The trend of engraving serial numbers on the Bitcoin blockchain has been a recent trend, and now it appears that Litecoin is following suit. This technology has been ported to the Litecoin network, and the number of inscriptions on the Litecoin chain has exceeded 13,000.
Software developer Anthony Guerrera is the person responsible for implementing the ordinal inscription on the Litecoin network. Guerrera was awarded 22 Litecoins for porting the technology to a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain. In a move to the delight of supporters of the cryptocurrency network Litecoin (LTC), they will now be able to use serial number inscriptions on the network.
Litecoin’s codebase has similarities to Bitcoin, including the addition of Segregated Witness (Segwit) and Taproot. These properties make it possible to use ordinal inscriptions on the Litecoin network.
“BTC Ordinals are now on Litecoin,” Guerrera said on Feb. 18. The developer also shared the open-source code repository hosted on Github, explaining that he wrote the first Ordinal on-chain. Guerrera further added: “The first Litecoin Ordinal has already been inscribed on the Litecoin blockchain. The mimblewimble whitepaper will live forever in Litecoin.”
Since the release of the codebase and the first Litecoin-based Ordinal Inscription, the number of LTC-based Ordinals has increased significantly. As of now, there are approximately 13,211 serial numbers on the Litecoin blockchain. Many have shared their Litecoin Ordinal inscriptions on social media and promoted their newly launched LTC-based collectibles.
The trend of ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain has been growing rapidly, with more than 160,000 ordinal numbers. This growth trend shows no signs of slowing down, and people are building infrastructure around Bitcoin-based serial numbers, such as serial number inscriptions that can be minted without a full node with base fees, wallets, and markets.
Numerous collectibles are vying to become the “blue chip” non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Bitcoin blockchain. It’s hard to predict whether the Litecoin trend will grow like it did on the Bitcoin network, but after Guerrera minted the first one, thousands followed suit.
It will be interesting to see if digital collectibles minted on Bitcoin or Litecoin enter the established NFT market economy dominated by chains like Ethereum.