- Bitcoin Ordinals fans have supported Elon Musk in slamming NFTs that exist off-chain
- The billionaire holds that most collectibles are just JPEGs and collectors are bound to lose them once their developers go out of business
- Musk has asked such NFT projects to “at least encode” the images on the blockchain
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has slammed most NFTs for being images that live outside the blockchain as “just a URL to the JPEG.” His observation attracted the support of Bitcoin Ordinals fans who consider the project to be superior to its peers since the collectibles are inscribed directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. Musk has requested NFT projects to “at least encode” the images on the blockchain to avoid investors losing their collectibles when such projects go out of business, further building the case for Bitcoin NFTs.
Ordinals Solve a Nagging Problem
Appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Musk noted that some NFTs are just URLs pointing to a JPEG image stored on a centralized server. Although projects like CryptoPunks and Moonbirds store artworks directly on the Ethereum blockchain, Bitcoin Ordinals fans seemed to be the most excited by Musk’s view of NFTs.
Podcast with the great and powerful @elonmusk #ad Full episode is 2 hours and 41 minutes, first 2 hours is available here on https://t.co/AIkGSaxVMA pic.twitter.com/DQh0GGNyaO
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) October 31, 2023
Some Bitcoiners took the moment to point out that there are over 30 million inscriptions on the “most secure open source monetary network on the planet.”
DeGods creator Rohun Vora also joined the conversation saying that the fact that Bitcoin NFTs exist on-chain will make the “Ordinals [project] continue to grow.” Vora added that Ordinals provide the solution to a problem that has nagged the NFT space for years.
This is why Ordinals will continue to grow.
It’s the most elegant solution to one of the most universal criticisms of NFTs. https://t.co/feVYFbv7eL
— DeGod #2505 (@frankdegods) November 1, 2023
Not Everyone Agrees
Although this isn’t Musk’s first mockery of NFTs, it’s among the few times that he has clearly expressed his thoughts on virtual collectibles. However, not everyone agreed with Musk’s opinion with some saying that “it’s also silly to insist NFT content be on-chain.”
.@elonmusk is correct that having NFT merely provide an http link to someone’s domain is silly.
However, with rare exceptions, it’s also silly to insist NFT content be on chain,
IPFS links, with the content backed by whoever owns the NFT is the natural solution.
— Arthur B. 🌮 (@ArthurB) November 1, 2023
The Ordinals fever has spread to other chains such as Ethereum and Litecoin and has also led to the birth of a new standard called BRC69. The project also recently unveiled a non-profit organization to help fund maintenance activities.
With Musk reviving the issue of NFTs being off-chain JPEG images, it’s to be seen whether it’ll compel affected projects to move their creations on-chain.
