TL;DR
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As of Saturday, a new protocol called Ethscriptions on the Ethereum blockchain has become available.
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While today the protocol only allows for images, users can inscribe any type of file under ~90 kilobytes in size, and other types of data (like text) will be coming soon.
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Users have mostly welcomed the new innovation and there’s been over 30k Ethscriptions created in the ~48hrs since it launched.
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Chances are, as with the invention of Bitcoin Ordinals, this will spark a whole bunch of developers to use the Ethereum network in new and innovative ways.
Full Story
If you’re a bit of a degen believer in blockchain technology (like us), you’ll no doubt be familiar with the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol.
(The technology that let people ‘inscribe’ non-financial data on the Bitcoin blockchain – from pictures, to games, and even ‘live snapchat-style webcam filters’).
As of Saturday, a new protocol called Ethscriptions on the Ethereum blockchain has become available.
Here’s how it works:
Ethereum is mostly known for it’s use of smart contracts which are kind of like automated rule sets (if this happens, then do that).
Ethscriptions use Ethereum ‘calldata,’ which is the data provided within a call made to a smart contract.
It takes the ‘rule set,’ and lets you send data directly to a wallet with a 0 ETH transaction.
While today the protocol only allows for images, users can inscribe any type of file under ~90 kilobytes in size, and other types of data (like text) will be coming soon.
Here’s why this matters:
When the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol first launched, it was controversial amongst BTC maxis.
It slowed down the Bitcoin blockchain and resulted in a sharp increase in transaction fees.
However, so far the response to Ethscriptions has been dramatically different.
Users have mostly welcomed the new innovation and there’s been over 30k Ethscriptions created in the ~48hrs since it launched.
This is most likely due to the idea that, while the Bitcoin blockchain has always been known for one thing – sending/receiving BTC – inscribing images is not that wild of a use case for Ethereum users.
As the Ethscriptions founder says: “It’s cheaper and more decentralized than using contract storage.”
Chances are, as with the invention of Bitcoin Ordinals, this will spark a whole bunch of developers to use the Ethereum network in new and innovative ways.
The next best Web3 consumer use case may not be here yet, but this technology may be the push needed to discover it.
