Protocol Newsletter’s 2024 Blockchain Technology Predictions

Over the past few weeks on Protocol, we’ve been documenting how Ordinals inscriptions, colloquially known as “Bitcoin’s NFTs,” are loved by fans. Highly regarded by fee-hungry minersHated by some Blockchain purist. A huge hit at the beginning of the year, they have now fully captured their “second wind”, as Reflexivity Research puts it. Bitcoin transaction fees increase to Best ever. They have also become mainstream. last week “BitcoinShrooms” Collection – two Super Mario-style mushroom characters and a pixelated avocado – for sale at the prestigious Sotheby’s auction house For about $450,000, or five times the highest estimate; Needless to say, there are plans to sell more soon. The inscription fad has spread to other blockchains as well, with similar techniques blocking networks including: decisionAvalanche, Kronos, zkSync, The Open Network and Celestia, according to analytics firm FundStrat. Greg Cipolo, head of research at Nydig, said: report “How much is Bitcoin backed up?”Mempool” – resulting in a backlog of transactions waiting to be processed. “The transaction queue stretched across an astonishing 372 blocks, equivalent to almost 2.6 days assuming 144 blocks per day,” Cipolo wrote. What are the implications? According to Cipolo, “Fees are now playing a much more important role in miners’ revenue.” The additional revenue could help offset the expected impact of next year’s ‘halving’, when block rewards are automatically increased by 50%. Although set to adjust, this scenario could also force a deep rethink (or revolt) on the part of users or businesses that may have been planning based on expectations of cheap deals.