Elon Musk Limits NFTs But Ends Arguing Case For Bitcoin Ordinals
While publicly mocking irreversible tokens (NFTs) during a podcast, Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk inadvertently highlighted the issue of Bitcoin Ordinals, also known as Bitcoin NFTs.
“The funny thing is that NFT doesn't even exist on the blockchain — it's just a URL to a JPEG,” Musk said in an Oct. 31 interview on The Joe Rogan Experience.
Musk said NFT projects should at least encrypt JPEG on-chain:
“At least you have to encode the JPEG in the blockchain. If the company that owns the image goes out of business, you don't have the image.”
On social media, Bitcoiners argued that Musk's comments summed up the use case for Bitcoin Ordinals. NFTs version of Bitcoin launched in January by developer Casey Rodermore, made possible by the November 2021 Taproot soft fork.
Cryptocurrency analyst Will Clemente was among those who praised Field's comments, noting that there are 38 million ordinal entries that will live forever on the Bitcoin blockchain.
.@elonmusk You just made the case for Bitcoin ordinals – image/text on the most secure open source monetary network on the planet. There are currently 38 million of these written on the Bitcoin blockchain. pic.twitter.com/WASj1qpkz8
— Will Clemente (@WClementeIII) November 1, 2023
“That's why Ordinals keep growing,” said Rohun “Frank” Vora, creator of NFT projects DeGods and y00ts. “One of the universal criticisms of NFTs is that it's an elegant solution.”
An ordinary developer known as “Leonidas” liked Musk's comment so much that he posted the 19-second video on the Bitcoin blockchain block 814,773:
Criticisms directed at NFTs from the field are not new. In the year In December 2021, it shows a patient lying on a therapist's couch, showing NFTs as a sign of mental illness.
pic.twitter.com/Wv6iJDuTge
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2021
Musk's comments, however, do not hold true for all NFT projects on Ethereum.
For example, Larva Labs moved Cryptopunks NFTs on-chain in August 2021 after living off-chain for the first four years.
“Storing it on-chain in this way strengthens the long-term existence of Cryptopunks images and features, and ensures that anyone with an Ethereum client can fully access it,” Larva Labs said in a statement.
.@elonmusk That's right NFT just providing http link to someone's domain is stupid.
However, with rare exceptions, keeping NFT content on-chain is also unwise;
IPFS links, the content is a natural solution supported by the owner of the NFT.
— Arthur B (@ArthurB) November 1, 2023
Related: Are NFT Markets in a Death Cycle or Ready for a Revival?
Metagood, the team behind Ethereum-based OnChainMonkeys, announced in September that it would be migrating its NFTs to Bitcoin.
While the firm's CEO, Danny Young, did not directly address JPEG's dilemma, he did explain that NFTs will “win over Bitcoin” because it's a more secure network to operate on.
“Bitcoin Ordinal Protocol is designed to be more decentralized and secure than Ethereum's NFT protocol. High value NFTs will win over Bitcoin.”
However, Ethereum still remains home to 84% of all NFT trading volumes, according to CoinGecko, with data from June. Bitcoin and ImmutableX came second and third with 11% and 2.5% market share respectively.
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