Ordinals protocol is the IP protocol of the BTC ecosystem

First of all, let us pay tribute to Casey (https://twitter.com/rodarmor), the creator of the Ordinals Protocol, and express our gratitude for providing us with the possibility to create more miracles on a great product like BTC.

The importance of the Ordinals Protocol has been recognized by the majority, but we believe that its significance and value have only scratched the surface, and its infinite potential has yet to be fully explored. If we were to make a straightforward comparison, we would say that the importance and value of the Ordinals Protocol can be likened to the IP protocol of the Internet.

Why do we say this? The role of the IP protocol is very simple: it solves the addressing and data transmission issues. These two problems are the core issues of the Internet: addressing helps you find the other party, and data transmission enables communication between both sides. All other network applications are built upon this simple functionality. As a fundamental core protocol, it doesn't need to be complex; it just needs to solve the most essential and universal problems, and countless complex applications will naturally grow on top of it. So, what problems need to be solved for the development of the BTC ecosystem? We believe that one is the problem of asset issuance, and the other is to provide application scenarios for these issued assets that can accommodate a large number of participants. As long as these two problems can be solved, the BTC ecosystem will naturally flourish.

How does the Ordinals Protocol address these two problems? The ability to issue assets has already been proven by Ordinals. But how can these assets be used and accommodate a large number of participants? It is clear that this cannot be solved on the Bitcoin mainnet, with its high transaction fees and unpredictable transaction confirmation times that can take up to half an hour, which is enough to drive people crazy. If it can't be done on the mainnet, the natural solution is to consider Layer 2 networks. However, in history, no sidechain, Layer 2 network, or even new public chains like Ethereum have been able to prove that BTC can be safely transferred in and out. The reasons are simple: one is the inability to solve the problem of users controlling their own assets (Not your keys, not your coins), and the other is the inability to change BTC's consensus. Any fork that does not gain the maximum consensus has ultimately been proven to be a failure. So far, perhaps only the Lightning Network can be considered a native Layer 2 network for BTC because through the Lightning Network, users can securely, economically, and quickly use BTC for payments without needing to place their coins in someone else's wallet. Please note the keywords: security comes first, with economic and speed being secondary. There have been too many proposals regarding BTC's Layer 2 and virtual machines, but until the products are launched, no one knows if they can solve the problem. As users, prioritizing security is not wrong. If we don't consider security issues, the problem is not that complicated, and various centralized platforms and products offer excellent experiences without users having to worry about their own account issues. We don't know which one will ultimately emerge as the winner, but we believe that the winner will undoubtedly be the protocol that allows assets issued on the mainnet to be natively and securely transferred to Layer 2. Currently, the Lightning Network is the only one that meets this criterion. Assets issued by the Ordinals Protocol can be natively and securely transferred to the Lightning Network because Ordinals assets themselves are Bitcoin. Since BTC can be natively and securely transferred to the Lightning Network, Ordinals assets have this capability as well, and it is native without requiring any changes to BTC's consensus. The combination of the Ordinals Protocol and the Lightning Network, with their security, economy, speed, abundant application scenarios, and a large number of users, forms the foundation for the vibrant development of the BTC ecosystem.

Of course, the Ordinals Protocol still has a long way to go to achieve this goal, and the protocol itself needs to enhance many capabilities, such as the ability to issue fungible tokens (FT) and how to integrate with the Lightning Network, among others. All of these issues are what the Ordinals X Protocol aims to solve. The ordx protocol does not change the Ordinals Protocol; it simply enhances it and explores the path to integration with the Lightning Network. In a platform where users can securely control their assets, with low transaction costs and fast transaction speeds, we can imagine that a new era of the Internet based on an IP protocol is on the horizon.