Last week, the largest Bitcoin conference in Hong Kong came to a close, and attendees had plenty to talk about. Last April, the Bitcoin Ordinals community held its first meetup in Hong Kong, and according to BlockBeats reporters who randomly interviewed participants at the main event, only a few were familiar with the Ordinals protocol or Bitcoin NFTs.
In just one year, Bitcoin has seen many important developments, such as the rise of the Ordinals protocol, the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF, a thriving Bitcoin ecosystem, and the completion of the fourth halving. Compared to last year, this year’s Bitcoin ecosystem gathering was clearly livelier. Over the course of the four days, BlockBeats reporters attended numerous sessions and shared their firsthand experiences and observations. Casey’s Story Behind Creating the “Virtual Casino”
Casey Rodarmor, the founder of the Ordinals protocol, was undoubtedly the busiest person throughout the conference, with crowds of people surrounding him, reminiscent of the scenes of Vitalik being surrounded at past Ethereum conferences.
Whenever Casey participated in panel discussions and sharing sessions, the audience seats were always full. Many community members wanted to take photos with him, and he always gladly agreed, showing a down-to-earth attitude. He even seemed to have learned a few standard poses for photos to accommodate everyone. Compared to Vitalik’s reserved demeanor in social situations, Casey appeared more relaxed and made direct eye contact when talking to people.
Casey giving a speech
Previously, Casey joked that if the Runes ecosystem didn’t reach a market cap of $1 billion within a month of its launch, he would prepare to commit seppuku. Although the market cap has not yet met the requirement, it’s still a few days away from the one-month mark of Runes’ official launch, so it’s not yet time for Casey to “fulfill” his joke promise. However, there haven’t been any community members asking Casey about this matter so far.
At the Ordinals Asia conference, Casey gave an interesting presentation in which he mentioned the podcast show “Hell Money” that he and Aaron started about two years ago, which is also known as “冥钞” in Chinese.
When Casey shared this image, the Chinese attendees found it amusing.
From what it sounds like, Casey is aware of some of the Chinese community’s dissatisfaction with him, such as the perception that the Runes protocol lacks innovation. Therefore, he also mentioned that while he respects complex technologies like Taproot Assets and RGB, he prefers to create simpler things for everyone, which is why the Runes protocol came to be.
“Simple things are easier to succeed, while complex things are difficult to accomplish,” Casey stated, emphasizing this as an important lesson he has learned.
On the last night of the Wizard Party, BlockBeats reporters finally managed to get close to Casey. Although he was unwilling to accept official interviews from the media, he was clearly enthusiastic about interacting with community members.
Left: Casey; Right: BlockBeats reporter Jaleel
I asked Casey if he knew that many members of the Chinese community now refer to him as “C神” (C God), just as the Chinese community used to call Vitalik “V神” (V God) in the past. Casey looked into my eyes and said he knew, but he emphasized that he is just an ordinary guy like everyone else. Domo Unmasked, Looking More Chill
Compared to Casey, Domo, the founder of Brc20, was less talkative. The crowd around Domo was also smaller, mainly because people were not familiar with his true identity.
Due to Domo’s preference for anonymity, he always wore a hat, sunglasses, and a mask at previous public events. In fact, his appearance had even led some people to mistake him for a Chinese person.
Domo fully geared up at previous conferences
During this conference, although Domo was still reluctant to take photos, he no longer wore a mask and sunglasses as often.
According to 0xSea, a Bitcoin ecosystem observer and player, on the first day of the Bitcoin Asia conference, Domo walked around the venue casually, and almost no one recognized him. He seemed more relaxed than ever before.
Domo at this conference (left six), image source: Jack Kong
In conversations with community friends, a topic that often came up was, “Will there still be a market for BRC20 after the launch of Runes?” or “Will BRC20 disappear?” There was a significant difference of opinion on this matter.
Firstly, it seems that most people are not familiar with the specific differences between Ordinals, Runes, and BRC20. This indicates that there is still a need for a lot of education and popularization in the market.
