Ordinals update unlocks ‘Cursed Inscriptions’ NFTs on the protocol

The developers of the Bitcoin protocol Ordinals have released version 0.6.0. The update partially indexes more than 71,000 “Cursed Inscriptions” and will enable trading them.

Just released a new version of ord (0.6.0), which implements the first steps in recognizing more types of inscriptions (cursed inscriptions). Additionally you can now pass in RPC credentials through command-line flags, environmental vars or a config file.https://t.co/Xi6C92cC6z

— raph (@raphjaph) June 4, 2023

Cursed Inscriptions are a universal term that covers Bitcoin NFTs, intentionally or inadvertently issued with incorrect operation codes. These digital artifacts are assigned negative ordinal numbers. They exist on the Bitcoin blockchain, but are not tied to a specific satoshi in their genesis block and cannot be transferred to anyone.

Following the release, marketplaces will allow users to trade “incorrect” Ordinals.

The protocol team deliberately excluded from the update certain types of “Cursed Inscriptions,” such as those with unrecognizable even tags like OP_66. They plan to address this task in a future update.

“This is our solution to a critical problem in protocol development, which allows expanding it without changing existing inscription numbers. Cursed Inscriptions are the keystone of the architecture that supports growth and expansion without compromising stability,” noted the developer going by the handle ordinally.

3/9 Cursed inscriptions are our solution to a critical challenge in protocol development – they allow for extensions to the protocol without changing existing inscription numbers. They’re the keystone in the arch that supports growth and expansion without compromising stability.

— ordinally (@veryordinally) June 4, 2023

The publisher of The Ordinal Show newsletter noted that, unlike indexed artifacts, the corrected negative numbers of “Cursed Inscriptions” after the update may continue to change. New artifacts of this type will immediately have “normal” immutable numbers.

Version 0.6.0 of the Ordinals Protocol just went live!

Here is everything you need to know about this major update:

Many previously unrecognized inscriptions are now indexed by the Ordinals Protocol as “Cursed Inscriptions”. This is important because over 70k existing but… pic.twitter.com/Mh1pArg2p9

— Leonidas.og (@LeonidasNFT) June 4, 2023

As of the end of May, the total number of NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain issued via the Ordinals protocol surpassed 10 million. More than 80% of them are linked to BRC-20.