Design Concept
The digital currency market has been developing for fifteen years and has reached a new stage where a breakthrough is imminent. I still remember the novelty I felt when I saw someone spend 10,000 bitcoins on a pizza in 2010. At that time, I was working on security-related technologies and became interested in the security issues of payment technology. I started studying the Bitcoin whitepaper, which opened a new window for me and glimpsed that free and beautiful realm.
Along this journey, we have had our own reflections, experienced different landscapes and challenges, and learned a lot from pioneers. All of these have ultimately shaped the design concept of the OrdX protocol. Let's briefly introduce them one by one.
Simple is Beautiful
No magic, no massive computations, no complex rules, and definitely no infinite nesting. Everything is simple and straightforward, utilizing familiar technologies, without changing people's usage habits or wasting existing infrastructure. With a little understanding, one can immediately grasp the underlying principles. E=mc^2, very simple, very elegant, even elementary school students know what it means. All complex principles should be hidden behind, presenting a simple and elegant result. We are still striving towards this direction.
Creating assets out of thin air is a kind of magic that is hard to comprehend. We chose "sats," the basic unit of Bitcoin, as the underlying asset of the OrdX protocol, making it simple and easy to understand.
The issuance rules are simple. If it's a regular token, specify a range of minting heights, and it can only be minted within that range. If it's a token issued on a special sat, the quantity of that special sat is inherently limited.
Tailored for fair launches: The project team deploys the contract in advance and announces when mining will begin, ensuring openness and fairness. There is no pre-mining, no hidden smart contracts—it's simple and effective.
Flexibility for project teams: If a project team wants to have control, they can deploy a contract with a small range and mint one billion tokens at a time, then announce the token usage plan after completion.
Familiar and easy-to-understand token format: Since everyone is familiar with the token format of BRC-20, we chose to use the BRC-20 token format instead of creating a new format that would increase the learning burden.
No ledger, BTC itself is the ledger: Tokens are bound to sats and cannot be changed. Wherever the sat goes, the token goes.
Client-side verification: The design principle of the protocol is that clients can verify the assets based on the Ordinals protocol itself, even without the indexing service of OrdX. All data is on the BTC mainnet, and the OrdX protocol only listens and verifies.
Mature market infrastructure: The Ordinals market has been developed for a year and is already very mature. There is no need to waste resources building new platforms and wallets; existing infrastructure can be used.
Simple yet unlimited imagination: The Ordinals protocol makes asset issuance possible by providing positioning capabilities on the BTC network (where the sat is) and data read/write capabilities (reading and writing data on the sat). Ordinals assets are permanently bound to sats, one sat per asset, and can never be changed. This is very similar to the two cornerstones of the IP protocol, UDP and TCP, which laid the most crucial foundation for the era of the Internet.
The simplicity and elegance of the OrdX protocol go far beyond these points and need to be explored by everyone gradually.
User Control is Paramount
The importance of user control is something that people in this field understand best: "not your keys, not your coins." Users can only ensure the security of their digital assets by firmly controlling their private keys and not disclosing them to anyone. In the Bitcoin (BTC) community, the motto is "Don't trust, verify." We only verify data on the BTC mainnet and do not need to trust any third party. We do not trust applications that require us to store our BTC in their wallets, claim to have ten thousand nodes signing to secure our BTC, or involve cross-chain transactions or swapping our BTC for another coin. We trust only the BTC mainnet, and by trusting it, we can protect our assets and engage in trustless transactions with anyone. We rely solely on the BTC mainnet, with the BTC network providing the security protection, which is the core belief of the BTC ecosystem.
BTC Native
Two key factors for the development of the BTC ecosystem are the issuance of assets and Layer 2 networks, which must be natively supported by BTC. This is because only in this way can users have control and security over their assets, making them willing to participate in this ecosystem. Without the support of core BTC users, the BTC ecosystem would be meaningless.
All types of assets that will inevitably appear in the BTC ecosystem must be issued on the BTC mainnet. Any assets not issued on the BTC mainnet are not part of the BTC ecosystem. BTC's Layer 2 networks can only be native Layer 2 solutions, not various cross-chain and sidechain schemes. Currently, the most well-known native solutions supported by the BTC mainnet are BitVM and the Lightning Network. While BitVM is still a long way off, the Lightning Network has been applied for many years and is highly mature.
The OrdX protocol is designed based on the above conclusions: OrdX assets themselves are Ordinals assets, bound to sats, with one asset per sat, and transfers are based on UTXOs. OrdX chose to support the Lightning Network to implement the Layer 2 solution, which provides a strong foundation. With this solution, users do not need to give up control of their BTC. As long as the BTC mainnet operates normally, users can reclaim their BTC without anyone's permission, without the need for an additional ten thousand nodes' joint signatures or going through a single point of failure. This ensures the security of their assets.
Developing the BTC Ecosystem
Since the OrdX protocol is rooted in the BTC ecosystem, the prosperity and vitality of the BTC ecosystem are crucial for the robust growth of the OrdX protocol. As a member of the BTC ecosystem, the OrdX protocol must strive to promote the overall development of the ecosystem.
The BTC ecosystem is still in its early stages. There is no mature and stable protocol for asset issuance that seamlessly transfers mainnet assets to Layer 2 networks. Moreover, will there ultimately be just one protocol or multiple protocols coexisting to meet different needs? The debate on BTC's Layer 2 networks is not yet settled, and there are already numerous projects preparing for battle. Not to mention what kind of flowers will bloom in the BTC ecosystem soil once the foundation is solid. All of this is unknown. However, exploration and competition are good things, as they will lead to finding the most suitable development path for the BTC ecosystem more quickly.
Our team will fully devote itself to the construction and development of the BTC ecosystem, learning from excellent technologies and experiences, and attempting to forge our own path. We adhere to the principle of BTC nativeness and the belief that simple is beautiful, utilizing concepts and technologies that users are familiar with and easy to understand, and prioritizing the security of user assets. Starting from the two most important issues in the development of the BTC ecosystem, we will plan our product development roadmap. From the asset issuance protocol OrdX to the Layer 2 network protocol OL, which combines the Ordinals protocol and the Lightning Network protocol, and finally to the OLDEX application based on the OL protocol, we will contribute our efforts to facilitate the circulation and widespread use of BTC assets. We believe that the BTC ecosystem is on the verge of the Internet's dawn in the year 2000, and we believe that the Ordinals protocol will be the core foundation of this vast ecosystem, with OrdX enhancing it and preparing it for seamless transition to Layer 2 networks. A grand ecosystem full of opportunities has begun, and we are committed to moving forward, even if it turns out that the path we chose is not the right one in the end.
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