After the Ordinal inscription process gained significant traction on the Bitcoin blockchain with more than 800,000 inscriptions to date, a new trend of non-fungible token (NFT) technology has emerged called Bitcoin Stamps. The image-storing technique is a new way of storing images on Bitcoin, and so far, more than 8,000 stamps have been minted.
From Ordinals to Stamps: A New Way to Store Images on Bitcoin Materializes
Bitcoin enthusiasts have been introduced to a new method of storing images on the Bitcoin network that’s different from the Ordinal inscription process that has become a popular trend in recent months.
The new Bitcoin Stamp scheme was created by the Twitter user Mike in Space, and a summary of the project is hosted on Github. Basically, the technology provides a way to split an image into numerous unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) by encoding it in Base64 text and leveraging the Counterparty protocol to broadcast it to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Stamps cannot be pruned like witness or signature data, and creating a Stamp is pricier than Ordinal inscriptions. Because of the expense, the Github summary of Bitcoin Stamps says, “the fewer the bytes, the better,” and recommends using “24×24 pixel, 8-color-depth PNG or GIF” files.
On March 31, 2023, the first 600 Bitcoin Stamps were stamped, and as of writing, there’s more than 8,000 stamps. A directory of Bitcoin Stamps is hosted at stampchain.io, and the project also has support from Counterparty’s xchain.io. There are also collections like Pixel Gods, and Bitcoin Stamps can be found on the Counterparty assets portal kaleidoscopexcp.com.
You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.#Bitcoin Stamps pic.twitter.com/xzpjR7sZCC
— Mike In Space! (@mikeinspace) April 3, 2023
The first Bitcoin Stamp, Stamp 0, was created four weeks ago on March 7, 2023, at 1:19 a.m. UTC. Of course, similar to Ordinals, there has been criticism of Bitcoin Stamps. When Mike in Space shared an image of a flow chart showing Bitcoin Stamp transactions, one person replied, “This is intentionally bloating the UTXO set rather than putting data in the witness… Why would you do this…?”
Mike responded, saying, “Witness data is prunable. The intent is permanence.” Others were enthusiastic about the project and asked how they could participate. Despite some opposition, at the end of the day, anyone can mint Bitcoin Stamps at any time without permission.
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