Yesterday, I received the latest issue of Milk Road's newsletter which featured a story that almost immediately set off a fury of ideas in my head. The Bitcoin blockchain can store valuable information, in the form of 'Ordinals' that allow for information to be added / stored to the blockchain and at much faster speeds. Milk Road's story is titled 'Bitcoin Super Nintendo' (Cool people building cool Sh$t).
The short story outlines a group of developers (Ninjalerts) that managed to inscribe a Super Nintendo Entertainment System emulator onto the Bitcoin blockchain. This emulator allows users to play old video games on modern devices. This new Bitcoin Ordinals project is called 'Pizza Ninjas' and Pizza Ninja NFT holders will have access to the browser based emulator.
This may seem like somewhat of a joke at first but in actuality, is vital in saving all these old games we used to play. The article goes on to point out that 87% of classic video games are 'critically endangered'. It's not just video games though. Being familiar with the music business, I'm aware that a lot of the earliest music recorded have already been lost forever, having been recorded straight to disc which were very brittle in the early days of music. Wars, fires and the like have done their part to wipe out a lot of recorded music and other media such as print.
The same could be said for literature, film, TV and radio broadcasts and even photographs. It's made me think that all this information can be stored on the Bitcoin blockchain with Ordinals. Ordinal inscriptions are digital assets similar to NFTs that can be inscribed onto a Satoshi (and there are billions and billions of them). The inscription process scribes the data into the 'witness' of the Bitcoin transaction, with the 'witness' being introduced in the 2017 SegWit (Segregated Witness) upgrade and with the Taproot upgrade (soft fork of the protocol) on November 14, 2021 which makes inscribing possible.
Can you imagine how much information can now be permanently stored on the Bitcoin blockchain in this manner? Then, came to mind the story of the legendary Library At Alexandria of which no one is quite certain who actually burned it all down. One thing certain is that the library contained 'all the knowledge of the world' at the time. Sadly, it all went up in flames some 2 millennia ago.
Unlike the Library at Alexandria which was obviously susceptible to fire (and vandalism), the Bitcoin blockchain, which every Bitcoin miner around the world has downloaded in its entirety onto their hard drives, could very well end up being the 'resurrection' of the famed library and in the end, collect a treasure trove of information that future generations could look at and research.
In the last 150 years or so, humans have searched for ways to record information such as with Edison's Cylinder, the precursor to the 78 RPM record. Fast forward to the magnetic tape, a revolution in the recording industry and computer industry alike. The first computers used magnetic tape to store information. It was slow and tedious but it worked for a time.
Even video as we know it today evolved from the magnetic tape. Remember the VHS? Where have all those tapes gone? There's still a few out there but most have been thrown away or recycled, all thanks to the compact disc which all but wiped out the VCR industry. Yet, after 40 years... yes, it's been 40 years since the first compact discs came out, we can all agree that CDs often fail, whether it's a music disc or a game disc.
We have been working our way towards better and better ways at storing information. The CD and computer brought on the digital age and with it eventually, flash drives and SDHC cards that can now hold terabytes of information. Yet, they too have their limitations. They can become corruped or be lost or damaged.
Blockchain and decentralization is finally offering humanity the chance to save its information, all of it going forward while also recording what we know of the past. Never before have we had such an incredible opportunity to preserve our history in its entirety and make it available for public access hundreds, even thousands of years from now.
One thing Bitcoin has, it's durability. If one computer with the downloaded blockchain gets taken out, there will be another computer to take its place, preserving this 'new' library. If that one gets taken out, there will be another to take its place. If that one gets taken out, there will be another to take its place.
Ordinals are the key to 'Lightning' fast decentralized finance. They can also be used to copyright music, books and movies. Of course, they can be used for trademarks as well. It's all about the timing. Who registers first. Alexander Graham Bell rushed to get his telephone patent because he knew there were others working on similar technology. Because he was first to register his patent application, he is credited with inventing the telephone. Ordinals can record the date and time of registry. That's all the proof you'd need in a copyright suit. The Ordinal is the 'witness'.
This opens up the possibility for third parties to take advantage and set up completely new industries that could upend existing ones that haven't kept up with the times. One sector that may be hard hit is banking. Peer to peer transactions could eliminate them altogether.
It should be exiting as this all plays out. At the least, I think it's going to be a huge transformation.
What am I saying? It's already been a huge transformation! Please share your comments.
Thanks to Milk Road for setting me off on this little journey of discovery! Subscribe to their newsletter. It's free!
I'm off to play some classic Ninendo now....
See reference section for more info, thanks.
Peace and love to everyone!
Previous Posts:
Bitcoin goes to $48K - Onward to $50K?
Tipping - A powerful component of PublishOx.
Tectum's TET up 280% since Dec. 26, 2023.
January tour of my new $400 8'X8' greenhouse.
U.S. national debt hits $34 Trillion!
Gold closes at record year end high.
Argentina now accepts Bitcoin to settle contracts.
Your P.C.: Good airflow and fire prevention.
Thank you for supporting my sponsors.
Buy Silver! Visit my eBay channel.
Cooper's Cask Coffee Co. 10% Off First Order. Use Code 'FIRSTTIME'
Milk Road - Bitcoin newsletter
Bitify - Buy and Sell Bitcoin marketplace
Fire Maple Gear. 5% Off First Order Use Code 'FM5'.
ShareAsale - $$ Affiliate Marketing $$
I'm also on Substack with occasional new podcasts and now also on Twitter / X.
