I see a lot of discussion around the parent-child standard on Bitcoin Ordinals and whether it determines if a series of inscriptions qualifies as a collection or not.
Here are some facts & personal thoughts ⬇️
Currently, the best way to prove provenance on Bitcoin Ordinals is through the parent-child standard.
No serious argument can deny this today; those who do often have personal interests that don’t align with this fact. But the truth is, it is a fact.
Inscribing with a parent is not enough, you also need to give value and authority to this parent.
Good exemples of this are:
-
@SeizeCTRL /
@thesovereignbtc /
@onepennypiece
-
@OnChainMonkey /
@huuep /
@amandaterry
-
@chatFUKR /
@harvey_rayner
-
@Ordinals10K
- and of course
@vivid_ordinals /
@pierrot_tech
(Sorry if I didn't mention everyone, I'll be glad to discover more in the comments)
Sure, there are other "collections" out there that don't have a parent. If you're comfortable trusting a centralized entity, that's your choice—I have no issue with that.
However, as Ordinals collectors, I believe we should hold ourselves and the work of ecosystem builders to a higher standard.
OG collections have a valid excuse for not having a parent, but those inscribing today should all be using the parent-child standard. Otherwise, they’re likely being lazy or incompetent, aiming to maximize their value extraction from this ecosystem.
Yes, doing things right takes more time and money, but that’s the cost of ensuring quality.
"Don’t trust, verify."
We're still in the early stages of Ordinals, and people have started trusting their favorite founders, artists, and marketplaces without verifying, just to be "early." Now that things have calmed down, I encourage everyone to pause and start verifying. This approach should yield significant benefits in the future.
- Study Provenance
- Think twice before making a purchase
- Ask questions
- Check if the piece you're buying has a parent and investigate its full provenance
- If it doesn't, ask if the team plans to prove provenance ON-CHAIN
Update on
@vivid_ordinals:
- We've implemented Parent-Child Provenance as soon as possible.
- We're developing an on-chain family tree for our artists and collections to make things easier for collectors and to ensure the future value of all VIVID pieces.
- We’ll soon offer an on-chain solution to prove the provenance of the only two collections without a parent (SATS by Harto and Rising Echoes by Medusa).
- We’ll soon enhance the on-chain readability of past collections' provenance.
- We care deeply about what we inscribe on the blockchain, so we take the time to do it right.
I think I'll start posting more about the parent-child standard since too few founders are talking about it.
Btw, you can explore the
@vivid_ordinals family tree and its future evolution here ➡️
ordinals.com/inscription/b23…