Key Takeaways:
- Ethscriptions, inspired by Bitcoin inscriptions, have garnered massive popularity with over 130,000 created in just four days.
- Utilizing Ethereum’s calldata, Ethscriptions offer efficient minting of NFTs within existing smart contracts at lower costs.
- Developed by Tom Lehman, co-founder and former CEO of Genius.com, Ethscriptions have sparked interest as almost all 10,000 CryptoPunks images are now “ethscribed”.
Ethscriptions are rapidly making waves in the crypto community, as enthusiasts and investors alike rally behind this innovative development. Ethscriptions are transactions on the Ethereum blockchain that utilize Ethereum’s calldata to store information, specifically data URIs, directly on the blockchain.
This memory component, called calldata, stores function call arguments during smart contract interactions and has now found a new use case in Ethscriptions. Notably, Ethscriptions can be traded, bought, sold, or stored just like NFTs.
However, unlike NFTs which store images in contract storage and are bound by smart contract logic. Ethscriptions are simply data preserved on Ethereum as part of a transaction, making them significantly cheaper while maintaining the same provenance as on-chain NFTs.
They do not hold logic in smart contracts, rendering them less ‘powerful’, but this is viewed by many as a feature, not a bug. The brainchild of Tom Lehman, Ethscriptions have taken the market by storm, with over 130,000 Ethscriptions created in the past four days and 260+ ETH ($447,000 USD) volume on OpenSea.
The frenzy was fueled further when Lehman called for the famed NFT collection CryptoPunks to be “ethscribed”, leading to nearly all 10,000 CryptoPunks images being inscribed in a matter of hours. This surge in popularity may be attributed to the reduced costs associated with utilizing calldata, as well as the novelty and potential of this nascent asset class.
As Ethscriptions continue to gain traction, they may herald a new era for crypto investments, providing an alternative to traditional NFTs. Looking ahead, the crypto community is eager to discover what other applications and use cases Ethscriptions may serve.
Their cost-effectiveness, coupled with the immutable nature of blockchain storage, may offer unforeseen opportunities in the evolving world of crypto investments. How the future will unfold though, only time will tell.
Source
https://twitter.com/0x_Beans/status/1670951764844253184/photo/1
https://twitter.com/0x_Beans/status/1670951764844253184/photo/1