1Sat Ordinals Are Coming to Asset Layer
We are extremely excited to announce that we are planning to migrate Asset Layer from RUN to the new 1Sat Ordinals protocol. At Asset Layer, we place a huge priority on simplicity and interoperability, and we think this aligns well with the ethos of 1Sat Ordinals. Through this migration, Asset Layer apps and users will be able to experience unprecedented degrees of interoperability and benefit from the growing number of talented developers supporting the 1Sat Ordinals protocol in various ways.
When will this migration happen and what does this all mean for current Asset Layer apps and users? For the answers to all of your questions and more, please read the FAQs below. If you have any other questions, please join our Discord where you can find answers for all things Asset Layer and connect with other Asset Layer builders!
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Q: Why is Asset Layer migrating to 1Sat Ordinals?
A: When we chose RUN for Asset Layer, it was the token protocol on BSV with the most support and adoption. For better or worse, this is no longer the case. Given how early the BSV ecosystem was in its development when we started working on Asset Layer, we anticipated the gold standard of token protocol might change over time, so we built Asset Layer to be flexible enough to seamlessly switch protocols if/when it was needed.
After the launch and rapid adoption of 1Sat Ordinals, and considering the dedicated team behind 1Sat Ordinals, we feel as though 1Sat Ordinals will be the token protocol on BSV with the most support and adoption if it isn’t already. This means both Asset Layer and our users will be able to benefit from products and services developed by other community members, accelerating our development and accessing greater utility.
Importantly, adopting 1Sat Ordinals will also improve the interoperability of Asset Layer. Asset Layer is already a pioneer in application interoperability. By migrating to 1Sat Ordinals, it will be easier for users and apps to bring their NFTs into and out of the Asset Layer ecosystem. While we are more excited about users and apps coming into the Asset Layer ecosystem, we also recognize that it’s important that we don’t impose unnecessary platform lock-in onto our customers. Using a well supported protocol like 1Sat Ordinals will ensure that our customers have options.
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Q: When will Asset Layer be migrating to 1Sat Ordinals?
A: We are projecting the completion of our migration in Q4 of this year. Fortunately, the RUN protocol is still working extremely well for us. We also want to give the 1Sat Ordinals team more time to work out the kinks before we migrate the 5M+ and growing Asset Layer NFTs. For those reasons, we will continue to prioritize other elements of our existing roadmap, such as launching our marketplace, before we begin working on the Ordinals migration. We’ll be sharing more about our vision for Asset Layer and publishing our roadmap shortly.
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Q: Will current Asset Layer apps and users have to do anything for this migration?
A: No! We designed Asset Layer to work the same way regardless of the underlying token protocol. Our API and data model will be unchanged, so all of your application code will work the same before and after the migration. As a part of the migration, we will also remint all NFTs in the background and distribute them to their proper owners, meaning application users will have a totally consistent experience before and after the migration. This is something we have already done in the past as part of Asset Layer upgrades. Even better, we will do our best to do the migration with zero time offline.
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Q: Will NFTs be transferable from Asset Layer to other 1Sat Ordinals wallets and platforms?
A: Yes, but we most likely will not be able to provide the same level of service for NFTs that are outside of the Asset Layer ecosystem. There are some features we offer that simply require NFTs to be in wallets managed by Asset Layer. So, if NFTs are sent to wallets outside of the Asset Layer ecosystem, they may be inaccessible to apps using the Asset Layer API, or may be accessible but without the same set of features and level of performance. Stay tuned for our upcoming roadmap announcement to learn more about how we are greatly expanding the scope of the Asset Layer ecosystem.
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Q: Will NFTs be transferable from 1Sat Ordinals wallets and platforms into Asset Layer?
A: Yes! There may be a delay between the initial migration and launching some of these features, but we will provide ways of easily porting collections on 1Sat Ordinals into the Asset Layer ecosystem to be able to leverage our powerful features and easy-to-use toolset. However, if you are considering building on 1Sat Ordinals now and migrating to Asset Layer later, we would recommend building on Asset Layer now. We are confident that you can build more faster using Asset Layer today, and then take advantage of the 1Sat Ordinals protocol and ecosystem through our upcoming migration.
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Q: Why build with Asset Layer instead of directly on 1Sat Ordinals?
A: Put simply, we think that Asset Layer is the right layer for most developers and creators rather than working directly with 1Sat Ordinals or any other token protocol. Building with 1Sat Ordinals or any other token protocol requires creating and indexing transactions, managing wallets, managing crypto to pay fees or requiring one’s users to pay fees, and a host of other complexities that are only magnified by scale. Early BSV adopters may find this to be an exciting challenge, but we believe that most builders will prefer a solution like Asset Layer which abstracts away these complexities through an easy to use toolset.
In addition to making the basics like minting and sending simple, Asset Layer opens up a world of advanced functionality. Asset Layer makes it easy to create NFTs with many different files, edit NFT files and data, share NFTs across apps, equip NFTs to one another to create NFT structures, permission access to NFTs, and much more. There is no NFT platform as feature rich as Asset Layer today.
Our migration to 1Sat Ordinals reveals another benefit to building with a solution like Asset Layer instead of directly at the token protocol layer. Like 1Sat Ordinals became a better choice than RUN, it is possible another token protocol comes along which is a better option than 1Sat Ordinals. Like we are switching from RUN to 1Sat Ordinals today, we can migrate again if needed or diversify our support. In this way, building on Asset Layer is a “future-proof” solution relative to building directly on a specific token protocol.
