Auction House Sotheby's Announces First Sale Of Bitcoin Ordinals NFT Art Collection
20 December 2023
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Sotheby's, a renowned auction house, is making history with its first sale of Bitcoin Ordinals, specifically from the "BitcoinShrooms" collection by "Shroomtoshi".
This event marks the public debut of BitcoinShrooms, a series of pixel art pieces that encapsulate Bitcoin's 13-year journey.
Shroomtoshi, the artist behind the collection, remains an enigmatic figure, mirroring Bitcoin's creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
The art pieces delve into Bitcoin's history and principles, using memes and technical concepts.
Shroomtoshi's goal is to educate and provoke thought about Bitcoin, blending critique and appreciation.
Michael Bouhanna of Sotheby's hails Shroomtoshi as a pioneer in the Ordinal ecosystem. The collection resonates with the cryptocurrency spirit, blending nostalgia with sharp references.
Three pieces from the BitcoinShrooms collection were put up for sale: "S," "The Sovereign Individual," and "BIP39 Seed."
Each artwork was priced between $20,000 and $30,000.
Uniquely, Sotheby's accepted cryptocurrency bids.
Bitcoin Ordinals are unique digital assets on the Bitcoin blockchain, akin to NFTs.
They emerged after the Bitcoin network's Taproot upgrade in November 2021.
Ordinals, inscribed on satoshis (the smallest Bitcoin unit), bear unique serial numbers and can host content like images or text, making each one distinct.
However, the rise in Bitcoin's value and the popularity of Ordinals has led to increased network fees and congestion.
This has sparked debates within the Bitcoin community, with some criticizing Ordinals for straining the blockchain and inflating transaction costs.
Critics view Ordinals as exploiting a vulnerability in Bitcoin Core, thereby spamming the blockchain. Read more here.
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What Is Zucoin's Solution To Bitcoin's Ordinals NFT Congestion Issue?
The recent exposure of the BitcoinShrooms collection at Sotheby's represents yet another notable turning point in the world of cryptocurrencies.
It shows the march of crypto acceptance continues forward, albeit bumpy and chaotic.
But, the Bitcoin Ordinals project has sparked disputes in the Bitcoin community.
Unlike Bitcoin Ordinals, which overloads the Bitcoin blockchain and raises transaction fees, Zucoins' Splitchain network allows for value exchange without the in-built layer-1 transaction costs.
Zucoin's SplitChain architecture, being more scalable and efficient, offers a solution to the issues highlighted by Bitcoin's recent congestion due to Ordinals.
Zucoin, as regular readers will know by now, has no mining process to validate transactions.
It's done by peers amongst themselves, such as on a smartphone device equipped with the Zucoin wallet app.
As Bitcoin transaction fees soar, the efficient and cost-effective nature of Zucoin's network becomes increasingly relevant.
SplitChain's design enables faster transaction processing, lessens the data load on individual nodes, and dispenses with the need for consensus-based validation, a process that often slows down blockchain networks like Bitcoin's.
As Bitcoin Ordinals directly put all of the data on the blockchain, Splitchain can accommodate various data and transaction types without storing the data on-chain.
This is a far more scalable and practical solution for larger types of content like groups of images or even videos.
This adaptability allows for more ad-hoc transfers and data ownership checks, making things like smart assets, including areas such as tokenization and NFTs, far more useful and capable.
Moreover, Zucoin's Progressive Web Application (PWA) wallet, which stores transaction history and cryptographic keys locally, aligns with the ethos of digital sovereignty mirrored in the BitcoinShrooms collection.
The Zucoin wallet will allow users to keep their smart assets on their own devices, instead of keeping the bulk of them on-chain.
It removes the need for network validators to hold the data, as in the case of traditional blockchains.
The mechanisms being used will be covered in future newsletters, so make sure you've subscribed if you haven't already.
This approach helps users control their data and transactions, resonating with the "self-sovereignty" goal of Zucoin.
When Zucoin releases its finalized "smart asset" abilities, it'll showcase a different way of handling NFTs.
As they continue to progress, Zucoin aims to be accepted by a broader range of businesses for buying and selling goods and services, especially as tokenized digital assets, emphasizing the versatility of the Splitchain network.
It's not only a matter of making Zucoin efficient, but also being easy enough for everyday consumers and software developers to start experimenting and utilizing Zucoin's capabilities in interesting ways, minimizing congestion issues plaguing traditional blockchains.
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All the best,
—Rob
MyZucoins
Disclaimer: Of course, this is not advice, financial or otherwise. It’s also important to consider the risks and challenges associated with any potential benefits.