A small cash reward and the ability to code was all it took to fork the Ordinals protocol into the world’s second Litecoin (LTC) cryptocurrency network earlier this week, its creator told Cryptooshala.
On February 18, an Australian software engineer named Anthony Guerrera posted storage on GitHub, which split the Bitcoin (BTC) Ordinals protocol into Litecoin. This allowed assets like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be used on the Litecoin network in much the same way as was done with bitcoin earlier this year.
In an interview with Cryptooshala, Guerrera said he was motivated to fork Litecoin Ordinal because of the 5 LTC reward posted by pseudonymous Twitter user Indigo Nakamoto on Feb. 11, which rose to 22 LTC, or about $2,000, for anyone who was first. for successful fork creation.
22 $LTC port ordinals to #litecoin from:
+5 $LTC @indigo_nakamoto
+5 $LTC @ryanrights
+5 $LTC @MASTERBTCLTC
+ 2 $LTC @ChiefLitecoin
+5 $LTC @finitemaz https://t.co/7X4JfMzq97— Indigo | Nakamotoist (@indigo_nakamoto) February 16, 2023
“I knew it was possible because Litecoin has a main root as well as SegWit,” Guerrera said, adding:
“I was in some kind of crazy rush trying to get it done as quickly as possible.”
Taproot and SegWit are the names given to updates to the Bitcoin protocol that were aimed at improving the privacy and efficiency of the network, but also allowed NFT-like structures, called “tokens,” to be attached to Satoshi.
The cost of embedding an image on the Bitcoin blockchain can be tens of dollars depending on its size, but Guerrera said the cost of embedding a Litoshi — the LTC equivalent of a Satoshi — is “about two cents.”
A point of contention among bitcoiners is the block space that ordinals occupy on the network due to the size of their data far exceeding the size of transactions. Guerrera doesn’t think this issue will be as prominent in Litecoin due to the larger block size, but it could still occur.
“Pandora’s box was already open and someone was about to do it, so it could very well be me.”
Guerrera said that it took about a week to create his LTC fork, as “the changes were pretty simple.” He explained that he updated the Ordinals code to work with inputs from the Litecoin network and not from the Bitcoin network.
Parameters that differed between blockchains, such as the total possible number of coins and the difference in block creation time, also had to be taken into account when forking.
In a Feb. 19 tweet, Guerrera said that he wrote down the first-ever Litecoin Ordinal by placing the MimbleWimble whitepaper on the blockchain in a so-called “0 label.”
First #litecoin #Serial number was included in the Litecoin blockchain.
The Mimblewimble white paper will forever remain in Litecoin Ⓜ️ #MVEB!$LTC $BTS #NFT @SatoshiLite @finitemaz @ryanrights @MASTERBTCLTC @ChiefLitecoin @indigo_nakamoto pic.twitter.com/ICLkTMjwRW
— Crypto Anthony (@anthonyonchain) February 19, 2023
The white paper is published following the Mimblewimble Extension Blocks (MWEB) update in May 2022, which allows Litecoin users to opt-in to confidential transactions and other blockchain enhancements such as helping to reduce redundant and unnecessary transaction data.
How Ordinal Movement Will Benefit the Bitcoin Blockchain
“I wanted to dedicate the first caption to this and let you know that this privacy sidechain is now tied to Litecoin,” Guerrera said.
“I’m a fan of this technology and I love that privacy can be a big thing in these public registries.”
Regarding the future of the forked protocol, Guerrera “will continue to contribute to this fork as much as possible” and carry updates from the original sequence numbers.
“I probably want to pass it on because I don’t want it to take too much of my time,” he added. “I’m doing other things. I have other things on my plate.”
Credit : cointelegraph.com
