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Jailhouse Block: Elvis Digital Art Collection Will Inscribe on the Bitcoin Network

A digital art collection of Elvis Presley, "Elvis Side $Btc," will be inscribed on the Bitcoin blockchain by OrdinalsBot and IP project Royalty.

Updated Oct 18, 2024, 10:58 a.m. Published Oct 17, 2024, 3:09 p.m.
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
  • The King of Rock and Roll will be inscribed on the Bitcoin network.
  • The collection of 1,935 generative images, "Elvis Side $Btc," will be minted by Bitcoin-focused IP project Royalty in partnership with inscription service OrdinalsBot.
  • Royalty will use revenue from the collection to form the "Elvis Legacy Council" DAO.

Elvis Presley will soon arrive on Bitcoin thanks to a digital art collection of the King of Rock and Roll inscribed on Ordinals.

The collection of 1,935 generative images, "Elvis Side $Btc," will be minted by Bitcoin-focused intellectual property (IP) project Royalty in partnership with inscription service OrdinalsBot, and is inspired by the artwork of Joe Petruccio, an artist licensed by the Elvis Presley Estate.

The inscriptions will be among the first to mint when OrdinalsBot's marketplace goes live later in the year.

"Elvis Side $Btc" generative artwork inspired by Joe Petruccio (Royalty/Joe Petruccio)
"Elvis Side $Btc" generative artwork inspired by Joe Petruccio (Royalty/Joe Petruccio)

The Ordinals protocol allows data to be "inscribed" onto individual satoshis (the smallest unit of BTC at 1/100,000,000 of a full bitcoin), making them unique and therefore able to attain individual value. In this sense, they are the Bitcoin version of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which brought Ethereum-based digital art to mainstream prominence in 2021.

OrdinalsBot, a platform for minting the inscriptions, has emerged as one of the more influential projects in the Bitcoin development sector. It claims to be responsible for 80% of the 10 biggest files inscribed on the Bitcoin network, including the largest ever block, an inscription of the manifesto of privacy-focused tech stack Logos, which cost 3.5 BTC ($235,000).

Such inscriptions are referred to as "four meggers," as their size is close to 4 MB, the maximum size of a Bitcoin block.

"We see it as being like acquiring a billboard in Times Square because of the visibility that it gives you within the Bitcoin network and that will last forever," Ordinals co-founder Toby Lewis told CoinDesk in an interview.

(The new Elvis-themed series are more of the regular variety of inscriptions, not four meggers.)

Royalty is set to publish a litepaper in the coming weeks, detailing how 5% of primary and secondary sales revenue will fund the Elvis Legacy Council, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) aimed at "governing the future of Elvis' digital legacy," through a native token.

Read More: Gold Arrives on 'Digital Gold' as Bitcoin Gets Tokenized Version of the Metal

CORRECTION (Oct. 18, 09:00 UTC): Correct that the collection has not been minted yet, but will be when OrdinalsBot's marketplace goes live later in the year.





Jamie Crawley

Jamie joined CoinDesk as a news reporter in February 2021 after writing widely about crypto and blockchain for two years in other roles. Away from crypto, Jamie runs a lot and loves all things sport. He holds small amounts of BTC, ETH, ADA and LTC.

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