Ordinal Inscriptions on Bitcoin Blockchain Provide Revenue Source for Miners Amidst Bearish 2022

When the East opened for trading on Monday, it marked the start of yet another week in the crypto majors, with Bitcoin and Ethereum trading relatively flat – although there are potentials for both a market-wide rally and a significant price movement. Despite this, the weekend had been a largely uneventful one – that is until the buzz of Meme Coin Mania began to make its way throughout the markets.

Bitcoin’s Supply and Demand: Ordinals, NFTs, and Miners

In the past week alongside a slew of Ether-based NFTs, the Bitcoin blockchain has seen an enormous influx of Ordinal inscriptions – digital assets inscribed on the smallest currency unit of bitcoin, enabled by the Taproot upgrade and allowing for smart contract functionality and NFTs directly onto the blockchain. This surge in new activity has pushed the daily fees of ordinals to just over $2.7 million and their total fees to around $14 million – healthy figures for cash-strapped miners who are struggling with a bleak bearish 2022.

The realm of economic tomes are rife with the on-goings of supply and demand, and yet with the increased demand for bitcoin network space and the resulting rise in transaction fees, members of the Bitcoin community remain divided. On the one hand, you have those who push for Bitcoin’s use solely with financial applications and on the other, you have those who are pleased that the ordinal inscriptions provide a much-needed revenue source for miners and subsequently a more secure network. Then there are the critics who warn against bloating the blockchain, or the potential harm to fungibility.

Uncertainty Abounds: Solutions for Congestion and Bitcoin Price Predictions

Finally, amidst this debate are the solutions readily available. For those discontent with the congested state of the network there are Layers-2s, sidechains and the Lightning Network to name a few. Meanwhile Tony Ling is bullish about the price of bitcoin, expecting to reach between $30,000-$35,000 in the second half of 2024.

So what of the week ahead? With the Bitcoin and Ethereum markets having stayed relatively stable, it truly might be a ‘Boring Weekend’ when all is said and done or could it be a ‘Meme Manic Monday’? The reality is that the market is ever changing and, as always, the only thing certain is the uncertainty.

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Rina Giannino
Journalist venturing into blockchain, Rina has been a follower of the technology since 2019 and finally taken the plunge with a career as a journalist in the industry.