What are Ordinals?

In the most simple terms Ordinals are NFTs on Bitcoin. If you're interested in the technology behind them and why they've only just come about now, there is a good explainer available on Decrypt.

How do you create Ordinals?

While Ordinals are a new technology, the actual content of the NFT can be created in the same way that you would create any other digital content. For example, you might take a photograph, draw an image or render a 3D File. The biggest thing you'll need to keep in mind when creating content specifically for Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs is file size. As Ordinals are stored on the Blockchain itself, space is limited and therefore can get quite expensive.

As an example, the cost to deploy the smart contract for the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club collection was ~0.43 ETH ($1,032.40 then, or $812.64 now). Recently some people took the initiative to move all of the images for this collection onto Bitcoin Ordinals. The process for this required each image to be minted as individual inscriptions. This effort and cost was distributed to the people minting the collection, but cost a total of 39.21 BTC ($1.1 Million USD or ~571.95 ETH). As you can see there is a big difference in costs; 132,912% more expensive to mint the collection on Bitcoin. For that reason alone, you are far less likely to see the traditional 10000 NFT collections popularised on Ethereum finding their way over to Bitcoin. Not to mention that any updates to the metadata require re-inscription. However, the big difference is the data is stored 100% on-chain for Bitcoin, whereas most collections on Ethereum only store a link to a JSON file containing the metadata. If a new standard were developed around this approach then you might see more larger collections, but they would also lose the appeal of having 100% of the data stored on-chain.

Where can you trade Ordinals?

• Magic Eden

• Ordswap

• Gamma.io

• Ordinals Market

How to get Ordinals on the Ethereum chain?

To be clear, Ordinals can exist entirely on the Bitcoin chain. You can transfer them between accounts and there are now multiple marketplaces where you can trade them. However, if you want to bring them into the Ethereum ecosystem, whether to list on OpenSea, or perhaps for a verified NFT photo on Twitter then this section is for you.

The system we're going to use for this is called Emblem.finance and it's important to note this isn't a bridge. Instead, it's a smart contract that generates and encrypted seed phrase for you which is locked on chain. This means, you are relying on the security of the smart contract and its key generation and encryption methods to keep your Ordinals protected. With that said, the collection has over 47,000 ETH of Volume on OpenSea right now and it has stood the test of time for over two years so it should be pretty safe.

How to Create and Load an Emblem Vault

This process may have changed as the Emblem smart contracts have now been updated.

1. Visit Emblem.finance

2. Get 560 COVAL from Uniswap. This is the utility token that you will use to pay for the vault.

3. Connect your Ethereum MetaMask accout to the site

4. Click the 'Create' menu item

5. You want to create a 'Public' vault so people can see that it contains your Ordinal.

6. Enter a Vault Name. This is essentially the title of your NFT on OpenSea and places like that. Emblem recommend that the name is follows this pattern:
   
   COLLECTION NAME #XXXX (BITCOIN PROTOCOL #XXXX)
   
   So in my example this was:
   
   CloneX 18097 x Ordinals #1 (Ordinal Inscription #9888606)
   
   As mine wasn't part of a collection I wasn't sure if it would work but there doesn't appear to be any issues.

7. Enter a vault description. This is what is shown below the image on OpenSea. You literally type what you'd like shown and Emblem will ensure the code is handled and also add a note linking to your Ordinal inscription. I tried to be too clever here and included some special code for new lines which was included literally and meant I had to delete my first vault.

8. Select a vault image:
   
   I uploaded the original image that was submitted when creating the Ordinal in the first place, but you could also embed a URL for the image if you have an on-chain or IPFS gateway source.
   
   Source: https://twitter.com/EmblemVault/status/1661539066394075136

9. This will then show you a preview of your vault title, image and description. Make sure you are happy with how it looks at this stage because this is what will be published.

10. Click on the taproot button to get your deposit address.

11. Send the Ordinal from your XVerse wallet to that address. This will transfer ownership of the Ordinal to the smart contract.

12. Once it has been received, you should see either Ordinal details or a Bitcoin balance in the vault. If you don't see it appear you may need to wait for some confirmations on the Bitcoin network. You can check the status on mempool.space

13. If your transaction has confirmations but isn't showing, then you may need to click the refresh button within the Emblem interface.Once everything looks correct, you will need to Approve COVAL to be spent so that you can pay for the vault. Then you will click to Create the vault, and finally Mint the vault by signing two transactions.

14. Once the Vault has been minted, it will share links to the NFT on OpenSea, LooksRare and Arcade. You can click on these to confirm what it looks like. If your metadata hasn't been populated yet, then click on the refresh icon at the top right of the page, wait a few minutes and then refresh.

Once you have completed this process, you will have inscribed your first Ordinal and migrated it to the Ethereum blockchain. Congratulations on the beginning of your Ordinals adventure.

You can check out my migrated Ordinal here: