Casey Rodarmor launches the Ordinals protocol on January 13, 2023, enabling arbitrary data (images, text, code) to be inscribed directly on individual satoshis using Bitcoin's SegWit and Taproot witness space. The first "Bitcoin NFTs" ignite a fierce debate about block space usage, fee market dynamics, and what Bitcoin is for. Supporters argued Ordinals increased miner revenue and proved Bitcoin's versatility; critics saw it as spam clogging the network. Either way, Ordinals drove a surge in transaction fees and renewed attention to Bitcoin's base layer.
Ordinals documentation