The Bored Ape Creators Are Launching NFTs on Bitcoin (But It Won’t Be Easy)
Yuga Labs, creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club, are releasing a collection of 300 NFTs on Bitcoin.
Three hundred one-of-one NFTs, made by the largest/most valuable purveyors of funge-lacking tokens in the world?
This collection is going to pull some LARGE numbers.
...but what's the difference between launching NFTs on Bitcoin, compared to say, Ethereum?
The system of buying/selling Bitcoin NFTs is a very new concept, and as a result, the process is...lacking. Actually, scratch that - it's a hot mess.
Instead of browsing a marketplace like OpenSea, Bitcoin NFTs are 'sold at auction.'
What does that look like? It looks like an excel spreadsheet, with listings and prices (because that's exactly what it is).
Potential buyers place their bids, then the winner/seller manually organize the transfer. It's the same slow process that real world auction houses have been using for centuries!
Which brings us to the next step of the broken process...
See, the coded information that makes up a Bitcoin NFT is inscribed onto a single 'satoshi,' which is like a Bitcoin cent (0.00000001 BTC).
But say you're holding 0.00000003 BTC - one of which is an NFT...
There's no wallet in existence that allows you to choose which of the three satoshis you send, so buyers need to create a new wallet for every Bitcoin NFT they purchase.
Which is kind of like getting a new wallet every time you want to store a rare penny.
So how does Ethereum compare?
With ETH, the payment and NFT are exchanged using an automated smart contract.
The buyer sends the ETH payment to the contract address → the seller sends the NFT → if/when those conditions are met, the smart contract automatically processes the exchange.
(This is actually why Ethereum was originally created - the Bitcoin community didn't want to bring smart contract functionality to BTC).
As for transfers, you can hold as many Ethereum NFTs in a single wallet as you'd like.
The good news:
This inefficiency probably won't last long on BTC, because Bitcoin NFTs are growing in popularity, fast.
And if there's money to be made in the space, folks will create solutions.
