could not be more exciting for Bitcoin.

Yuga Labs, the company behind the popular NFT collection “Bored Ape Yacht Club” with a valuation of $4 billion (approx. Approximately 2.2 billion yen) profit was made.

A collection of 288 NFTs named “TweleveFold” shocked the crypto community.

Yugalabo announced the project launch at the end of February. Yugarabo is a big name in NFT, with 3 of the top 10 most valuable NFT collections currently. The number of NFTs that own intellectual property rights is even higher.

To date, Yugalabo has never issued NFTs outside of the Ethereum blockchain, where the majority of NFTs exist. Some of the biggest companies in the cryptocurrency industry have made big bets on Bitcoin.

Development revives during sluggish period

Interestingly, development on the Bitcoin blockchain is booming during the current crypto market downturn. Even just looking at the recent news, discussions to deploy a ZK (Zero Knowledge) rollup on Bitcoin have emerged, the Ordinals project continues its momentum, and Nostr, the much-talked-about decentralized social media protocol powered by Bitcoin Lightning, also has users. growing in number.

Where did these trends start? For years, people have viewed Bitcoin (BTC) as something of value to some, for reasons they don’t know. This is not because Bitcoin is bad, but because of its careful design and management. Bitcoin is expected to act as a stable currency, and it has done so admirably. But at the same time, people and businesses have continued to wonder if Bitcoin could play a bigger role.

NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain began with a protocol called Counterparty, which was unpopular during the last bull market. Because the Bitcoin blockchain is not smart contract friendly. Developing on the Bitcoin blockchain is more work than developing on a blockchain built to run decentralized applications.

The Ordinals project will leverage a 2021 Bitcoin upgrade called “Taproot” that will allow NFTs to be stored on the actual blockchain.

Will the switch from Ethereum progress?

So-called “Bitcoin NFTs” are significantly different and potentially superior to NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, which often require data to be stored on external servers such as IPFS.

Ethereum NFTs are immutable tokens but linked to mutable data. Ordinals makes NFT storage safer. Because it will be stored forever on the Bitcoin blockchain. Many popular NFTs may follow Yugalabo in developing projects on the Bitcoin blockchain.

In fact, Ordinals developer Casey Rodarmor has created a burn address that allows you to destroy an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain, store it on the Bitcoin blockchain, and redeploy it. Whether or not people and companies will completely abandon Ethereum, Solana, etc. and switch to Bitcoin, there is no denying that a new era has begun for Bitcoin. More and more bitcoin will be used rather than just held.

Yugalabo’s adoption of Ordinals just accelerated a movement that had already begun. For example, Bitcoin ecosystem startup Trust Machines raised $150 million last year.

Over the years, Counterparty, Liquid, Stacks, RSK, Lightning and others have been developing a stable infrastructure that allows people to use Bitcoin.

bright future

Of course, many of these projects have been met with varying levels of skepticism. This boils down to positive comments and negative reactions to the Ordinals.

On the one hand, there are many who believe that Bitcoin should not be a proving ground for development or a testing ground for frivolous projects. On the other hand, others see Ordinals, Nostr, and others as another step toward Bitcoin adoption.

The online Bitcoin community is now at a crossroads. Ordinals don’t disappear quickly. Many people want to develop on the Bitcoin blockchain, and open source makes it possible. According to Glassnode, there is undeniable data that Ordinals has reached an all-time high of 44 million Bitcoin addresses with non-zero balances.

The future of Bitcoin will only become clearer as time goes on. Yugalabo’s foray into Bitcoin is a sign that the future is bright and that there is still much to explore in this exciting and dynamic industry.

Mr. Aubrey Strobel: Host of The Aubservation podcast and former head of communications at Bitcoin rewards company Lolli.

｜Translation and editing: Akiko Yamaguchi, Takayuki Masuda
｜Image: Ordinals Protocol
｜ Original: Why Yuga Labs’ Embrace of Bitcoin NFTs Is a Big Deal