TL;DR

• ICYMI: until January of this year, you couldn't create NFTs or meme coins using the Bitcoin network. But once the functionality was proven, the flood gates opened.

• There are now 5M Bitcoin NFTs (aka 'Ordinals') in existence (while this time last week, there were only 2.5M). And the value of Bitcoin-based meme coins just topped $1B in total.

• The increased volume of 'stuff' to be traded on the Bitcoin network is slowing everything down. More meme coins/NFTs being traded on the network means more congestion.

• Some folks in the Bitcoin developer team don't want these 'junk coins' slowing down Bitcoin...so they're trying to rally support to axe the functionality all together.

• This would render the 5M Bitcoin NFTs, and $1B worth of BTC meme coins essentially null and void, and massively reduce the cost-per-transaction on the Bitcoin network.

Full Story

ICYMI: until January of this year, you couldn't create NFTs or meme coins using the Bitcoin network.

But once the functionality was proven, the flood gates opened.

There are now 5M Bitcoin NFTs (aka 'Ordinals') in existence (while this time last week, there were only 2.5M).

And the value of Bitcoin-based meme coins just topped $1B in total.

...ok, that sounds like growth (?) Why's there 'a war brewing'?

The increased volume of 'stuff' to be traded on the Bitcoin network is slowing everything down. More meme coins/NFTs being traded on the network means more congestion.

Bitcoin purists hate it - they think Bitcoin should service one coin (BTC), with one function (a decentralized digital form of money).

But Bitcoin miners are loooving it!

Miners run the Bitcoin network.

They're the folks that have warehouses full of computers competing to process transactions. Without them, Bitcoin is just an idea.

So why do they love this increased congestion? The money baaaby!

See, miners currently get rewarded 6.25 Bitcoin (~$176k) for every group (or 'block') of transactions they process - and there's a new block processed every 10 mins.

They all compete to solve complex math problems - and the first to solve it wins the right to process the block (and collect 6.25 Bitties).

...but they also receive transaction fees from the folks sending the Bitcoin (the higher the fee, the faster the transaction is processed).

For the most part, know one really pays much attention to transaction fees - they're too distracted by the whopping 6.25 BTC reward.

But now that there's so much competition to get transactions processed - the fees alone have EXPLODED. To the extent that miners are sometimes making more in fees than they are block rewards (so, $353k+ in total).

(No wonder they love it!).

Which brings us to the brewing war.

Some folks in the Bitcoin developer team don't want these 'junk coins' slowing down Bitcoin...

So they're trying to rally support to axe the functionality all together.

(It's the nuclear approach).

This would do two things:

1. Render the 5M Bitcoin NFTs, and $1B worth of BTC meme coins essentially null and void.

2. Massively reduce the cost-per-transaction on the Bitcoin network.

Will they be able to convince the rest of the BTC community to put the meme coin/NFT genie back in the bottle?

No idea! But we suggest they consult Christina.