A piece on Zoide is an ordinal: a file inscribed onto the blockchain, attached to the smallest unit of the currency — one satoshi. Owning the piece means controlling that satoshi.
Why «inscribed» matters
Most NFTs you may have heard of store a link. The token on the chain points at an image on a server, and if that server stops paying its bills, the token points at nothing.
An ordinal has no link. The file is inside the transaction. As long as the chain exists, the piece exists, exactly as it was written — nobody can swap it, and no hosting bill can make it disappear.
What you own, precisely
- The satoshi, and with it the inscription attached to it. It is yours to sell or send, and nobody can move it without your key.
- Not the copyright of the artwork, unless the creator says otherwise. Owning a piece is not owning the rights to it — the same way owning a print is not owning the painting's copyright.
Vocabulary you will meet
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Inscription | The act of writing the file on chain, and the result of it |
| Origin | The identifier the piece gets when created. It never changes, however often it is sold |
| Outpoint | Where the piece is right now. It changes with every sale |
| Mint | Creating a new piece. It is inscribed at that moment, for you |
| Satoshi | The smallest unit of BSV. Your piece rides on one |
The full list is in the Glossary.
An origin looks like this wherever the site shows one:
What it is not
It is not a file on Zoide's servers, not a certificate we issue, and not something we can revoke. We can stop showing a piece on this site; we cannot take it from you, and it will still be on the chain when we do.
That distinction is the reason the platform is worth using and also the reason nobody here can undo your mistakes.