Today, the NFT world is a virtual ghost town. Remember the 2021 hype? Peak insanity. Now, crickets. And the saddest part? Creators of all types, particularly fine artists in developing economies, are being shortchanged on royalties. Marketplaces are dodging fees and sales are tanking. The creators’ dream of a decentralized, creator-first economy now seems like nothing more than a cruel joke. To this end, I’m featuring artists from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. These creators have been promised by the industry that NFTs are their golden ticket to financial freedom. Now they're facing a grim reality. We need to discuss why this occurred and if any amount of money will or can remedy it.

Are Royalties Even Relevant Anymore?

Put simply, the typical NFT royalty model is collapsing. It's built on a handshake agreement, a gentleman's agreement that marketplaces are increasingly ignoring. The problem? Centralized platforms control the game. They get to rewrite the rules at any time, and you know who ends up suffering? The artists.

Think about it: you're a digital artist in a developing nation. You work around the clock, pouring every ounce of yourself into your project. Next, you mint it as an NFT and wait with bated breath for each resale to score your percentage. Then, a big marketplace like X or Y or Z can just say the royalties are “optional.” Suddenly, your income stream dries up. Just like that you’re back to square one, fighting your way through a system that’s stacked against you. It's outrageous. This is more than a poker game — it’s the principle of respect and recognition, and the basic ability to build a career that’s sustainable.

Traditional NFTs’ dependence on off-chain storage creates an even bigger point of failure. Most of the metadata, and even the artwork itself, exists on centralized servers. What happens when those servers go down? What if a platform you use to publish or promote your work goes ahead and censors it? Your “decentralized” NFT now just exists as a digital ghost. This isn't the future we were promised.

Ordinals: A Glimmer Of Hope?

Enter Bitcoin Ordinals. Now, I know what you're thinking: Bitcoin? NFTs? Aren't those two fundamentally different things? Bear with me.

Ordinals offer a radically different approach. Rather than reference off-chain data, Ordinals inscribe the art directly on-chain within the Bitcoin blockchain as part of a satoshi’s ordinal record. That means the art is forever on chain, immutably linked to the Bitcoin network. That’s where tens of thousands of Bitcoin nodes come in, which make sure these inscriptions stick around. It’s a radical reinvention of the notion of ownership that totally turns the table on what it means to possess art in the digital realm.

This on-chain permanence makes it a feasible option for enforceable royalties. Think of it — self-executing smart contracts, embedded natively within the Bitcoin blockchain, automatically ensuring royalty payments each time a song changes virtual hands. No longer subject to the whims of the benevolent (or sometimes not so benevolent) dictators of centralized marketplaces. No more optional fees. Only pay creators based on code so creators no longer have to be overpaid or underpaid.

It goes deeper than that. Ordinals might open up new revenue models entirely, moving beyond traditional royalties. Think fractional ownership, where creators sell shares of their artwork to multiple collectors, each receiving a portion of future sales. Or gated access, where collectors can gain access to exclusive content or experiences depending on their tier of ownership. These are only some of them, and I'm sure we're only at the tip of the iceberg.

Empowering The Forgotten Creators

Here's where the "unexpected connection" comes in: Bitcoin Ordinals can empower creators in emerging markets like never before. Bitcoin is permissionless. Anyone can participate, regardless of their location or background. This makes it a more even playing field. For creators in South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, NFTs have democratized the potential to reach a global audience directly, without need for the art world’s historic gatekeepers.

Now, picture an artist living in rural India, using an iPad to create beautiful digital artwork drawing influences from their heritage. With Ordinals, they can inscribe their work onto the Bitcoin blockchain and sell it directly to collectors around the world, earning royalties with every transaction. No door fees, no intermediaries, no hidden strings, just a direct connection between creator and collector. This is a game-changer.

Gamma’s brand-new platform, Signals, understands the NFT discovery process is broken and aims to improve it. Powered by the auction-style price discovery model, it makes for a fairer market for the creator and the collector.

Can Ordinals Really Save Creators?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Ordinals are a silver bullet. There are challenges. Scalability is a concern. The Bitcoin blockchain certainly was never intended to be a data repository. The user experience really has to be transformed in order to make Ordinals approachable for a broader audience.

The potential is undeniable. Ordinals, in turn, present an opportunity to build a more equitable and sustainable ecosystem for NFT creators, particularly those hailing from underrepresented communities. It’s a powerful opportunity to change the game entirely, to go above and beyond and really create a new system that works for creators.

So, the question remains: Can Bitcoin Ordinals truly save NFT creators? I don't have all the answers. But I think it’s a question that needs to be asked, that needs to be explored, and that needs to be fought for. The fate of the digital art future rests on it. We need to hold the NFT field to a higher standard than what we have up until now. The current status quo is unacceptable. What do you think? What are your experiences? So let’s get to work and build the future we imagined, all of us together.