👋Introduction

Ordinals Market is a marketplace for trading inscriptions - an innovation built on top of Bitcoin that can most simply be thought of as NFTs for Bitcoin. Ordinals allow a variety of data, including text, images, and video to be inscribed on a single Satoshi (the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin) and permanently stored on the Bitcoin blockchain. These inscribed Satoshis can then be sent between wallets, just like any other Bitcoin transaction, effectively allowing the transfer of ownership of the inscription. You can read more about ordinal theory and how the protocol works on ordinals.com.

How Ordinals Market Works

Ordinals Market facilitates the trading of Bitcoin inscriptions both on Bitcoin natively using browser Bitcoin wallets such as Xverse and on the Ethereum blockchain using "vaulting" technology developed by Emblem Vault.

Ethereum Ordinal vaults contain the encrypted private keys to the Bitcoin address that owns the inscription. The owner can crack open at any time, decrypting the private keys and allowing the inscription to be claimed directly on the Bitcoin network. If the vault is opened and the Bitcoin private keys are exposed then the ERC-721 token is burned (meaning it can no longer be traded on Ethereum). Alternatively, the vault owner can choose to keep their inscription inside the vault and on Ethereum to allow for easier trading and transfer.

The following sections of this guide will explain in detail the process of working with Emblem Vaults.