• Ordinals is drawing top talents across web3, including ETH developers, to build on the Bitcoin Network.
• OrdinalSafe, a wallet designed for Bitcoin Ordinals, emerged in second place in Bitcoin 2023’s pitch day event.
• The great Ordinal debate takes center stage as some BTC maxis continue to oppose the development of Ordinals, citing security concerns. 

The buzz around Bitcoin Ordinals continues to grow, with inscriptions surpassing 9 million barely six months after its launch, drawing the attention of top investors.

The Bitcoin Conference 2023 held last week in Miami left memorable experiences and introduced investors to new products around the Bitcoin Network. Notable attendees included Ethereum developers who are glued to Bitcoin in recent weeks thanks to Ordinals.

Developers drawn by the wave of experimentation and innovation participated in an infrastructural pitch category with OrdinalSafe, a wallet created for Ordinals emerging second place. Asad Yusuf Atik OrdinalSafe’s CEO, lauded the remarkable event as a boost for young developers.

“It’s your first time on that stage, and you’re trying to sell the vision of your product to other people, so you want to do a good job. I was nervous, but going to the stage for the prize, it felt great,” he added. 

The 22-year-old developer first broke into the scene in 2020 after his team created a Proof of Innocence protocol. The product was built for Ethereum’s coin mixer Tornado Cash and helped users prove that they did not use a sanctioned address to carry out transactions.

Atik explained that he learned about Ordinals on Twitter in February and got attracted by the buzz around it alongside other Ethereum developers.

“Even though we came from an Ethereum background, it felt like home,” Atik said. “If you’re developing on Bitcoin, you’re part of the community, right?”

Bitcoin Ordinals have come with positives for the network, but it has also sparked controversy in community spaces. While igniting bulls in anticipation of a run temporarily pushing BTC above $28,000, Ordinals also led to the congestion of the network, driving up transaction fees.

Ordinals hit 3 million inscriptions shooting up Bitcoin’s daily transaction volume to an all-time high, leading to congestion of the mempool. Transaction fees got so high, causing users to pay a “premium” on it. The situation got more complex with the world’s leading digital asset exchange Binance halting BTC withdrawals twice due to the surge in transactions.

Currently, a vast majority of BTC faithful have backed Ordinals despite dissenting voices claiming it poses a security threat to the network. MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor expressed his support for Ordinals, noting the key role it can play in the mass adoption of the asset.