The Recent FOMO, Bitcoin Ordinals & $ORDI

KEYTAKE AWAYS:
— The Taproot and Ordinals protocol made the BRC-20 standard possible, ORDI is one of BRC-20 token.
— BRC-20 tokens unlock new capabilities for the Bitcoin network, such as their use in DeFi protocols and blockchain applications.
— Do not confuse Bitcoin Ordinals protocol with BRC-20 Token ORDI, they are not the same.

Bitcoin Evolving – Taproot Upgrade
Bitcoin’s principal utility was as a peer-to-peer, non-censorable payments system, and a store of value. Relatively speaking, this actually can be quite limited. The more recent generation of blockchains come equipped to handle smart contracts. Something that’s becoming increasingly important due to the explosion of dApps and DeFi. With this now an industry standard, some people think Bitcoin need to keep up with an evolving marketplace that constantly demands more. 
In 2021, the Bitcoin community gets to a consensus of an upgrade to the network. The upgrade is called “Taproot”, in short, Taproot upgrade allowed blocks to contain more data, thus enabling more scalability to the network. This opened up to new possibilities for future developments.

New use case – Ordinals protocol 
A couple of years later, in January 2023, Casey Rodarmor brought the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol to life. The ordinals protocol made it much easier to attach additional data (such as text, images or audio) to a single Satoshi (the smallest denominations of Bitcoin), a process known as inscription. Bitcoin Ordinals are essentially pieces of Bitcoin inscribed with rich data, such as text or an image. Bitcoin blockchain, for the first time, tapped into the opportunity of being able to support something close to NFTs. 
An ordinal is always worth one Satoshi, which is 1/100,000,000th of a Bitcoin. However, the true value of it depends on its inscription. To better understand, if an artist create a piece of art on a dollar bill, while the bill itself is only worth a dollar, the art on it could potentially be priceless.
In the first few weeks since the protocol’s inception, it was mainly used to create non-fungible Bitcoin tokens. NFT giants Yuga Labs dropped Bitcoin Ordinals collections which immediately sold out.

Fungible-Token Possibilities – BRC-20 Standard
The pace of innovation in this industry is very fast, with new ideas emerging from time to time. Few months later, in March 2023, people started to inscribe new and interesting ordinals, Ethereum developer Domo (@domodata) used the ordinals protocol to build the first fungible token standard, “the BRC-20 standard”.
In the crypto sphere, fungible tokens are commonly used in applications like dApps or decentralized finance (DeFi). Many platforms and applications on the Ethereum network require fungible tokens simply in order to operate. However, this was not previously possible on the Bitcoin network. Now, with the introduction of the BRC-20 standard, the Bitcoin network is entering a new age of utility.
All ordinals that are inscribed under the rule of BRC-20 standard is recognized as “BRC-20 Token”. Enabled by the innovation, developers could now launch projects and its tokens on Bitcoin blockchain. Standard bitcoin ordinals can be inscribed with any information, but BRC-20 tokens are always inscribed with JSON  (JavaScript Object Notation) data. It’s this code that gives the ordinal extra functionality. 
While the BRC-20 standard is still limited yet experimental, this small amount of code allows you to deploy, mint and transfer tokens on the Bitcoin network. The gateway of imagination has been opened.

ORDI - The First Ever BRC-20 Token
ORDI is the first ever fungible token that applies to the BRC-20 standard and was created during the described experiment by @domodata. ORDI is the most popular BRC-20 token to date. Not to be confused with the protocol Bitcoin Ordinals, the BRC-20 Token ORDI is not the cryptocurrency that is used to governate nor interact with the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol. To inscribe using the protocol, user still need to pay Bitcoin as transaction fee.
While the price of ORDI, at the time of writing, has been skyrocket almost 10,000 times of its initial cost, let’s take a look at the crazy growth path:
-3.9 To inscribe a ORDI (BRC-20 Token), the cost per inscription is approximately 0.005 dollars
-3.10-3.23 People trading P2P on a price of 0.03 dollars
-3.23 An exchange list the BRC-20 token ORDI, trading at 0.3 dollars but soon delist it due to double-spending problem
-3.24-5.20 Top KOLs talks in favor of the ecosystem and exchanges start listing ORDI, price climbed to 20 dollars the highest
-5.21-9.11 Most KOLs express skepticism about the BRC-20 ecosystem, and the downturn in the Bitcoin market has also impacted the ecosystem, community lacks of motivation due to low sentiment, price dropped to 2-8 dollar range
-9.11-now Unisat (the first exchange to list ORDI) published BRC-20 Swap and Binance listed ORDI, alongside with Bitcoin price pump, the price skyrocket almost 70 dollars the highest.

Keep in mind that most of current BRC-20 tokens have been created for educational, entertainment and experimental purposes and may not hold any future value due to the lack of real-world utility.
Relationship between Taproot, Ordinals and ORDI
To your better understanding of the ecosystem, below is an image illustration of the relationship in between.

Keep Your Ordinals Safe
While the ordinal ecosystem is still growing, engaging in it comes with its own risks. If you decide to do so, make sure to secure your private keys with a hardware wallet, such as that Ledger offers. Ledger Devices offer unparalleled security of your digital assets, and when securing digital artifacts such as Bitcoin Ordinals, it’s imperative to keep your keys safe and offline.
Purchase Ledger
Previously, many users in the Greater China region chose to purchase LEDGER products from overseas due to difficulties in domestic purchasing. However, this approach had long shipping times, required self-clearing customs, and carried the risk of customs delays. Additionally, users were concerned about the authenticity of the products they were buying. Now, as top channel service experts, ShangYi Group aims to address these issues comprehensively. Products will be shipped from Hong Kong with fast logistics and no customs risk. Furthermore, the products are sourced directly from the French headquarters to ensure authenticity and eliminate the risk of counterfeit products.
By purchasing through the official channels in mainland China, customers can also access official after-sales services, providing assistance with any questions or issues that may arise during use.
As the authorized distributor for Ledger in China, please verify the official website at www.sy-collection.com or visit the LEDGER website to get redirected to authorized reseller, clicking on the Greater China region to access the Shangyi official website. For customers in the Greater China region, it is advisable to make purchases through official channels to safeguard your digital assets.