In a recent episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Elon Musk, owner of X (Twitter) and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, critiqued non-fungible tokens (NFTs) while inadvertently shedding light on the potential of Bitcoin Ordinals, also known as Bitcoin NFTs.
Musk’s argument on the October 31 episode was straightforward: “The funny thing is the NFT is not even on the blockchain — it’s just a URL to the JPEG. If the company housing the image goes out of business, you don’t have the image anymore.”
While Musk’s remarks addressed a pertinent issue in the NFT space, a solution may already exist. In the wake of the podcast episode, a wave of Bitcoin enthusiasts on social media swiftly contended that Musk had unintentionally endorsed Bitcoin NFTs.
Bitcoin NFTs, introduced by developer Casey Rodarmor on January 21, 2023, empower users to securely attach various data, including images and videos, to the blockchain.
One Bitcoin enthusiast, known as Leonidas, an influential supporter of Ordinals, even inscribed the Musk podcast episode video clip into the Bitcoin blockchain. He shared it on X, commenting “so that this shows up in Elon’s timeline and he learns about how Bitcoin NFTs (Ordinals) are stored fully on-chain forever.”
The number of Ordinal Inscriptions on Bitcoin has already surpassed 36 million, according to Dune analytics. In fact, since their inception, Bitcoin NFTs have gained traction within the NFT community and have already been adopted by many companies.
In March, Magic Eden introduced a Bitcoin NFT marketplace for digital artifacts, the first fully audited platform in the Bitcoin Ordinals ecosystem. In May, Binance added Bitcoin NFTs into its NFT Marketplace.
Additionally, Asprey and Bugatti launched generative Egg NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain in April, while Yuga Labs introduced the TwelveFold NFT Bitcoin auction in March, raising over $16 million.
