NFTs ‘on Bitcoin’: Yes, That’s a Thing! Non-fungible tokens | Bitcoin Industry
NFTs ‘on Bitcoin’: Yes, That’s a Thing!
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are all the rage right now. From CryptoPunks to Bored Apes, millions in crypto are exchanging hands for pixel art, tokenized memes, and crypto collectibles.
For the most part, the action takes place on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, which has made some hardcore bitcoiners skeptical of this new crypto market segment. However, there is also a market of NFTs secured by the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain.
Read on to learn about what’s happening with Bitcoin-secured NFTs.
Until recently, Ethereum has been the go-to blockchain for minting and trading NFTs. That is changing quickly, however, as Ethereum high gas fees have pushed out many would-be market participants, making NFTs on other chains more attractive.
The Bitcoin blockchain has also a role to play here.
While NFTs “on Bitcoin” don’t exist purely on the Bitcoin blockchain (in a way that ERC721 tokens exist on Ethereum), they are secured by the Bitcoin blockchain. The additional tech stack that powers the ability to issue and secure NFTs with Bitcoin is provided by the likes of Counterparty, Stacks, and the Liquid Network.
Scarce City is a Bitcoin-secured art auction platform that enables artists to sell their artwork for BTC.
The Scarce City team claims that “Bitcoin’s finest goods should be sold according to the network’s properties of pseudonymous, borderless, permissionless, trust minimized, and verifiable authenticity and supply.”
On the auction platform, art is sold via Lightning-powered auctions to “keep auction participants accountable by collateralizing their bids through instant, anonymous, low-fee Lightning Network payments,” the team explains on its website.
In addition to giving artists the ability to sell their physical art in exchange for BTC, the marketplace also sells an NFT series based on the Pepe The Frog internet meme, called the Rare Pepe collection.
Rare Pepe NFTs are powered by Counterparty - an open-source protocol built on top of the Bitcoin network - that uses the Bitcoin blockchain to record data.
