Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection, will mint Ordinals inscriptions, similar to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), on the Bitcoin network.
Yuga Labs To Mint TwelveFold NFTs On Bitcoin
In an announcement on February 27, Yuga Labs said they will mint 300 limited edition generative pieces and inscribe them on Bitcoin’s satoshis. The 300 NFTs from Yuga Labs will be under the TwelveFold collection and are set to be minted and auctioned later this week.
Satoshi is the smallest unit of BTC, and has, in recent days, become a choice storage space for creators looking to take advantage of the relatively cheap block space on Bitcoin.
Yuga Labs’ TwelveFold collection will be deployed via Ordinals, a new portal that has been gaining popularity in recent days. Through Ordinals, users can mint NFTs on Bitcoin, which inherently lacks smart contracting capability.
With Ordinals, associated media, that is, images or video files is inscribed on Satoshi. This is now possible on Bitcoin, thanks to the recent Taproot upgrade, which was activated in Q4 2021.
However, users interested in inscribing artwork on Satoshis must first download the Bitcoin core and sync their node with the Bitcoin blockchain. Minters must also have a solid command of Command Line in Windows or Terminal on iOS.
The 300 generative images under the TwelveFold collection will be minted as a 12×12 grid-size piecework. Each piece combines 3D graphics and hand-drawn elements designed in-house.
Another distinction is that these images will not be related to other Yuga Labs NFTs minted on Ethereum. Therefore, the team has explained that they won’t, even in the future, be related or bear any utility.
Departure From the Tradition Of Minting On Ethereum?
Since the NFTs are said to have no utility, collectors who wish to bid on the TwelveFold collection on Bitcoin are likely doing so for speculative reasons.
Nevertheless, Yuga Labs’ NFT collections, primarily minted on Ethereum, have been positively received. Their collections are known as “blue-chip” NFTs, similar to CryptoPunks, which cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The isolated nature of TwelveFold NFTs is, however, being criticized by some. On Twitter, a user said that though he thinks Bitcoin Ordinals are “cool,” the decision by Yuga Labs seems “off-brand and random.”
Nothing against Bitcoin Ordinals (they are cool), but this strikes me as pretty off-brand and random. Everything thus far in the Yuga ecosystem feels like it has the potential to be interconnected, but I don’t get that sense from this.
Earlier this month, Yuga Labs settled with Thomas Lehman, the developer behind the “RR/BAYC” project’s website and smart contracts. However, the trademark infringement case against Ryder Ripps, who is accused of selling copycat BAYCs, is still ongoing.