This panel discussion at the Black Blockchain Summit, moderated by Eric Guthrie, focused on NFTs, ordinals, and runes within the blockchain space. Panelists—including Ryan Cooper, David Benjamin, and Bio Cusagna—explained NFTs as unique digital assets and described ordinals as Bitcoin-based NFTs with unique on-chain data storage capabilities, allowing for up to 4MB of data inscribed on individual satoshis. They discussed the emergence of runes as a complementary, fungible token protocol on Bitcoin designed to reduce network congestion. The group examined the potential risks of ecosystem fragmentation and emphasized the importance of interoperability at the application level. They explored the future utility of ordinals, including namespaces, real-world asset tokenization, metaverse integration, gaming, and dynamic NFTs with evolving metadata. Fractionalization of ordinals and runes was addressed, noting the ongoing Layer 2 developments enabling partial ownership and trading. Successful projects in this space were highlighted, such as music NFTs by Vetta Zeroni and collections like Pizza Ninjas. The panelists forecasted growth in gaming and metaverse applications as primary drivers for adoption. Overall, the discussion underlined ordinals’ programmable versatility and emerging real-world utility, with a strong emphasis on bridging physical and digital asset ownership through blockchain innovations.
