Elon Musk made an intriguing suggestion regarding NFTs, which delighted many Bitcoin enthusiasts. During a podcast, the Tesla CEO and billionaire openly ridiculed non-fungible tokens (NFTs), expressing his interest in Bitcoin Ordinals, also referred to as Bitcoin NFTs.
In an interview released on October 31st, Musk appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience and stated that NFTs are not truly on the blockchain; they merely consist of a URL linking to a JPEG image. Musk argued that NFTs should include the actual image data encoded in the blockchain to safeguard the assets of NFT owners in case the hosting company goes under.
Meanwhile, the Bitcoin community engaged in heated debates on social media regarding Musk’s comments. Many supported his claim about the use case for Bitcoin Ordinals. It is worth noting that Bitcoin NFTs were introduced by Casey Rodarmor in January. The introduction of Ordinals became possible thanks to the Taproot soft fork, which enables more intricate transaction types.
In response to Musk’s remarks on NFTs, crypto analyst Will Clemente highlighted an interesting fact: there are over 38 million Ordinal inscriptions that will forever remain on Bitcoin’s blockchain.
Rohun “Frank” Vora, the creator of NFT projects DeGods and y00ts, also supported Musk’s comments on X (formerly Twitter), saying that Ordinals will continue to grow because it’s the most elegant solution to one of the most universal criticisms of NFTs.
Ordinals developer known as “Leonidas” was also among those who supported Musk’s view on Bitcoin. Ordinals, after he inscribed a video on X (formerly Twitter) of Musk saying that NFTs are “not even on the blockchain.”
In December 2021, Musk previously criticized NFTs, calling them a sign of mental illness in a meme showing a patient lying on a therapist’s couch.
While Musk’s comments apply to some NFTs on Ethereum, others like CryptoPunks are already stored on-chain. Larva Labs moved CryptoPunks on-chain in August 2021 to make the project more resilient after they lived off-chain for the first four years.
In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Arthur B., a user revealed that although Musk’s statement regarding NFTs is correct. However, with rare exceptions, it’s also silly to insist NFT content be on-chain.
In September, Metagood, the team behind the Ethereum-native OnChainMonkeys, announced that it would migrate its NFTs to Bitcoin. The firm’s CEO, Danny Yang, never directly addressed the issue regarding the JPEG dilemma, but he explained that NFTs will be more profitable and long-lasting on Bitcoin because it is a secure network to work from compared to Ethereum.
However, according to data sourced from CoinGecko, Ethereum still houses 84% of all NFT trading volumes. Bitcoin with a market share of 11% and ImmutableX with a market share of 2.5% came in second and third respectively.
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