NFTs
aren’t
for
everyone.
In
the
years
since
non-fungible
tokens
first
entered
public
consciousness
there
has
been
a
fierce
backlash
against
what
is
essentially
just
a
way
of
authenticating
data.
Part
of
this
negativity
was
as
a
response
to
the
gross
financialization
and
speculation
around
these
tokens,
and
environmental
concerns
that
have
since
basically
been
resolved
by
Ethereum’s
switch
to
proof-of-stake
in
2022.
This
is
an
excerpt
from
The
Node
newsletter,
a
daily
roundup
of
the
most
pivotal
crypto
news
on
CoinDesk
and
beyond.
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However,
the
general
public’s
distaste
of
NFTs
hasn’t
stopped
the
art
industry
from
embracing
them.
In
2021,
Christie’s
auction
house
made
history
with
the
$69
million
sale
of
Beeple’s
“Everydays”
collage.
Since
then,
the
storied
company
has
expanded
further
into
the
realm
of
crypto,
including
countless
NFT
auctions,
investments
in
Web3
firms
via
Christie’s
Ventures
and
even
the
launch
of
its
own
NFT
marketplace,
Christie’s
3.0.
The
company,
founded
before
the
birth
of
the
American
Republic,
is
taking
this
one
step
further
today
through
its
first
auction
of
inscriptions,
the
NFT-like
tokens
on
Bitcoin
made
possible
by
Casey
Rodarmor’s
Ordinals
Protocol.
The
“Ordinal
Maxi
Biz
(OMB)”
sale,
although
not
the
first
inscriptions
auction
(Sotheby’s
beat
its
closest
competitor
to
the
punch
late
last
year),
is
something
of
a
turning
point
for
Ordinals,
and
a
signal
that
these
objets
d’art
may
just
have
staying
power.
“Slowly
but
surely
people
are
getting
very
interested,”
Christie’s
Director
of
Digital
Art
Sales
Nicole
Sales
Giles
told
CoinDesk
in
an
interview.
“The
market
has
matured
quite
significantly
since
the
boom
in
2021
when
Christie’s
first
got
involved.
We
don’t
take
our
responsibility
lightly.”
This
is
a
meaningful
statement
from
Sales
Giles,
who
was
instrumental
in
setting
up
Beeple’s
auction
that
first
brought
public
attention
to
NFTs.
While
the
auction
house
doesn’t
yet
have
current
plans
for
more
inscriptions
sales,
Sales
Giles
said
that
this
was
just
the
beginning
of
its
move
into
the
world
of
inscriptions.
The
works
at
auction
were
curated
by
pseudonymous
Ordinals
advocate
and
OMB
co-creator
ZK
Shark,
and
contain
works
by
artists
Tony
Tafuro
and
berkinbags.
Each
auction
lot
has
a
starting
bid
of
$100,
a
callback
to
the
starting
price
of
the
Beeple’s
auction,
which
was
set
at
that
price
because
Christie’s
“didn’t
really
fully
understand
the
market
at
that
time,”
Sales
Giles
said.
There’s
an
argument
to
be
made
that
Ordinals
represents
a
significant
technological
advancement
over
NFTs,
in
part
because
it’s
a
method
that
actually
allows
artists
to
inscribe
data
directly
on-chain.
In
contrast,
NFTs
are
better
thought
of
as
digital
signatures
for
data
that
often
exists
elsewhere.
Because
they
exist
on
“someone
else’s
server,”
they
can’t
truly
be
owned.
An
example
of
how
this
can
go
wrong
happened
after
the
disastrous
collapse
of
FTX:
When
the
exchange
went
down
the
images
associated
with
1.5
million
worth
of
NFTs
minted
at
the
Coachella
Festival
became
inaccessible
because
it
was
stored
on
an
FTX
website.
With
Ordinals,
the
only
way
for
the
data
to
be
erased
is
if
Bitcoin
goes
down.
See
also:
What
Are
NFTs
and
How
Do
They
Work?
“I
don’t
think
inscriptions
will
ever
fully
replace
current
NFT
token
standards
like
ERC-721,”
Sales
Giles
said,
mentioning
the
current
file
limitations
of
inscriptions
that
can
prevent
artists
from
minting
data
intensive
things
like
HD
videos
on-chain.
“There’s
still
going
to
be
a
market
for
every
new
technology
that’s
come
up.”
But
the
auction
comes
at
an
interesting
time
for
inscription
adoption.
Currently,
two
of
the
five
largest
NFT
projects
by
market
capitalization,
Runestones
and
NodeMonkeys,
are
built
on
Bitcoin,
according
to
CoinGecko
data.
And,
Ordinals
are
less
than
a
year
old.
While
the
Bitcoin
community
has
torn
itself
apart
over
the
question
of
whether
Ordinals
is
destroying
something
meant
to
primarily
be
a
monetary
network
and
driving
up
transaction
fees,
it’s
clear
that
inscriptions
aren’t
going
away.
As
ZK
Shark
noted
in
a
recent
X
post,
Bitcoin
has
been
both
a
system
for
transferring
value
and
storing
data
since
the
very
beginning,
with
Satoshi
Nakamoto
inscribing
the
blockchain’s
“genesis”
with
a
message
to
the
world.
“We
are
interested
in
the
artistic
historical
story
around
these
collections,”
Sales
Giles
said.
“It’s
really
interesting
to
us
to
see
the
zeitgeist
form
around
this
community.”