A Bitcoin “epic satoshi,” or a particularly rare version of the smallest denomination of BTC, was sold for 33.3 BTC in April—around $2.1 million at the time. Now it has been used to inscribe an Ordinals asset with music and the AI-generated voice of Canadian electronic pop artist Grimes (aka Claire Boucher).
An “epic satoshi,” or “epic sat,” is an extremely rare satoshi—that is, 1/100,000,000 of a BTC—that is generated during each Bitcoin halving. The quadrennial event cuts the amount of Bitcoin earned by miners (who support the network) in half. And those epic sats are said to be particularly valuable to collectors when NFT-like Ordinals are inscribed on them.
Bitcoin Ordinals project Book of Blob inscribed its artwork on the latest epic sat via inscription 70,634,325, which was inscribed on Sunday. The “Spikes” collection inscribed from the epic satoshi comes by way of the pseudonymous Nuro, who says they’re a doctor turned Bitcoin enthusiast and founder of Nuro Realm, Cypherpunk Labs, and the Blob Army.
Nuro explained that the "Spikes" collection delves into the exploration of the mind, brain, and reality while preserving consciousness on Bitcoin. He added that "Spike #1" was inscribed on the epic sat and was collaboratively created with software developers and Ordinals enthusiasts Eloc Remarc, Boppleton, and Steaktoshi.
“We are experimental artists working at the intersection of art, science and technology, so it has been a dream of ours to put our work on an epic sat and inspire the community to experiment and create new art,” Nuro told Decrypt. “We believe everyone is an artist, you just have to find your medium.”
The first satoshi mined on the Bitcoin blockchain after last week’s halving event, mined by Bitcoin mining pool ViaBTC, went up for auction—and fetched a sizable seven-figure sum.
The auction of “epic sat” 1,968,750,000,000,000, hosted on the cryptocurrency exchange CoinEX, ended Thursday with a final bid of 33.3 Bitcoin ($2.13 million worth) winning the piece of Bitcoin history. It's not yet clear who won the auction.
The auction of the Epic Sat began on April 20, the day after the halving, wit...
“Spike #1,” Nuro said, is the first “neurogenerative” 3D audiovisual piece on Bitcoin Ordinals, and includes his inscribed brain data that manipulates the art in the inscription.
"Neurogenerative" is a riff on generative AI and neurographic art. Neurographic art refers to art designed to work with the subconscious mind. Projects like Neurotech startup Prophetic use generative AI to engage the subconscious mind and lucid dreams during sleep.
Nuro said that the idea to use Grimes’ Elf Tech AI technology came after a spoken word project did not have the effect he wanted, and Eloc suggested he check out Grimes’ AI voice.
Bitcoin Ordinals and Runes platform OrdinalsBot has created the largest Ordinals inscription to date, weighing in at a hefty 3.969 megabytes. Inscription number 70,614,708, the OrdinalsBot team announced Friday, contains a copy of “A Declaration of Independence in Cyberspace” by Logos Network.
OrdinalsBot co-founder Brian Laughlan told Decrypt that the size of the inscription had less to do with the length of the document, and more to do with publishing the document as an image that would be lar...
“It is original art and music we made that uses Grimes’ free and open [Elf Tech] AI voice for a portion of the vocals,” Nuro said.
In April 2023, Grimes announced the launch of Elf Tech and offered anyone who uses her voice a 50% royalty on AI-generated music using her voice. “Feel free to use my voice without penalty,” Grimes wrote on Twitter. In other words, Grimes isn’t personally involved in this project, but her tech is available for any creator to tap into.
“I looked into it and saw she is a badass cypherpunk who said ‘Fuck copyright, use my voice without penalty,’” Nuro said, paraphrasing Grimes’ own statements. “So I experimented with it and loved the ethos and how it sounded to give a more cosmic and digital vibe. So I have been using it since then alongside my own voice and Steaktoshi’s.”
Nuro said that while the Elf Tech program was easy to use, calling it fun and unpredictable, it wasn’t without its issues, including downtime and issues with uploading. Nuro isn’t new to the Bitcoin art world: In February, Cypherpunk Labs and Nuro Realm collaborated with Deezy Labs and Superchief Gallery to launch its San Francisco gallery dedicated to Bitcoin Ordinals art.
Runes, the new fungible token standard on Bitcoin, had enthusiasts buzzing when it launched in April amid the quadrennial Bitcoin halving event. But less than a month later, the early impact appears less monumental than many Bitcoin backers expected.
The Runes launch indeed saw a flurry of immediate activity, with hundreds of token tickers launched within the halving block. But demand has decreased partially due to expectations, and amid a cooling crypto market that has seen broader price decli...
In April, the latest of four “epic sats” was mined by Bitcoin mining pool ViaBTC and went up for auction on the cryptocurrency exchange CoinEX. It was expected to fetch a sizable sum, given that Ordinals collectors place a premium on assets derived from rare satoshis. And indeed, it ultimately saw a winning bid of 33.3 BTC, or $2.1 million worth at the time of sale.
Following the inscription of the Spike #1 Ordinal, a “child” version was etched as the EPIC•EPIC•EPIC•EPIC Rune #66429 using the Runes token protocol that was launched at the halving by Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor.
Since the launch, EPIC•EPIC•EPIC•EPIC has seen just over $1 million worth of trading volume via prominent marketplace Magic Eden, with a market cap of nearly $50 million at the current price of 79 satoshis (about $0.05 worth of Bitcoin).
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Generally Intelligent Newsletter
A weekly AI journey narrated by Gen, a generative AI model.
