The Ordinals protocol team announced the launch of a non-profit organization, dubbed ‘Open Ordinals Institute,’ to fund its open-source development.

The Open Ordinals Institute is a registered 501(c)(3) California-based public charity that will collect donations in Bitcoin to back the protocol’s development by funding its core group of developers.

The focus will also be on the creation of user-friendly tools to enable less technically proficient users to create Bitcoin Digital Artifacts with ease.

• According to the official blog post, the initiative also seeks to fund designers, reviewers, researchers, educators, and other contributors who play a vital role in improving and promoting the technology.
• Previously, Casey Rodarmor, who is responsible for introducing inscriptions on Bitcoin’s mainnet for the first time, used to fund the project.
• In addition to Rodarmor, Open Ordinals will consist of four team members serving the board, including the project’s pseudonymous lead maintainer Raph, Bitcoin-focused podcast host Erin Redwing, an anonymous Ordinals developer known as Ordinally.

“The Open Ordinals Institute is committed to supporting developers involved in this protocol, as well as those creating user-friendly tools that facilitate less technically proficient users to create Bitcoin Digital Artifacts.”

• The recently launched Ordinals.org site will be used to accept donations to the institute via two Bitcoin wallet addresses.
• This year, the Ordinals protocol gained significant traction leaving the Bitcoin community divided over its viability.
• The initial hype may have faded, but Bitcoin boasts more than 21 million Ordinals inscriptions at writing time, representing a 40% increase in less than a month.
• The trading volume of Bitcoin Ordinals surged by 2,834% from Q1 to Q2 of 2023, hitting $210.7 million.