Unchained

Bitcoin’s BRC-20 Mania: Is It Sustainable? - Ep. 493

May 16, 2023

In this discussion, Bitcoin educator Dan Held and Bitcoin Frontier Fund's Trevor Owens dive into the world of BRC-20 tokens and their impact on Bitcoin's ecosystem. They unravel ordinal theory, highlighting the rise of NFTs and memecoins on Bitcoin. Both are optimistic about BRC-20s, with Trevor arguing they're superior to Ethereum's memecoins. They also tackle the surge in transaction fees, the potential for scaling solutions like Layer 2, and whether innovations like these will fulfill Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision for Bitcoin.

01:07:11

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Episode guests

Trevor Owens

Dan Held

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Episode notes

Intro

3min

Understanding Bitcoin's Unique Approach to Digital Assets and NFTs

4min

Exploring BRC20 Tokens on Bitcoin

14min

The Paradox of Worthlessness: Network Effects in Cryptocurrency

2min

Navigating Bitcoin's Rising Fees and Scalability Solutions

9min

The Controversy Surrounding BRC-20 Tokens and Network Strain

2min

Evolving Perspectives on Bitcoin's Purpose

32min

Ordinal theory has unleashed a new wave of NFTs, memecoins and innovation on Bitcoin — but not without controversy. Bitcoin educator Dan Held and Bitcoin Frontier Fund Managing Partner Trevor Owens join the show to discuss the breakneck rise of BRC-20s and why they’re both bullish on what memecoins mean for the original blockchain.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

what ordinal theory is and how it enabled Bitcoin “NFTs”
how the Ordinals Protocol differs from the ERC-721 token standard used by many Ethereum NFTs
how BRC-20s work by relying on some off-chain mechanisms
why Bitcoin is not a “dinosaur chain,” according to Dan
why Trevor says BRC-20 memecoins are superior to those on Ethereum
what the practical utilities of BRC-20s are, if any
why transaction fees in Bitcoin rose so much and why it’s healthy for the network
whether innovation is coming back to Bitcoin
whether Satoshi Nakamoto would have approved of Bitcoin NFTs
the role of speculation in fueling bitcoin adoption
the current and future state of layer 2s on Bitcoin
why Dan says BRC-20s “absolutely” solve the problem with Bitcoin’s security budget
why it’s hard to determine an “appropriate” amount for the security budget of Bitcoin
how the NFT market could be shaped after the rise of Ordinals and BRC-20s
what needs to be developed so that BRC-20s can flourish