What is the new asset "Digital Object" on Bitcoin Layer 2 CKB that has increased more than 200 times in 5 days?

Author: flowie, ChainCatcher
Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher

Recently, the Bitcoin Layer2 Nervos Network (CKB) ecosystem proposed a new asset concept—DOB (Digital Object), and its first DOB asset, Unicorn Box, has attracted market attention due to a surge in its floor price.

Since its launch for trading on the JoyID wallet on March 15, the floor price of Unicorn Box has reached 77,000 CKB (approximately $1,520), increasing more than 200 times from the mint cost of 340 CKB. The total transaction volume of Unicorn Box on the JoyID MarketPlace has also exceeded 20 million CKB.

It is reported that a total of 21,000 Unicorn Boxes were issued, and as of March 20, there are 1,753 addresses holding Claim Unicorn BOX. The airdrop claim has not yet ended, and some eligible users can log into the Unicorn website to claim the airdrop before March 22.

With the rapid rise in the floor price of Unicorn Box, the airdrop party SeeU has been promoting it on the X platform, stating that they will destroy 80% of the remaining Unicorn Boxes (16,800 units), reducing the total number of Unicorn Boxes to no more than 4,200, and expressing the hope that "Unicorn Box will become the golden shovel of the CKB and RGB++ ecosystem."

What is the difference between "Digital Objects" and ordinary NFTs?

DOB (Digital Object) is an asset issued based on the Spore protocol on the CKB chain. It seems similar to NFTs, but CKB claims that DOB is different from NFT assets, and the Spore protocol is not an NFT protocol but an upgraded version of the Bitcoin NFT protocol Ordinals.

According to the team, the Spore protocol was conceived a year ago with the intention of expanding the Ordinals protocol, as Bitcoin does not support smart contracts, leading to many application limitations of the Ordinals protocol. If Bitcoin were to support smart contracts, Ordinals would likely evolve into something resembling the Spore protocol.

Compared to NFT protocols, the Spore protocol has two technical upgrades. First, it supports more content types; Spore is not limited to static images but also supports various content types such as video, audio, and text. Second, all content is stored on-chain; currently, most Ethereum NFTs have their content stored off-chain, with only a link stored on-chain. In contrast, the content data of DOB minted through the Spore protocol is fully stored on the CKB blockchain (on Cells).

Additionally, the storage space for digital objects created on the Spore protocol depends on the amount of CKB consumed during minting, meaning that holding Spore digital objects is equivalent to occupying CKB, thereby reducing the circulation of CKB within the ecosystem.

In terms of user experience, the Spore protocol has no transaction fees. DOB created through the Spore protocol will additionally deposit one CKB to cover subsequent transfer network fees.

Moreover, since Spore contracts are non-upgradable, the digital objects held by users will not change. If a DOB is minted through the Spore v1.0 contract, it will always remain as the v1.0 version and will not change.

Can Unicorn Box become the golden shovel of the CKB and RGB++ ecosystem?

Unicorn Box is the first digital object asset on the CKB chain, with NervosDAO and SeeU each airdropping 2,100 NFTs to their respective community users. At 00:00 on 2024/02/14, only the addresses ranked in the top 2,100 based on the amount of locked funds * locked days in NervosDAO, as well as all holding addresses of SeeU, are eligible to receive the airdrop.

To trade Unicorn Box, users need to use the JoyID wallet within the CKB ecosystem. JoyID wallet is quite different from ordinary crypto wallets. JoyID employs a verification technology called Passkey, allowing users to log into their wallets using fingerprint or facial recognition without creating passwords or private keys, enabling seamless use of the same account across devices like iPhone, Mac, and iPad through FaceID.

However, this also means that JoyID has higher requirements for devices and systems; almost all domestic Android phones cannot be used, and Mac and Windows computers that do not support fingerprint or facial recognition or PIN cannot be used. Some users in the CKB community have chosen to purchase new Mac computers to claim the airdrop.

In the JoyID wallet, users receiving the airdrop need to incur a cost of 340 CKB to pay for the storage fees of Unicorn Box. Since its trading launch on March 15, the floor price of Unicorn Box has risen to 77,000 CKB (approximately $1,520) in just over five days.

On March 20, with SeeU proposing to destroy the remaining 80% of Unicorn Boxes (16,800 units), the significant reduction in the total number of Unicorn Boxes may have triggered some FOMO in the CKB community, but overall, the impact was not substantial, and the floor price of Unicorn Box did not see a significant increase again. The JoyID Spore DOB Marketplace currently does not provide specific transaction data and trends.

According to the official CKB X platform, digital assets like Unicorn Box on the Spore protocol can potentially transform into RGB++ assets after the RGB++ protocol is launched, becoming digital objects on the Bitcoin chain.

It is reported that RGB++ is a layer one asset issuance protocol proposed by the CKB Federation, which allows Bitcoin layer one assets to gain smart contract capabilities without the need for cross-chain bridges. This is an innovation for Bitcoin, which cannot implement smart contracts. The launch of the RGB++ protocol is one of the most noteworthy developments in the recent CKB ecosystem.

Therefore, the community hopes that Unicorn Box will have a strong wealth effect similar to the BRC420 blue box asset in the Merlin Chain ecosystem, potentially gaining airdrops or other benefits after the RGB++ launch.

However, whether Unicorn Box can become the golden shovel of the CKB ecosystem may need to wait for the launch of the RGB++ protocol. The RGB++ roadmap indicates that it plans to launch at the end of March.

In addition to Unicorn Box, the CKB ecosystem's NFT Neuro Ape has also announced that it will soon take a snapshot, and only holders of its 3D NFTs will be eligible for the whitelist.