Xverse, billed as a “Bitcoin wallet for Web3,” just rolled out support for Ordinals, the newly popularized protocol allowing users to inscribe NFTs onto the Bitcoin blockchain.
“Today, we’ve launched first class support for Ordinals,” tweeted the wallet team on Wednesday. The company explained that inscribing NFTs through its software involves “no need to run a node, complex software, or anything else,” merely some Bitcoin to pay a transaction fee, which can be bought directly through the app.
Inscriptions are made via Gamma.io, a Bitcoin NFT marketplace that rolled out “no-code ordinal inscriptions” last week. According to Xverse, roughly 5% of Bitcoin inscriptions so far have been made using Gamma’s tool.
After uploading an image and sending a transaction to their provided Ordinals address, users can find their inscriptions inside their Xverse NFT collection within 20 to 30 minutes—and embedded in the blockchain forever.
This comes just a day after Hiro, another Bitcoin focused Web3 wallet, rolled out inscriptions to its testnet on Tuesday. Both wallets interact with Stacks, a “layer 1.5” blockchain with its own NFT economy that settles its transactions on Bitcoin.
Xverse, too, lets Bitcoin users interact with Stacks, with plans to introduce instant payments via the lightning network.
Bitcoin recently logged its 100,000th Ordinals transaction, continuing a trend of exponential growth. Given that NFTs on Bitcoin were not a feature envisioned by its original developers, their existence has naturally sparked controversy, with many people unsure of whether they will hurt or help the network.
Stacks co-creator Muneeb Ali said he welcomes the new protocol, stating that it marks a “new chapter in Bitcoin history” on Tuesday. The following day, he said that Xverse’s Bitcoin wallet now has the “easiest on-ramp to ordinals.”
Ken Liao, the founder and CEO of Xverse wallet (aka Secret Key Labs), said that the ability to send out one’s ordinal from the wallet will be available soon. Liao was formerly an engineering parter at Stacks.
Its out! The easiest way to inscribe Bitcoin Ordinals and store in your self-custody BTC wallet with a beautiful gallery for all your NFTs. https://t.co/xgEcEJXlX8
— kenliao.btc (@YukanL) February 15, 2023
According to Liao, the rise of Ordinals is helping bring builders back into Bitcoin's ecosystem, and showing that the network is capable of more than allowing people to "just hold Bitcoin."
"You've always been able to put data on the Bitcoin chain, but in a very limited way," said Liao, in comments shared with Decrypt via email. "Ordinals made it easier and created a cultural movement essentially for people to do this."