Ethscriptions Come to Ethereum to Rival Bitcoin Ordinals

Ethereum users have been given another way to create nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and other digital assets on the blockchain with the launch of a new protocol. Launched on June 17, the protocol, dubbed “Ethscriptions,” is a nod to the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol — where assets are known as “inscriptions.”

Ethscriptions was developed by music website Genius.com co-founder Tom Lehman, who uses the pseudonym Middlemarch on Twitter. Lehman declared the project a “huge success” in a series of tweets on June 17 and noted nearly 30,000 Ethscriptions had been created within the first 18 hours of the protocol going live.

With almost 30k Ethscriptions in <18 hours, the launch was a huge success!

Thank you for seeing the massive potential here!

I am on Ethscriptions 24/7, but I need your help!

DM @proroketh to join our protocol Twitter chat. Ideas, bug reports, NO alpha, NO trading, NERDS ONLY! pic.twitter.com/udKdsVT0L8

— Middlemarch (@dumbnamenumbers) June 17, 2023

According to Lehman, Ethscriptions assets utilize Ethereum “calldata” — the data within a smart contract — to allow for a “cheaper” and “more decentralized” minting process compared to conventional smart contract-based methods.

Users are currently limited to image-only inscriptions, but Lehman says the protocol will allow for different file types to be uploaded in the future. Currently, users are able to “ethscribe” any image as long as it’s less than 96 kilobytes in size.

Lehman’s debut project on the Ethscriptions protocol, dubbed “Ethereum Punks,” witnessed a considerably positive response from the community, with all 10,000 assets being claimed near-instantaneously.

Introducing Ethscriptions: a new way of creating and sharing digital artifacts on Ethereum using transaction calldata.https://t.co/XfQ7RdtblD

ALSO: Introducing Ethereum Punks. Because why should all non-contract Punk collecting happen on Bitcoin?https://t.co/d3Ycwbdc2Z…

— Middlemarch (@dumbnamenumbers) June 16, 2023

Lehman added the project’s launch garnered so much user activity that the API interface for the official Ethscriptions website temporarily crashed.

Due to pre-existing infrastructure that allows for the creation of NFTs and other digital assets on the Ethereum network, it’s unclear if Ethscriptions will witness the same level of popularity as Bitcoin Ordinals has.

In less than six months, the total number of Ordinals inscribed on Bitcoin surged from zero to 10 million. The enormous surge in activity was driven in large part by users embracing the novelty of being able to mint assets, which later included entirely new tokens — by way of the BRC-20 token standard — on the Bitcoin network.