Transactions as NFTs? Everything You Need to Know About Ethscriptions
TL;DR
- Ethscriptions turn images into hex data and inscribe them into each transaction.
- You can create Ethscriptions on their website or do it yourself.
- Putting them in Emblem curated vaults allows you to trade these transactions on major NFT platforms.
- Ethscriptions are like Bitcoin Ordinals but different in several ways. They have to potential to open up new horizons in the Web3 world.
The inception and implementation of Bitcoin Ordinals mark a giant leap Bitcoin has taken towards a more functional ecosystem like Ethereum without having to interact with any smart contract. These inscribed satoshis have rejuvenated the Bitcoin blockchain and brought us back to its finest days. Now, Ethscriptions have ported these digital artifacts to the Ethereum blockchain as a small step toward diversity and a huge step towards decentralization.
Understanding Ethscriptions
Similar to Bitcoin Ordinals, Ethscriptions stores information on the blockchain directly. As of now, you can only attach unique text or images (in the form of base64 encoded data URI) to transactions. This way, each inscribed transaction becomes a native NFT on the Ethereum blockchain. You can even trade these transactions with their Tx hashes.
How it Works
To create your first Ethscription, you need an Ethereum address. Head to Ethscription’s website, connect your wallet, upload your image, click on ‘ETHSCRIBE!’, and boom! your first Ethscription will be ready in seconds. Don’t forget to prepare enough ETH in your wallet for gas fees since more data translates into higher gas consumption.
You can also do it the hard way and inscribe any information you have in mind. Convert your image to base64 URI (skip this if you’re attaching pure text) before converting your URI or text to hex data. Then, initiate a transfer to yourself in your wallet and paste all these hex data into - you guessed it - the ‘Hex data’ section. Double-check everything before you proceed, and when your transaction is confirmed, your Ethscription will be cemented into the blockchain and displayed on ‘Recent Ethscriptions’ and ‘My Ethscriptions’ pages.
The Ethscriptions platform scans the entire Ethereum blockchain for transactions and lists all those eligible. Each transaction is assigned a unique identifier - a serial number. For example, the first transaction performed in this fashion was assigned the ID Ethscription #1.
Trading Ethscriptions
At the moment, trading Ethscriptions on NFT platforms can get a bit tricky. You have to create a curated vault on Emblem before listing them on OpenSea, Blur, LooksRare, or X2Y2. You can also try to get in contact with the owner of your desired Ethscription and make a private purchase, or seek potential buyers and sell your assets to them. Transferring Ethscriptions is even simpler than minting them - just include the transaction hash in the ‘Hex data’ section and send it to the next owner.
At the time of this writing (June 27, 2023), there are over 200,000 Ethscriptions minted, and some of them have already been sold at several ETHs.
Ethscriptions vs. Bitcoin Ordinals
It’s obvious as the day is bright that Ethscriptions draw heavy inspiration from Bitcoin Ordinals, as its creator states on its website. Both are attaching non-financial information to transactions and turning a fragment from the blockchain into a truly immutable asset.
But there are fundamental differences between the two. Ethscriptions leverage on Ethereum’s calldata function while Bitcoin Ordinals are more complex and similar to smart contracts. Images for Ethscriptions must be smaller than 96KB while Bitcoin Ordinals can host up to 4MB of data - images, text, video, or even code. This makes Ethscriptions more gas efficient than Bitcoin Ordinals and less likely to cause total gridlocks in the blockchain as the latter did in early May.
There’s more. Images attached to Ethscriptions must be unique, or they won’t be registered under your address. Bitcoin Ordinals, on the other hand, can host as many identical PFPs as you please.
Closing thoughts
Although Ethscriptions look like a step back toward a ‘smart’ blockchain, it is miles forward toward a truly decentralized asset collection. Most fungible tokens and NFTs released through smart contracts may look decentralized at first sight, but ultimately, they are controlled by centralized entities who have the ability to switch or even delete these assets at a whim. Ethscriptions, on the other hand, are immutable fragments of the ETH blockchain and are controlled only by their respective owners. These tokenized transactions have garnered quite some hype and collectors and investors alike are seeking to capitalize on this new trend. Remember to always do your own research (DYOR) as we venture into a new horizon for NFTs and the Web3 world at large.
