Those %$@#& ordinals, how popular are they?

[PepeLapiu]

So those ordinals suddenly got very popular at the halveving, which caused fees to go way up for a little while. And on Mempool.space, you could see a lot of tx's were OP_Return tx.

And right now, fees are pretty good at around 4-10 SATs/vB. So I assume the ordinals craves subsided somewhat.

Now, I don't understand what an OP_Return tx is for. But I understand that an OP_Return tx can be a valid non-ordinal transaction, but an ordinal is always an OP_Return tx.

And so, we can pretty much visually gauge how many OP_Return tx's there are by clicking on each tx in a block. But that only tells me if a tx is OP_Return of not, it doesn't tell me if a tx is an ordinal or not.

So how much room are ordinals taking up on an average block? How much of a blockchain real estate problem are they, really?

[ABCbits]

Now, I don't understand what an OP_Return tx is for.

OP_RETURN is used to store arbitary data. It's used as measure to discourage people stop abusing address to store arbitrary data which create unspendable UTXO.

But I understand that an OP_Return tx can be a valid non-ordinal transaction, but an ordinal is always an OP_Return tx.

Actually Ordinals use Taproot's redeem script, while Runes use OP_RETURN. But both of them created by Casey Rodarmor.

So how much room are ordinals taking up on an average block?

Visit https://dune.com/cryptokoryo/runes and see chart "Share of transactions".

How much of a blockchain real estate problem are they, really?

IIRC nobody use either Ordinals or Runes to manage real estate. Those usually used to create NFT, token or add arbitrary data.

[NotATether]

But I understand that an OP_Return tx can be a valid non-ordinal transaction, but an ordinal is always an OP_Return tx.

Actually Ordinals use Taproot's redeem script, while Runes use OP_RETURN. But both of them created by Casey Rodarmor.

Why, exactly, did he want to revert to using OP_RETURN for Runes after Taproot's redeem script was doing very well for Ordinals at the beginning?

[PepeLapiu]

IIRC nobody use either Ordinals or Runes to manage real estate. Those usually used to create NFT, token or add arbitrary data.

I didn't mean real estate in terms of buildings and land, but in terms of block space.

[Ambatman]

But I understand that an OP_Return tx can be a valid non-ordinal transaction, but an ordinal is always an OP_Return tx.

Actually Ordinals use Taproot's redeem script, while Runes use OP_RETURN. But both of them created by Casey Rodarmor.

Why, exactly, did he want to revert to using OP_RETURN for Runes after Taproot's redeem script was doing very well for Ordinals at the beginning?

Because implementing via OP Return is simpler and would boost adoption since most individual are familiar with the script code.

So how much room are ordinals taking up on an average block?

It depends on the popularity and network activity at the period
The more the interest
The higher the space occupied.
It can be checked in Block explorer.

[PepeLapiu]

Actually Ordinals use Taproot's redeem script, while Runes use OP_RETURN. But both of them created by Casey Rodarmor.

I don't care. It's all shitcoinery to me.
My hope is that those shitcoiners lose a lot of money and end up walking away from bitcoin. Go back to the kiddy table. Grown ups don't have time for them.
I listened to Rodarmor on a few podcasts. The guy is an idiot, or trying to be seen as an idiot.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

How popular are they? Enough that some fools are spending $$$$ on them - Block 868188 had 10.442 BTC in fees and the few before and after it were nothing to sneeze at either...

[nutildah]

As a general rule of thumb, I would expect the "first" or early Ordinals to retain some value as collector's items whereas the rest will trend to zero along with 99.9% of all other NFTs. How many are considered to be early? Honestly I'd say the 1st 10,000 or so. It sounds like a lot but most of these aren't gonna be up for sale. There will always be a market for at least some of the early ordinals, especially those with single to triple digit inscription numbers.

[franky1]

popular?.. not much, if any..
people need to realise its only a couple idiots creating all this junk, its not millions of individuals
what they do is they set up a false market. sell crap to themselves to st a fake price and hope scam victims then buy the crap from them ..

when a couple scam victims do buy this fake crap, this justifies them wasting fee's to create more junk to scam more people
..

usefulness of opreturn vs script.. well script is just treated as appended junk data to end of tx thats not blockchain ruled associated with any unspent utxo of said same tx.. however opreturn is just dead immovable(unspendable) junk data too, just with limited space.. in short, both worthless

[FortuneFollower]

As a general rule of thumb, I would expect the "first" or early Ordinals to retain some value as collector's items whereas the rest will trend to zero along with 99.9% of all other NFTs. How many are considered to be early? Honestly I'd say the 1st 10,000 or so. It sounds like a lot but most of these aren't gonna be up for sale. There will always be a market for at least some of the early ordinals, especially those with single to triple digit inscription numbers.

Totally.
Just like with the memes, only the first going onto the board would be able at least to come off unscratched.
Others are going to the sharks  Though I never looked at Runes closely.

[examplens]

usefulness of opreturn vs script.. well script is just treated as appended junk data to end of tx thats not blockchain ruled associated with any unspent utxo of said same tx.. however opreturn is just dead immovable(unspendable) junk data too, just with limited space.. in short, both worthless

We certainly cannot ignore the fact that they occupied a part of Bitcoin history, regardless of whether they ended up in the trash. I can't say that I feel bad about it, I'm quite against the tokenization of the Bitcoin network.

