There’s no doubt that non-fungible tokens have increased in popularity since the beginning of the year. NFTs have been a big boost for Ethereum, the platform on which most NFT transactions are based. It was therefore surprising for many in the crypto world to see an increase in traction of NFTs on Stacks network. However, the creators of Satoshibles saw this as a great opportunity for their project.
The picture project is inspired by the supposed creator of cryptocurrencies, Satoshi Nakamoto. The picture project features 5000 NFTs generated by an algorithm representing hand-illustrated images based on Dorian Nakamoto. In 2014, there was speculation that Nakamoto was in fact, Satoshi Nakamoto. These speculations were later refuted.
A bridge between Ethereum and Bitcoin
The developers of Satoshibles chose to create their collection of images on Bitcoin-backed Stacks. According to the developers, they felt this was the right thing to do as the platform honored the legacy of Satoshi. However, as they did not want to cause a rift in the crypto community, they built StacksBridge. StacksBridge is a cross-chain bridge that allows holders of Satoshibles to move the NFTs between Stacks and Ethereum-based platforms. Thus, they essentially created the first bridge between Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Developer Brian Laughlan and his group began growing StacksBridge to allow holders of the NFT asset to transfer their assets from Stacks to Ethereum and back as they pleased. The bridge enables holders of Satoshibles to move back and forth between blockchain platforms. For a Satoshibles NFT owner to move their assets, they must connect to the bridge using a MetaMask Ethereum wallet and Hiro Stacks Wallet. They will be required to pay transaction fees to facilitate the movement of the assets from one blockchain to another.
While NFT asset holders can move their assets from one platform to the other, the NFTs will only be active on a single platform at any given time. Your access will therefore be blocked on the other platforms. The bridge currently runs on a trusted model, which means that the team behind Sataoshibles has to oversee the security and operations of the bridge. They are, however, exploring the development of a trustless version of the bridge and taking advantage of the automation of smart contracts to run. There are still concerns about security, even with the trustless model. This means the Satoshibles team will still be involved as possible solutions are sought.
The development has received a lot of positive feedback from the crypto community, especially since Bitcoin still does not have smart contracts capabilities. Smart contracts are necessary for operating NFT projects, which is a crucial differentiator between Ethereum and Bitcoin and why the NFT market has grown on Ethereum. The bridge might be the solution that the crypto world has been waiting for.