BTC116: BITCOIN ORDINALS AND NFTS ON LAYER 1 OF THE PROTOCOL

W/ PIERRE ROCHARD

Preston Pysh talks with Pierre Rochard about ordinals, how NFTs are now being written into the layer one Bitcoin blockchain, and whether or not it poses a potential attack vector to the protocol.

Subscribe through iTunes
Subscribe through Castbox
Subscribe through Spotify
Subscribe through Youtube

FOLLOW

Subscribe through iTunes
Subscribe through Castbox
Subscribe through Spotify
Subscribe through Youtube

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN

  • What are ordinals?
  • A history on what updates occurred that allowed this to start happening on layer 1 Bitcoin.
  • The idea of a soft fork limiting an op-push in the input / output portion of each block.
  • A background on the current mining company that nearly filled an entire block with a .jpg file.
  • Is this a coordinated DoS attack on the network? Could it be?
  • Are their concerns with illicit pictures being put onto the blockchain a potentially attack vector?
  • Couldn’t node operators simply run a pruned node to defend against such an attack?
  • What does this look like in 3 to 5 years from now if nothing is done?
  • Thoughts on Charlie Munger’s Wall Street Journal article bashing Bitcoin.

TRANSCRIPT

Disclaimer: The transcript that follows has been generated using artificial intelligence. We strive to be as accurate as possible, but minor errors and slightly off timestamps may be present due to platform differences.

[00:00:00] Preston Pysh: Hey everyone. Welcome to this Wednesday’s release of the Bitcoin Fundamentals Podcast. Back by popular demand is Mr. Pierre Rochard. Pierre and I have been having conversations about Bitcoin for more than five years now, and he has an in-depth understanding of the code, how exchanges work, mining, and everything else in between.

[00:00:17] Preston Pysh: And that’s why he’s the perfect person to have for a deep dive into ordinals and the impact of people being able to put NFTs onto the base layer of the Bitcoin protocol. Many people in the space are currently debating whether this is a good thing or bad thing, and there’s no one better than Pierre to come on and provide a good objective look at what it means and whether it potentially presents an attack vector to the protocol in the long term.

[00:00:41] Preston Pysh: So without further delay, here’s my chat with Mr. Pierre Rochard.

[00:00:48] Intro: You are listening to Bitcoin Fundamentals by The Investor’s Podcast Network. Now for your host, Preston Pysh.

[00:01:07] Preston Pysh: Hey everyone, welcome to the show. I’m here with Pierre. Pierre, welcome back.

[00:01:11] Pierre Rochard: Thanks for having me back, Preston. All right.

[00:01:14] Preston Pysh: What the hell is going on here with this ordinal stuff? I you know, on the face of it, I’m just looking at it, it’s like, hey, it’s a free and open market. Like, just let, let this be. But I think for most people, they might not even know what we’re talking about right now with respect to ordinal.

[00:01:30] Preston Pysh: So just give people a really simple way for them to understand this Pierre.

[00:01:36] Pierre Rochard: Yeah, sure thing. So the really simple way to understand it is, In 2021, we activated a software called Taproot. Taproot completely changed how Bitcoin scripting, how smart contracts on Bitcoin are done, and one of the differences with past scripting systems in Bitcoin is that there’s really no limit to how much data you can put in what is called an input. So an input is the piece of the transaction. In fact, most transactions have several inputs that allows you to unlock Bitcoin from what’s called an unspent transaction output, a preexisting output that came from another past transaction.

HELP US OUT!

Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it!

BOOKS AND RESOURCES

NEW TO THE SHOW?

P.S The Investor’s Podcast Network is excited to launch a subreddit devoted to our fans in discussing financial markets, stock picks, questions for our hosts, and much more! Join our subreddit r/TheInvestorsPodcast today!

SPONSORS

  • Get personalized, expert advice that helps you see things clearly with ATB.
  • Take stock of your finances and investing strategy with Betterment.
  • Talk to your clients about Desjardins Responsible Investment today and support what’s right for society and what’s good for business.
  • Send, spend, and receive money around the world easily with Wise.
  • Let an expert do your taxes from start to finish so you can relax with TurboTax.
  • If your business has five or more employees and managed to survive Covid you could be eligible to receive a payroll tax rebate of up to twenty-six thousand dollars per employee. Find out if your business qualifies with Innovation Refunds.
  • Invest in high-quality, cash-flowing real estate without all of the hassle with Passive Investing.
  • Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors.

CONNECT WITH PRESTON

CONNECT WITH PIERRE

PROMOTIONS

Check out our latest offer for all The Investor’s Podcast Network listeners!

WSB Promotions

We Study Markets