[nutildah]

Though I never looked at Runes closely.

Runes just seems like unapologetically full-tilt degen mode brought to Bitcoin. Absolutely zero pretense of any kind of utility whatsoever. Its just part of the hyper-gambling which has sadly defined crypto culture in 2024. Its not sustainable. I expect all Runes to trend to zero at a faster rate than ordinals.

[Darker45]

They aren't popular. They come and go very quickly. If what's happening around is true, then perhaps there's a very tiny niche or community that truly loves and supports them. But since Ordinals and Runes and other NFTs are already reaching to the tens of billions, I smell something fishy. There must be something going on here. With all the inflated prices and the easy-money and get-rich-quick kinds of things, a lot of dirty money might have been washed clean in the process. Or perhaps I'm just underestimating the craziness of men.

[pooya87]

I wouldn't call them popular, it is the same hype cycle we saw with ICO scams. Initially when the ICOs became hyped up, there were a lot of gamblers buying into them and we saw a lot of pumps. But eventually it started dying because in reality they are useless garbage!

But that didn't mean the end of the scam/hype. They kept changing the name and making small changes to produce something that looked new but in reality it was the same useless garbage that encouraged newbies to "bet" on with their hard earned money!

Code:

ICO -> IDO -> IBO -> IEO -> ITO -> STO -> DeFi -> NFT

That "disease" has reached Bitcoin despite the fact that unlike token creation platforms you CANNOT create tokens on bitcoin blockchain and within its consensus rules.

[BlackBoss_]

Actually Ordinals use Taproot's redeem script, while Runes use OP_RETURN. But both of them created by Casey Rodarmor.

IIRC nobody use either Ordinals or Runes to manage real estate. Those usually used to create NFT, token or add arbitrary data.

A same creator for both Ordinals and Runes to steal money from greed people who want to get rich but want to use bitcoins to purchases these tokens and useless NFTs than hold their bitcoins for profit and get richer.

Runes are now worthless and have killed Ordinals too.

The bull run is going so people are going with greed and chance to be rich with Ordinals and Runes. When a bear market comes in likely 2026 and 2027, they will be given hard lessons to learn. Useless tokens, NFTs will plummet in price in many bearish months and it's hard for me to believe they will be able to come back in a next market cycle.

[ABCbits]

But I understand that an OP_Return tx can be a valid non-ordinal transaction, but an ordinal is always an OP_Return tx.

Actually Ordinals use Taproot's redeem script, while Runes use OP_RETURN. But both of them created by Casey Rodarmor.

Why, exactly, did he want to revert to using OP_RETURN for Runes after Taproot's redeem script was doing very well for Ordinals at the beginning?

I don't remember why. But Ordinals require you to create 2 TX, where 1st TX send Bitcoin to specific Taproot address (with custom script) and 2nd TX reveal the custom script which contain arbitrary data. Meanwhile Runes only require you to create 1 TX.

[Ambatman]

How popular are they? Enough that some fools are spending $$$$ on them - Block 868188 had 10.442 BTC in fees and the few before and after it were nothing to sneeze at either...

Humans are quite creative in creating ways to scam one another
So this ain't the end of this parasitic dance.

There must be something going on here. With all the inflated prices and the easy-money and get-rich-quick kinds of things, a lot of dirty money might have been washed clean in the process. Or perhaps I'm just underestimating the craziness of men.

A possibility but most just dive in because it promises overnight wealth(greed).
Never trusted and never would trust anything that promises getting risk quick.

Shitcoins, NFTs, ordinals and whatever they are called or would be called would come and would go
And people would get rich by extorting others and the extorted and future extortee would never learn.
TON tokens were hyped few months ago
Now check their pefomance.

[nutildah]

I wouldn't call them popular

But they are popular -- we're still seeing mempool spikes because of the fact that they are popular. For a long while Ordinals transactions were the brunt of Bitcoin transactions. They also onboarded a new breed of Bitcoin user. You don't have to like it but those are the facts.

That "disease" has reached Bitcoin despite the fact that unlike token creation platforms you CANNOT create tokens on bitcoin blockchain and within its consensus rules.

You just contradicted yourself here. The "disease" has reached bitcoin even though according to you its not possible, LOL.

[mindrust]

They are not popular on my part. I never wondered what they are about, never had the need of using them, still don't know about them completely. I understand that they made the bitcoin fees more expensive and that's enough to make me hate them and for this reason I don't like whoever is using them too. It is a waste of resources and bandwith and block space.

I wish it never existed.

Bitcoin fees are cheap lately though. Hopefully it will stay like that. Otherwise people will leave btc for alts.

[pooya87]

That "disease" has reached Bitcoin despite the fact that unlike token creation platforms you CANNOT create tokens on bitcoin blockchain and within its consensus rules.

You just contradicted yourself here. The "disease" has reached bitcoin even though according to you its not possible, LOL.

Token creation is not possible on Bitcoin simply because the protocol does not have that kind of capabilities (for good reasons). The disease is not token creation, it is the scammers creating a useless garbage (the arbitrary data being injected in to the blockchain in this case) and selling to newbies who don't know any better.

Of course, you already know this better than I do. You just love the scam opportunities the Ordinals Attack/exploit provided