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Ethereum users have been given another way to create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other digital assets on the blockchain with the launch of a new protocol.
Launched on June 17, the protocol, dubbed “Ethscriptions”, is a nod to the Bitcoin (BTC) Ordinals protocol, where the assets are known as “inscriptions”.
Ethscriptions was developed by music website Genius.com co-founder Tom Lehman, who uses the Twitter handle Middlemarch. Lehman announced the project as a “huge success” in a series of tweets on June 17 and noted that almost 30,000 Ethscriptions were created within the first 18 hours of the protocol’s launch.
With almost 30k Ethscriptions in <18 hours, the launch was a huge success!
Thank you for seeing the massive potential here!
I am on Ethscriptions 24/7, but I need your help!
DM @proroketh to join our protocol Twitter chat. Ideas, bug reports, NO alpha, NO trading, NERDS ONLY! pic.twitter.com/udKdsVT0L8
— Middlemarch (@dumbnamenumbers) June 17, 2023
According to Lehamn, Ethscriptions assets use Ethereum’s “call data” — data within a smart contract — to provide a “cheaper” and “more decentralized” mining process compared to conventional smart contract-based methods.
Currently, users can only post captions as images, but Lehamn says the protocol will allow uploading different types of files in the future. Currently, users can “encrypt” any image that is less than 96 kilobytes in size.
Lehman’s debut project on the Ethscriptions protocol, dubbed “Ethereum Punks”, generated a significant positive response from the community, with all 10,000 assets being claimed almost instantly.
Introducing Ethscriptions: a new way of creating and sharing digital artifacts on Ethereum using transaction calldata.https://t.co/XfQ7RdtblD
ALSO: Introducing Ethereum Punks. Because why should all non-contract Punk happen collecting on Bitcoin?https://t.co/d3Ycwbdc2Z…
— Middlemarch (@dumbnamenumbers) June 16, 2023
Lehman added that the launch of the project caused such user activity that the API for the official Ethscriptions website was temporarily down.
Related: Bitcoin Ordinals to merge Ethereum NFTs with BRC-721E launch
Due to the already existing infrastructure that allows the creation of NFTs and other digital assets on the Ethereum network, it is not clear if Ethscriptions will have the same level of popularity as Bitcoin Ordinals.
In less than six months, the total number of serial numbers registered in bitcoin has grown from zero to ten million. The huge surge in activity was due in large part to the fact that users embraced the novelty of being able to mint assets, which later included brand new tokens — in line with the BRC-20 token standard — on the Bitcoin network.
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