• Taproot, a Bitcoin softfork upgrade, has enabled Ordinals – a new and controversial Bitcoin-based protocol.
• Ordinals allow users to identify individual satoshis on the network, including unique inscribed data like videos and images.
• The popularity of Ordinals is growing by the day as 2.8% of spent outputs on Bitcoin utilized Taproot script this week, according to blockchain data provider Glassnode.

What is Ordinals?

Ordinals are a new and controversial Bitcoin-based protocol designed by Bitcoin Core contributor Casey Rodarmor. It allows users to identify individual satoshis on the network, and store unique inscribed data like videos and images within a transaction signature once the transfer is completed. This technology was enabled by Taproot – a Bitcoin softfork upgrade that activated in 2021 bringing greater privacy and smart contracts to the network.

Rising Interest in Ordinals

The popularity of Ordinals is growing by the day as 2.8% of spent outputs on Bitcoin utilized Taproot script this week, according to blockchain data provider Glassnode. This represents an increase from 1% just a month ago, indicating an increasing interest in Ordinals usage among users. Despite some developers’ opposition to the protocol, its use has been steadily rising over time suggesting more people are beginning to embrace it.

Benefits of Using Ordinal Protocol

The use of ordinal protocol offers several benefits for its users such as increased privacy due to transactions being stored within signatures once they are completed; plus enhanced security through improved smart contracts capability provided by Taproot activation; and higher flexibility with storing NFT-like content within satoshis enabling them to be used for various purposes such as gaming or trading assets etc…

Debate Within The Community

Despite these potential benefits being associated with using ordinal protocol there’s still debate among bitcoin community members about whether it should be celebrated or cursed which suggests that not everyone is on board with embracing it yet.

Conclusion

It appears from recent usage statistics that more people are starting to accept ordinal protocol despite some resistance from developers initially The rising interest in ordinal usage indicates that it could become increasingly popular moving forward which would likely lead to further improvements regarding privacy & security measures associated with bitcoin transactions