protocol, and can thus be used in conjunction with other layer one and layer
applications, even ones that were not designed with ordinal numbers in mind.
Ordinal sats can be secured using current and future script types. They can be
held by single-signature wallets, multi-signature wallets, time-locked, and
height-locked in all the usual ways.
By assigning ordinal numbers to all sats without the need for an explicit
creation step, the anonymity set of ordinal number users is maximized.
Since a sat has an output that contains it, and an output has a public key that
controls it, the owner of a sat can respond to challenges by signing messages
using the address associated with the controlling UTXO. Additionally, a sat can
change hands, or its private key can be rotated without a change of ownership,
by transferring it to a new output.
Ordinals require no changes to blocks, transactions, or network protocols, and
can thus be immediately adopted, or ignored, without impacting existing users.
Ordinals do not have an explicit on-chain footprint. However, a valid objection