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Bitcoin Ordinals have taken over Web3 \u2014 at least, that\u2019s how it seems. The space has been buzzing since software engineer Casey Rodarmor launched the protocol<\/a> on January 21, with some excited<\/a> about the new upgrade and others swearing Ordinals off entirely<\/a>. Despite all the notoriety, fewer than<\/a> 40,000 Ordinals exist at the time of writing. <\/p>\n So why are Ordinals so scarce? The vast majority of people simply don\u2019t yet know how to buy them, let alone create them. With higher barriers to entry, that means potential opportunities abound. But it also means higher risks. If you\u2019re ready to take that chance and embrace the potential of Ordinals, we\u2019re here to guide you on how to find, buy, and store them safely. First, it\u2019s essential to understand a few critical points about Ordinals that the average NFT enthusiast might not know.<\/p>\n Each Bitcoin is broken into 100,000,000 units called satoshis (or sats). The new Ordinals protocol<\/a> allows people who operate Bitcoin nodes to inscribe each sat with data, creating something called an Ordinal. That data inscribed on Bitcoin can include smart contracts<\/a>, which in turn enables NFTs. In rough terms, Ordinals are NFTs you can mint directly onto the Bitcoin blockchain.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not exactly <\/em>right. That\u2019s the short-hand understanding, but there are a few important differences between NFTs and Ordinals.<\/p>\n NFTs on Ethereum (or an Ethereum Virtual Machine<\/a> blockchain) often point to off-chain data on the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) \u2014 a decentralized file storage system, sort of like the Blockchain\u2019s hard drive \u2014 that can be changed using dynamic metadata. To illustrate, some NFT projects update the metadata of individual NFTs to improve image quality. They might even ask their holders to click the \u201crefresh metadata\u201d button on OpenSea to get the new, higher-quality image.<\/p>\n This ability to change an NFT\u2019s metadata alludes to a deficiency Rodarmor was trying to improve when he created the new protocol. In Rodarmor\u2019s estimation, NFTs are \u201cincomplete\u201d because many require off-chain data. On the other hand, Ordinals are \u201ccomplete\u201d in that all the data is inscribed directly on-chain. That\u2019s why Rodarmor refers to them as digital artifacts, not NFTs. Moreover, NFTs often have creator royalties attached to them, whereas digital artifacts do not. According to Rodarmor<\/a>, an Ordinal \u201cis intended to reflect what NFTs should be, sometimes are, and what inscriptions always are, by their very nature.\u201d<\/p>\n All this to say that Ordinals on Bitcoin may not only signal a cultural change for Bitcoin<\/a>\u2014they may actually be a technical improvement on NFTs. With that as the backdrop, here\u2019s how to buy, receive, and store your first ordinals.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t yet hold Ordinals in a browser wallet like MetaMask. You must set up a Bitcoin wallet that allows enough customization to receive Ordinal inscriptions. Sparrow fits that bill.<\/p>\n Sparrow wallet is a desktop application that requires a handful of steps to make it compatible with Ordinals.<\/p>\n If you follow this guide, you should not send BTC to or from this Ordinals wallet<\/strong>. This wallet is only for receiving Ordinals. If you send BTC from this new Ordinals wallet, you may accidentally send both your BTC and your Ordinal(s).<\/p>\n Now that you have your wallet set up, you have three options for getting an Ordinal:<\/p>\n We won\u2019t go into the technical details of running a Bitcoin node. If you already run your own node, we can reasonably infer you can figure this stuff out for yourself. Let\u2019s focus on the other two options, keeping in mind that this is all very new and risky. There are no major Ordinals marketplaces yet, so a great deal of trust and caution is required to proceed.<\/p>\n The Ordinals market is purely OTC, peer-to-peer right now.<\/p>\n An important note: <\/strong>Buying Ordinals OTC will require you to break almost every rule you\u2019ve ever heard about not get scammed in Web3<\/a>: you might have to connect with people on Discord, send money before receiving an Ordinal, conduct direct transactions with other people, etc. We cannot emphasize enough how much caution is required here.<\/strong> Remember, only ever risk what you may be willing to lose. <\/p>\n If you\u2019d like to create your own Ordinal but don\u2019t want to run a Bitcoin node, several services have already popped up to inscribe Ordinals for you.<\/p>\n These services will ask you to provide the BTC address where you\u2019d like to receive your Ordinal. You\u2019ll use your address from the new Ordinal wallet you created in Sparrow. They\u2019ll also provide you with the number of sats you owe for the transaction plus a service fee, as well as an address for you to send the BTC to. The transactions can range from less than $50 in BTC to several hundred dollars, depending on your file size.<\/p>\n If you send the BTC, and this trust-heavy transaction goes according to plan, you won\u2019t receive your Ordinal in your wallet in seconds or minutes. It could take hours or days.<\/p>\n As you can see, if you want to be early in the Ordinals market \u2014 like \u201cout of bed before the rooster crows\u201d early \u2014 you\u2019ll have to string together a web of tedious tasks to make it happen. But that opportunity could be worth it. Just be careful and learn what you can before venturing forward. Ready to dive deeper? We recommend going directly to the source: Rodarmor\u2019s Ordinal Theory Handbook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nWhat are Ordinals?<\/h2>\n
How are Ordinals different from NFTs?<\/h2>\n
Step 1: Set up a sparrow wallet<\/h2>\n
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Step 2: Set up your wallet(s)<\/h2>\n
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The three paths forward<\/h3>\n
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Step 3: Find Ordinals on Discord<\/h2>\n
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Step 4: Use a service to inscribe an Ordinal for you<\/h2>\n
Tedious, risky, and full of potential\u00a0<\/h2>\n