Why I Chose Bitcoin Ordinals to Release ‘Frontline’

I
like
to
say
that
I
do
pixels
very
well,
but
I’m
not
a
blockchain
expert.
I
fear
anything
that
is
related
to
statistics
and
security,
as
any
mistake
usually
means
that
you
are
completely
wrong
(when
dealing
with
statistics)
or
you
lose
a
lot
of
money
(when
it
comes
to
security).
Writing
a
smart
contract
is
for
me
a
daunting
task.
This
does
not
mean
I
am
clueless
about
the
underlying
technology
that
powers
blockchains
and
NFTs/Ordinals,
though:
just
that
I
stop
at
understanding.

For
my
latest
collection,
I
am
partnering
with
Metagood,
the
creators
of
Ordinals
collection
OnChainMonkey,
to
release
it
on
the
Ordinals
protocol.
This
collection
will
be
my
first
on
Bitcoin,
which
is
different
from
what
I
used
in
the
past
(mostly
NFTs
on
Ethereum
and
Tezos)
and
is
taking
all
the
lessons
learned
from
other
chains
to
do
some
smart
things
out
of
the
box.

First
thing
that
I
love
about
Ordinals
is
that
it
has
to
be
on-chain.
That’s
it.
No
external
assets,
no
links.
What
you
have
is
what
you
get.
Many
generative
art
pieces
rely
on
code
libraries
(e.g.
p5.js,
three.js)
to
help
with
the
commonly
used
features
that
are
needed
to
generate
the
pieces.

Read
more:
Daniel
Kuhn
–



Casey
Rodarmor:
The
Bitcoin
Artist

The
protocol
has
a
solution
to
this
problem
that
is
elegant
by
design.
Any
Ordinal
can
refer
to
another
Ordinal.
It
could
be
a
library,
it
could
be
an
asset,
it
could
be
the
whole
thing
to
create
remixes.
It
is
up
to
you
to
find
creative
uses
of
the
feature.
You
can
find
the
widely
used
libraries
on-chain,
on
Bitcoin:
p5js,
three.js
are
there
already.
You
know
who
uploaded
them?

Danny
Yang,
creator
of
OnChainMonkey.

But
how
does
this
work
exactly?
How
can
my
Ordinal
refer
to
another
Ordinal?
On
Ethereum
(and
others
as
far
as
I
know),
NFTs
are
basically
token
IDs
that
are
issued
from
a
given
contract.
You
then
need
the
contract
address
to
explore
which
NFTs
are
there,
and
who
owns
them.

Ordinals
found
(again)
a
clever
solution
to
that
issue.
This
feature
is
called
recursion.
A
Bitcoin
is
a
collection
of
one
hundred
million
of
satoshis,
each
with
a
number,
according
to
their
minting
order.
An
Ordinal
is
tied
to
a
unique
Satoshi,
so
they
are
ordered.
Hence
they
are
called
Ordinals.
You
can
use
another
Ordinal
(or
other
Ordinals)
in
your
Ordinal
to
make
a
new
Ordinal.
You
can
then
create
complex
pieces
using
different
assets
already
there,
and
anyone
can
access
them.

The
other
feature
that
is
also
interesting
is
the
parent-child
relationship.
It
is
similar
to
the
recursion
feature
in
the
sense
that
it
is
a
reference
to
another
Ordinal.
But
this
one
is
secured
in
the
same
way
blockchains
work
(remember
the
crypto
part
of
“cryptocurrency”?
That
refers
to
signing
messages
using
cryptography,
the
business
with
private
keys/public
keys).
You
can
only
refer
to
another
Ordinal
as
the
parent
if
you
can
prove
that
you
own
that
Ordinal.

What
can
you
do
with
this?
It
turns
out
this
is
also
a
smart
way
to
establish
provenance
and
even
more.
You
can
make
one
Ordinal
your
signature
and
use
it
to
be
a
parent
of
all
your
future
pieces.
You
can
make
one
Ordinal
the
“generator”
of
a
generative
collection
and
have
all
the
individual
mints
of
that
collection
refer
to
the
code
as
their
parent.
And
even
more.

Ordinals
offer
elegant
solutions
to
serve
the
purpose
of
creating
generative
art
collections
on
the
Bitcoin
chain.
They,
of
course,
are
not
as
flexible
as
smart
contracts
and
do
not
aim
to
be.
They
provide
enough
to
build
awesomeness.

FrontLine
is
my
latest
long-form
generative
art
collection.
I
am
honored
to
be
able
to
share
it
with
you,
this
time
on
Ordinals,
with
the
OnChainMonkey
community
as
the
intended
audience
at
first.
It
took
me
more
or
less
one
year
to
get
to
the
finish
line,
and
it
is
a
personal
journey.

“FrontLine”
reflects
what
happened
recently
at
various
levels.
The
piece
was
challenging
to
create
and
satisfying
to
finalize.
From
the
beginning
this
was
meant
to
be
a
piece
in
collaboration
with
OnChainMonkey.
I
was
in
part
inspired
by
the
general
ethos
behind
the
community
around
OCM:
nudging
people
towards
“good,”
but
there
is
no
clear
definition
of
good,
only
vague
cultural
concepts
around
what
societies
accept
as
values
to
aim
for.
Good
only
exists
if
its
opposite
makes
sense:
there
is
a
dimension
of
good
versus
bad,
lawful
versus
chaotic,
light
versus
dark,
A
versus
B.
Two
sides
of
something,
with
something
in
between.

Listen:



Runes
and
Ordinals
‘Artist’
Creator,
Casey
Rodarmor
on
‘The
Protocol’

FrontLine
tries
to
represent
this
struggle,
this
fight
that
happens
in
every
moment.
What
appeared
to
be
an
obvious
“good”
choice
a
few
seconds
ago
is
now
its
opposite
thanks
to
additional
knowledge.
The
split
between
the
two
sides
is
never
a
clear
cut:
the
battle
rages
on,
and
a
lot
is
happening
at
the
Frontline.

The
piece
combines
a
couple
of
algorithms
that
are
competing
to
occupy
the
space:
one
that
will
look
for
the
negative
space
and
one
that
will
try
to
connect
the
dots;
the
connecting
algorithm
is
also
clearly
split
into
two
sides
with
different
approaches
to
the
task
at
hand.
How
each
new
iteration
of
the
algorithm
is
almost
unpredictable
yet
explainable
a
posteriori:
the
rules
of
the
underlying
algorithms
are
actually
pretty
straightforward.
Once
the
whole
space
has
been
explored,
the
battle
begins
and
the
frontline
appears,
sometimes
complex
and
vibrant,
sometimes
spotty
and
vague
–
yet
always
present.

There
is
no
perfect
world.
There
is
no
good
without
bad.
What
matters
is
where
to
draw
the
frontline.
It
is
up
to
you
to
find
what
you
would
want
both
sides
to
be.
It
could
be
ETH/BTC.
I
personally
root
for
the
people
that
innovate:
they
will
be
at
the
FrontLine.

Do
I
have
an
answer
to
all
the
questions?
No.
I
just
know
that
you
have
to
try
things
to
move
forward.
You
have
to
be
where
it
happens.
You
have
to
fight
there.
You
have
to
be
at
the
FrontLine.

Note:
The
views
expressed
in
this
column
are
those
of
the
author
and
do
not
necessarily
reflect
those
of
CoinDesk,
Inc.
or
its
owners
and
affiliates.