Secondly, after interacting with founders of Bitcoin DeFi protocol projects, BlockBeats found that some of them believe that BRC20 is better suited for DeFi assets because BRC20 has been in development for a longer time than Runes. Although the emergence of Runes has had a significant impact on the meme of BRC20, it is expected that there will be more Bitcoin DeFi projects and tokens with actual value in the future.
However, a considerable number of community members and projects have expressed directly that BRC20 will soon be phased out because Runes has optimized and saved a significant amount of gas fees compared to BRC20. Capital Also Favors Bitcoin
Many venture capital (VC) firms participated in the conference, including traditional VCs and family offices, showing a great interest in investing in the blockchain industry, especially Bitcoin.
The activities of Drip Capital were undoubtedly the most lively VC session. Before the party started, there were already about 20 to 30 friends waiting outside. Due to strict capacity limitations, even Casey had to wait downstairs for a long time before going upstairs.
According to incomplete statistics, Drip Capital has invested in many well-known projects in the Bitcoin ecosystem, including Merlin, Bevm, B2, Bison Labs, CKB, DLC.link, OmniBOLT, Map Protocol, NostrAssets, UXUY, Unisat, Lumoz, Nubit, Ordz Games, BitSmiley, Satoshi Protocol, and more. It can be said that Drip Capital is currently the most active domestic VC in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
In fact, in an interview with Drip Capital co-founder & managing partner Dashan last year, BlockBeats reported that Dashan expressed optimism about the 2024 crypto market, which led to the launch of two digital asset funds in collaboration with China Taiping Insurance Investment Management (Hong Kong) Limited. Ordinals NFT Community is the Favorite Spot for Foreigners
If Bitcoin Asia was more like a good occasion for business cooperation, then Ordinals Asia was definitely a great place to make friends and have fun.
In this Bitcoin gathering, the most degen community was undoubtedly the Ordinals NFT community, especially Pizza Ninjas, Taproot Wizards, and Blob.
TO, the founder of Pizza Ninjas, earned the nickname “美髯公” (Mr. Beautiful Beard) due to his thick beard, and many friends even think he bears a slight resemblance to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
Left: BlockBeats reporter Cookie; Right: Pizza Ninjas founder TO
TO stood out with his bright orange Ninja Pizza-themed outfit on the yacht, and some community members even jokingly referred to him as the “妲己” (Daji) of the Ordinals circle. The Pizza Ninjas community booked an entire yacht, with over forty holders participating. The reason why there couldn’t be more participants is that the yacht couldn’t accommodate them all, so TO organized a separate dinner for the remaining twenty-plus holders on the second night.
Taproot Wizards hosted a party on the last night of Ordinals Asia, and people dressed as wizards filled the venue, with a pool available for everyone to bathe in.
Taproot Wizards team member Tyler Whittle
Although BlockBeats reporters found after talking to some English-speaking Ordinals players that they also felt that bathing with the white cloth was a bit PUA (pickup artist), it seems that it’s not just us Chinese who can’t appreciate the charm of bathing.
During the conference, BlockBeats reporters also “caught” Tyler Whittle, a member of the Taproot Wizards team. In response to this question, he said that the team is aware of the cultural differences between China and the West, so they will find ways to strengthen communication with the Chinese community.
Left: Taproot Wizards team member Tyler Whittle; Right: BlockBeats reporter Jaleel
Experiencing the Wizard’s scene firsthand, one can truly feel the strong cohesion of the Taproot Wizards community, which is very impressive. Foreign community members from various places, including artists and developers, were present, and everyone was having a great time.
As for the Blob holder gathering, it was also crowded, and the food provided at the venue was the most unique, featuring authentic local Hong Kong flavors.
Both founders of Blob, Elocre, a contributor to the Ordinals protocol code, and nuror, an Ordinals OG artist, were present and creating artwork for everyone, including T-shirts and masks. Nuror was very quiet while creating, creating a contrasting atmosphere.
