The Ordinals ecosystem during the holidays seems relatively dull, with the following major developments:

- Ordinals protocol founder Casey Rodarmor listened to the community's opinions and promised to work hard to maintain the stability of positive inscription numbers, and the dispute over the variability of "inscription numbers" came to an end. (Recommended reading: Ordinals "inscription numbers" re-emerge variability dispute: Preserve culture or develop technology?)

- Although Casey is unsure whether creating a new FT protocol for Bitcoin is a good thing and has a negative attitude towards FT, he still took action. Casey created a Github page for the Rune Protocol, and related discussions have been launched on it. (Recommended reading: Bitcoin's new FT protocol appears, Ordinals founder can no longer tolerate BRC)

But the most interesting thing is that during the week of September 25th - October 2nd, the cost of casting picture inscriptions finally accounted for more than 50% of all inscription casting costs that week, reaching 65.2%. This is the first counterattack of picture inscriptions against BRC-20 coin inscriptions since the end of April.

The minting of BRC-20 Token $SATS, which lasted for more than half a year, has finally come to an end. As a "social experiment" with high hopes, $SATS swallowed up more than 10 million US dollars to complete the entire minting, but the final market performance was disappointing. The lack of new hot spots, coupled with the impact of Casey's Rune Protocol concept on BRC-20, BRC-20 finally cooled down.

The cooling of BRC-20 has also caused the overall cooling of the Ordinals ecosystem. From the data, we can clearly see that BRC-20 is the biggest contributor and "engine" for the Ordinals protocol to go viral.

After all $SATS were minted on September 24, the daily gas cost of the Ordinals protocol dropped rapidly. Compared with the gas cost consumed on September 24, the highest drop was more than 90%.

From September 25 to October 2, the ratio of cumulative new BRC-20 mint inscriptions to cumulative new pictorial inscriptions narrowed to about 4.38:1, the closest ratio since late April.

Regarding this on-chain situation, Casey said, "It is recovering." It seems that my statement in my previous article introducing Rune Protocol that Casey's firing on BRC-20 was "scraping the bone to cure the poison" is quite accurate...

Of course, if we only rely on the temporary unilateral cooling of BRC-20, we cannot declare that the Ordinals ecosystem has ushered in the victory of "art". In addition to the above data, there are two interesting phenomena worthy of our attention:

- The “Prints” feature on the Bitcoin NFT trading market Gamma.io is gaining more and more attention

- The popularity of Bitcoin NFT projects has spread to the emergence of new BRC-20 Tokens

Gamma.io’s “Prints”

Let’s talk about Gamma.io’s “Prints” feature first. I have always hoped that there would be a platform on Bitcoin similar to Zora/Manifold that allows creators to quickly issue Open Edition NFT series. Gamma.io’s “Prints” feature basically realizes the experience of Zora/Manifold for collectors.

Gamma.io’s “Prints” feature

For creators who want to use the "Prints" function, they must first apply to Gamma.io to participate in the artist cooperation program. Once successfully selected for the program, creators can use the "Prints" function to issue Open Edition on Bitcoin, and Gamma.io will also provide a series of support from publicity to offline activities and exhibitions.

I bought two works using the “Prints” feature, one of which was an ACSM by Nullish, one of the most influential artists in the Bitcoin NFT community. The original version of this work was inscribed on rare satoshis and sold successfully for 0.48 BTC, and then another 299 versions were created with recursive inscriptions and sold through Gamma.io’s “Prints” feature for 75,000 satoshis (about $20), which sold out in just over a minute.

Another influential artist in the Bitcoin NFT circle, @billyrestey, followed suit and also issued 50 copies of "ENTROPY" on Gamma.io, each priced at 121,000 satoshis (about US$30), which were also successfully sold out.

When recursive inscriptions first came out, I immediately thought of a new solution for Open Edition on Bitcoin. Now, Gamma.io is expected to break out of the fierce competition in the Bitcoin NFT trading market through the "Prints" function and catalyze the creator ecosystem of Bitcoin NFT.

First there was the "goose", then there was the "goose coin"

The "goose" is actually a very typical Ordinals hype model - information asymmetry, concentrated chips, and almost no investment and huge profits after fission (the cost of burning is very low). Since the Ordinals ecosystem is still relatively cold, players who have been following this circle for a long time often feel that "it's difficult to start a pot, but once it's started, it can be eaten for three years."

