Ordinal Inscriptions
Ordinals is a new metaprotocol to allow for the indexing of inscribed data on the Bitcoin blockchain. This affords countless use cases, including a decentralized, immutable publishing network.
In the case of Project Spartacus, Ordinal inscriptions are used to permanently store 76,000 logs from the war in Afghanistan.
Censorship Resistance
As each user participates in publishing or "inscribing" the War Log inscriptions, the entire contents of The Afghan War Logs gets stored on the Bitcoin Network, piece by piece. The data will remain permanently on the blockchain, and as uncensorable as the Bitcoin network itself.
This represents a new paradigm in publishing, as the most durable way to store information in human history.
Collective Action
When a user publishes a War Log, they are shown the file size (in Kilobytes) of the War Log that they are about to inscribe. They are able to set the fee rate (in sats/vB) which determines the total cost to inscribe the file. The user only pays for the network fees, which goes to the Bitcoin miner that cryptographically validates the block containing the War Log.
Individual War Log files are a range of different sizes, meaning that users may pay higher network fees to inscribe larger War Log files. A user does not know exactly which War Log they are about to publish, as it is a blind inscription of a random order, but the user can see the exact file size they are agreeing to inscribe with the transaction. Refreshing the website also refreshes the inscription queue.
All Bitcoin (BTC) collected from donations is routed directly to these charities: Freedom of the Press Foundation, The Information Rights Project and Reporters Without Borders.
How To Publish
Simply:
- Select total amount of War Logs you wish to inscribe (maximum 100 per transaction)
- Enter your BTC address to receive the WAR LOGS
- Pay the invoice that is presented
That's it! You will be shown a 'transaction pending' screen until your transaction is confirmed, at which time you will receive the Transaction ID.
Lightning Network payments are available to make payment instant and to save on fees. This also allows for the inscriptions to be broadcast immediately to mempools for confirmation as soon as the next block.
Confirmation time is only an estimate, and depends on both the fee rate paid and the finding of blocks.
