Bitcoin Ordinals receives new accelerator program: $100k funding for startups
Today, the Bitcoin Frontier Fund, formerly recognized as Stacks Ventures, declared its pivot towards an accelerator program tailored for startups immersed in the NFT-like Ordinals technology. The initiative is set to endow startups with not only a valuable mentorship opportunity but also a generous $100,000 seed investment.
Table of Contents
Ordinals hype – Can it be revived?
Ordinals, the groundbreaking protocol responsible for bringing NFTs to the Bitcoin blockchain, will now be able to expand thanks to the new program.
The funding couldn’t have come at a better time, as Bitcoin NFTs are struggling after a hype period that began back in March. Certain crypto community members are stating that Bitcoin NFTs are dead, to the delight of the majority of Bitcoin maximalists. However, this is probably just a transitory lull in network activity after a period of prolonged expansion.
Four-month intensive program
The accelerator is designed as a four-month intensive program for each participating startup. The end goal? Prepare these budding ventures to secure further funding. The roster of mentors is impressive, boasting names like OnChain Monkey’s Amanda Terry, Dust Labs’ Kevin Henrikson, Domo (the mind behind the BRC-20 token standard), and Udi Wertheimer of the Ordinals project, Taproot Wizards.
Bitcoin Frontier Fund backstory
Historically, under its prior name, the Bitcoin Frontier Fund amassed a robust $7 million. These funds were channeled towards ventures rooted in Bitcoin and the Stacks network.
Noteworthy backers of this organization encompass Trust Machines, Hiro, the Stacks Foundation, and the pivotal Stacks co-founder, Muneeb Ali. Stacks has been a game-changer. It is a layer-2 blockchain empowering developers to craft smart contracts and decentralized applications atop Bitcoin.
Trevor Owens, a leading entrepreneur at the helm of the fund, articulated the significance of their rebranding from Stacks Ventures to the Bitcoin Frontier Fund, highlighting the seismic shift in discussions around Bitcoin and Web3 precipitated by Ordinals. He further expressed how the relevance of the protocol:
“I hope people will realize Ordinals represents a paradigm shift in how we develop applications on Bitcoin. (…) Before Ordinals, advanced assets on Bitcoin’s layer-1 seemed implausible,”