The cost of a goose can be as low as less than 1 U per piece, and at its peak, one piece can be worth 40+ U. Look at this series with a total of 10K, and only 1.2K holders...

"Goose" is not actually an NFT project specifically issued by an artist on Bitcoin. In fact, it is not an NFT project specifically issued by an artist on a specific chain.

The "goose dad" is the famous generative artist Dmitri Chernia, the creator of "Ringers", one of the star projects on Art Blocks. In June this year, Ringers#879was sold at a Sotheby's auction for $5.4 million (a total price of $6.2 million including the buyer's commission), creating the second highest transaction amount of generative art in history. Its new owner is the famous crypto collector @punk6529, and its previous owner is the bankrupt 3AC. The auction of Ringers#879is part of the liquidation of 3AC NFT assets.

Ringers#879is also known as "The Goose". Look, doesn't it look like a cute goose?

But "The Goose" is valuable not because it is "rare" like the rarity system of PFP-type NFTs, but because the randomness and unpredictability of generative art make "The Goose" the crystallization of countless wonderful coincidences.

In honor of Ringers#879"The Goose", Dmitri Chernia set up the following theme in the MoMA Postcard Project: What would you do if you designed a simple, 10 x 10 pixel, 10K PFP with the theme of "goose" for MoMA? Other artists in the project used the generator he provided to create "goose".

(Here is a brief introduction to MoMA Postcard: It should be the most influential case of an art museum exploring the world of NFTs in reality. 15 artists collaborated across 35 cities, 11 countries and 5 continents. Each artist proposed a creative theme, and each artist contributed a work to the creative theme of others, and finally gathered into 15 MoMA Postcards with different themes.)

"Goose" is very popular, but what really made it a hype-worthy thing in Bitcoin NFT is that the founder of BRC-20 @domodata tweeted that it would be interesting to make a "First is First" 10K "Goose" series.

The "goose" is CC0, so there is no problem in directly using the generator provided by Dmitri Chernia to make a bunch of "geese" and then selling them. As for why the "goose" has risen so much? To be honest, I think it is FOMO caused by information asymmetry. People still know too little about NFT art (including myself)... I have indeed seen many friends who directly said that the "goose" was made by a big-name artist and then rushed to buy it, without understanding the ins and outs of this thing at all.

But then again, if we figure out everything before we go in, we will not be Degen. Grasping the simple logic of domo "calling orders" is enough to move towards the right direction in the confusion, and run out of the battlefield before other players in the chaos with the spoils.

The popularity of "Goose" has led to the emergence of several BRC-20 Tokens, including $HONK and $GOOS. The popularity of Bitcoin NFT projects has spilled over to the emergence of new BRC-20 Tokens. The last time such a situation occurred was when Taproot Wizards caused FOMO for $WZRD. It has been a long time since we have seen it...

(Image source: @GeniiData)

First there was the "goose", then there was the "goose coin". In the attention economy, whether it is a picture or a token, as long as there is heat, there is room. Some people say that the 10K "goose" series on Bitcoin has a much higher transaction volume than the 879 "goose" series on Ethereum, so Bitcoin NFT wins this time. I just want to say that you can avoid being overly optimistic by understanding the 10K "goose" as BRC-20. Many artists on Ethereum have created theme artworks for the "goose". Although this time it did not cause such a high wealth effect, this constantly accumulating and growing crypto art culture atmosphere is the core competitiveness of Ethereum NFT.

The last interesting thing is that Domo's voice advertised the 10K "goose" series, while Casey's tweet was equivalent to advertising $HONK. Did these two guys swap souls?

Conclusion

Is the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem returning from a "big casino" to an "art gallery"? This is definitely temporary. However, at least it has become more interesting than the dullness of the past few months...

What we should pay attention to:

- Progress on Runestone Protocol?

- Which new crypto artists who mainly use Bitcoin NFTs will stand out with Gamma.io’s “Prints”?

For me, who firmly believes that "creators are the core competitiveness of the NFT ecosystem", Bitcoin NFT still has a long way to go, but it seems to have finally made a good start.