Checking in on Ordinals Projects: Part 1

The rumors of Ordinals’ demise have been greatly exaggerated! Despite challenging times affecting the entire crypto landscape, both the protocol and the community remain robust. Now is an opportune moment to revisit the projects we’ve discussed in 2023.

Is everything still as promising as before, or have some projects faltered amidst the waning hype?

Ordinal Penguins

While the Pengus may not be making headlines in public, the community is still buzzing inside the token-gated channels in the Discord server. Ordinal Penguins stand as one of the original and enduring communities within the Ordinals ecosystem, and many continue to hold since entering during their February launch.

Back in May, the pengs were at the forefront of the BRC20 craze, catching onto the trend before it truly skyrocketed. If you were a Penguin holder checking the holders channel a couple of times a day during that period, you would have done very well.

While opportunities such as those are currently more far and few between, there are still astute characters in there dropping knowledge and insights. Not only is this a sub-10K project inscribed on 2009 sats, but also grants you access to a close-knit group of highly informed individuals who are well-versed in all things Ordinals and beyond.

Previous Article: Ordinal penguins: The Sleeper Project With Historical Significance

Follow on X: https://twitter.com/OrdinalPenguins

Nullish

A lot has happened since we covered Nullish way back in March! Back then, the rare sat hunter had announced he had found sats mined by the legendary Hal Finney, and was now embarking on a mission to find sats from Block 9, those mined by none other than Satoshi Nakamoto himself.

It didn’t take long for Nullish to accomplish this goal, and he partnered up with OMB on their Green Eyes mint, where each one of the supply was inscribed on those very Block 9 sats that Nullish excavated.

Subsequently, Nullish announced his partnership with Cypherpunk Ghosts. Both parties encouraged their respective communities to delve into coding, craft their own cypherpunk manifestos on Ordinals, and submit pull requests on GitHub referencing their inscriptions.

Following this, in September, Nullish airdropped The Forgotten Manifesto, a new collector’s piece within the Nullish collection, to those who successfully completed the challenge.

Previous Article: Sat Hunter Nullish Makes Huge Bitcoin Discovery

Follow on X: https://twitter.com/null_ish

Taproot Wizards

Udi Wertheimer and Eric Wall had the Ordinals community in the palm of their hands back in March with their Wizard School challenges. Hundreds of submissions poured in, featuring wizard enthusiasts filming themselves in the shower donning wizard costumes.

Additionally, other challenges prompted people to engage with Bitcoin in novel ways and explore applications they had never used before. Much like Nullish’s Cypherpunk Challenge, this approach cleverly encouraged people to embrace technology as intended, all while having fun!

We eagerly await the next round of challenges, but in the meantime, Udi has been playfully poking fun at the “laser eye maxis” who were ruffled by his apparent lack of seriousness toward Bitcoin. In truth, Udi and Eric deserve much credit for the resurgence of Bitcoin in 2023, rebranding it from the stuffy, slow, and dare I say, boring image it had carried for some time.

Whenever the Taproot wizards collection does drop, it’s sure to be highly successful.

Previous Article: Taproot Wizards: Making Bitcoin Magical Again

Follow on X: https://twitter.com/TaprootWizards

ExtraOrdinals

The ExtraOrdinals successfully minted out their tertiary collection, Orbinals, and in doing so, welcomed several hundred more members into their community. Like many projects, XO has taken a quieter stance as the market experiences a downturn, choosing to concentrate on building their brand and reputation as the foremost Ordinals community for education and news dissemination.

Nevertheless, valuable insights can still be found in their chats, with vigilant members sharing the latest developments, particularly in the BRC20 chat channel. Given the current state of affairs, who knows how long this will continue, but that’s a tale for Part 2!

Previous Articles: ExtraOrdinals: The Next Big Thing On Ordinals? and ExtraOrdinals Perpares To Unveil Highly Anticipated Orbinals Collection

Follow on X: https://twitter.com/ExtraordinalBTC

CTRL

Jameson Mah’s project, CTRL, burst onto the scene with a flurry of excitement. Its slickly produced promo videos and the engaging “Fiat Funeral” community task, where participants recorded themselves creatively destroying fiat currency, generated considerable hype. Furthermore, the artwork resonated deeply with people, standing out from the typical PFP collection that has flooded the space.

Since its launch, interest in the project has waned, and in my view, the trouble began when they attempted to preempt OMB’s mint date by a few days. I spoke to many who were on the whitelist for both projects at the time, and almost all mentioned the challenge of affording both given their relatively high prices. They ultimately chose OMB, and it was unfortunate that such a decision had to be made. This was evident on CTRL’s mint day when they didn’t fully sell out their supply, while OMB did so a few days later, boasting a supply which was much larger.

Following allegations surrounding the origin of their impressive artwork, CTRL responded robustly by revealing the artist behind it, One Penny Piece, in a grand announcement. The latest news is that physical versions of his artwork will be released through CTRL for project holders.

Previous Article: Taking Back CTRL: The Struggle For Financial Justice

Follow on X: https://twitter.com/SeizeCTRL

Final Thoughts

In Part 2, we will revisit and look at updates for:

• YugaLabs’ TwelveFold
• BRC20 ecosystem
• Bitcoin Miladys
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