Blob founder nuror
BlockBeats also discussed many details of the project’s progress with the Blob team, including their initial plan to distribute through Free Mint, but based on the advice of Dr. Doge, the Blob team ultimately decided on a direct airdrop.
During the airdrop period, the team also participated in the NFTNYC2024 event, so Elocre and nuror ran around New York, visiting art exhibitions, VIP backstage lounges, Times Square, and more, while using their phone hotspots to airdrop Blob to the community.
Left: BlockBeats reporter Jaleel; Right: Blob founder nuror
Bitcoin Layer 2 Will Continue to Be a Major Narrative
At the main venue of the Bitcoin Asia conference, the Unisat booth, along with the projects it has invested in, was one of the first things that caught the eye.
Furthermore, the most prominent presence was that of Bitcoin Layer 2 projects. Many attendees felt that there were indeed many Bitcoin Layer 2 projects. The current state of the Bitcoin ecosystem is that there are many Layer 2 chains but few applications, which is somewhat different from the current state of the Ethereum ecosystem.
It seems that for a long time to come, BTC Layer 2 will continue to be an important narrative. In the short term, only projects with strong backers can stand out, while in the long run, it can only be achieved through real user demand.
In private conversations with several BTC Layer 2 project teams, they candidly admitted, “Strictly speaking, we are not strictly Layer 2; it’s more for market promotion.” After all, no one in the market can provide a definitive final definition of Bitcoin Layer 2.
It took Ethereum seven years to reach its current level of scalability. From the current perspective, Bitcoin Layer 2 cannot achieve similar scalability in just one or two years. There will be many trials and failures along the way. Solana and Bitcoin, 1+1 Greater Than 2
Since the launch of Runes in April, over ten trading platforms, including Unisat and OKX Web3 Wallet, have supported Runes market trading on the first day. Although Magic Eden started trading a bit later, on April 22nd, it quickly surpassed other platforms and became the leading player in the Runes market with the best liquidity.
The rapid development of Runes can be attributed to the significant liquidity and market foundation it has already established on Solana. Additionally, Magic Eden has its own wallet, which attracts users from both the Bitcoin and Solana ecosystems, facilitating seamless transactions between the two platforms.
Apart from Magic Eden, BlockBeats reporters also had conversations with several projects that facilitate interoperability between Solana and Bitcoin, such as Zeus, THORSwap, and Cube.Exchange.
At the Bitcoin Devcon conference on May 8th, Zeus Network founder Justin shared in his speech that he sees Solana as a Layer 2 network for Bitcoin. He criticized some projects that only use Bitcoin as “gas,” stating that they do not fully leverage the true value and potential of Bitcoin.
Justin stated that choosing Solana as Bitcoin’s Layer 2 is due to Solana’s high performance, low cost, and its strong user and developer community. He then detailed how the Zeus Network connects to the Bitcoin mainnet using “slot” versions, creating a 1.5-layer solution that improves the performance of Bitcoin applications and expands its scalability.
Zeus founder Justin
As a cross-chain DEX aggregator based on THORChain, THORSwap enables token exchanges between multiple chains with minimal slippage. According to THORSwap’s paper, their most recent large transaction was swapping 114.7545 $WBTC (worth $7.4 million) for 114.0027 BTC, with a slippage of only 0.05%.
Through THORSwap, liquidity between Solana and Bitcoin can also be easily converted on-chain. According to CoinGecko data, THORChain’s RUNE and Stack’s STX have consistently been among the best-performing tokens in the past year, often following Bitcoin’s price movements.
Cube.Exchange founder Bartosz had been developing on Solana before. After the launch of Runes, they implemented the functionality to purchase or sell Runes for USDC. In Bartosz’s view, Bitcoin and Solana complement each other in terms of account models, communication layers, and developer communities.
Bartosz believes that the collaboration between these two distinct communities, Bitcoin and Solana, will make the market stronger. Introducing the decentralized spirit of Bitcoin into Solana is undoubtedly beneficial, and bringing popular Solana products into the Bitcoin ecosystem will also create significant synergies.
