Exploring Atomicals (ARC20) and the Lightning Network: Which Way Is the Wind Blowing in the BTC Ecosystem?
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Exploring Atomicals (ARC20) and the Lightning Network: Which Way Is the Wind Blowing in the BTC Ecosystem?
The Lightning Network is to Bitcoin what Visa is to money.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsHello everyone, previously we introduced the BRC20 and ETHS sectors—these two inscription sectors have already generated strong wealth creation effects. Today, let's take a look at Atomicals (hereinafter referred to as ARC20) and Bitcoin Lightning Network projects.
Concept of Atomicals
The Atomicals protocol is a simple and flexible protocol—a way to organize the creation, transfer, and updating of digital objects. At its core, it is essentially a chain of digital ownership defined by a set of simple rules.
The core lies in several key and simple rules that must be followed for minting, transferring, and updating operations. The grand vision is to establish and protect the Bitcoin blockchain as a source of truth and digital sovereignty. It aims to work in coordination with other emerging protocols such as Nostr and Ordinals, each having their own distinct advantages.
Five Main Features and Characteristics:
1. Ability to create special types of atomic digital objects called Realms
2. ARC20 tokens, decentralized mints
3. Introduced GPU-mineable tokens, demonstrating proof-of-work and energy consumption via Bitwork mining
4. Use recursion and references to create hierarchies and contain atomic digital objects
5. Permanent file storage
Reference link:
https://docs.atomicals.xyz/permanent-file-storage
First ARC20 Token—$ATOM
$Atom token, the first token in the ecosystem, with a total supply of 21,000 units, each containing 1,000 coins. This token has surged from an initial issuance price of 1U to nearly 1,000U per unit today, creating a thousandfold myth. Early participants have profited significantly, and the community remains relatively united.
In addition, there are other tokens such as $pepe, $realm, and $icals. Among them, $pepe was the second fully minted token, but off-market sentiment has been lukewarm. $realm is the namesake token for the Realm concept and currently ranks second in popularity. The Realm concept itself is also quite innovative—an aspect we find particularly promising.
Atomicals Protocol official X account: @atomicalsxyz
Marketplace: https://atomicalmarket.com/
Wallet: https://atomicalswallet.com/
Featured Project—Realm.name (Realm)
For further reading, refer to insights from the following blogger:
bro.tree@dchatplatypus
Current market prices: 2-letter Realms floor around 280U, 3-letter Realms floor around 15U. Some 3-character (letters + numbers) Realms remain available for minting. (Note: Primary Realms cannot start with a number, so terms like "2D" or "3D" do not apply.)
A novel concept introduced by Atomicals, aiming to disrupt traditional domain names. Simply put, while traditional domains emphasize suffixes (e.g., ".eth"), Realm registers prefixes, ultimately granting holders pricing power over all possible suffixes.
Realms function more like doors and keys. They can connect communities, organizations, and groups, serving as gateways to expand the entire BTC ecosystem. They hold potential applications in gaming, social networking, virtual land, badges, and more. Functionally, Realms can serve as payment addresses (payment handles). In extended use cases, they enable community/DAO building, identity verification (Pass cards / OG cards / participation credentials), social profiles, privilege markers, asset distribution, and more—fully aligning with our vision for DID (Decentralized Identity) development.
Current trading volume is low, and floor prices remain relatively low because Realm applications have not yet been widely adopted. Value will only become evident once practical functions are actively utilized.
Other Ecosystem Projects
AtomPunks: Rare PUNKs / Sub1k PUNKs previously sold for nearly 1,000U; regular PUNKs trade around 10–20U. Lacking innovation.
AtomicalsRekt: XCSS is the first original collection with an active project team and created the ecosystem’s first collection container. The first batch of collections is tied to mining difficulty (bitwork commit), offering interesting gameplay. Currently, only 81 pieces in the first batch exist, with common ones selling around 150U and rare ones around 300U.
AtomMap: Gaining decent traction with an intriguing mechanism—each xxxx.atommap mining difficulty must be set to abxxxx, meaning every additional digit doubles the difficulty. Many 4D entries remain mintable; estimating about 11 hours to mine a 4D using a personal computer. Sales occur both on- and off-market, with reference prices at ~90U for 3D and ~20U for 4D.
BlockMap: Aims to rival Bitmap, but lacks momentum.
Summary on ARC20
The emergence of Atomicals signals that the explosion of Bitcoin inscriptions ecosystem has only just begun. Compared to the BRC20 inscription sector, this current surge marks the first major wave for ARC20. Further consolidation will be needed for a stronger future.
Given ARC20's wide range of potential applications, we hope project teams won't halt development after one price spike. Currently, the space remains largely speculative. Other projects have drawn limited attention; only when Realm begins real-world adoption and introduces new utilities will the ecosystem truly advance. Therefore, we recommend monitoring Realm’s development progress, as both Realm and $Realm currently sit in a relatively undervalued zone.
BTC Ecosystem: Lightning Network Concept
The Lightning Network is a Layer 2 solution for Bitcoin. In Bitcoin payment scenarios, it helps users save costs and improve efficiency. In short, the Lightning Network is to Bitcoin what Visa is to fiat currency.
In 2022, the Lightning Network sector saw multiple large funding rounds, with top-tier institutions including a16z and Paradigm investing in related projects:
April 2022: Lightning Labs, a company focused on Bitcoin services, raised $70 million in a Series B round led by Valor Equity Partners.
May 2022: Lightspark, a Bitcoin Lightning Network company founded by David Marcus, former head of crypto at Meta, completed a funding round co-led by a16z and Paradigm.
September 2022: Strike, a crypto payment app built on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, announced an $80 million Series B round.
Hottest Current Lightning Network Project: Nostr Assets Protocol
This project is the first to issue a token under the Lightning Network. From an initial airdrop value of dozens of USD per address to a peak worth thousands of USD, many likely missed another wealth opportunity.
Nostr Assets uses a dual-token model:
$TRICK and $TREAT, 210 million each, totaling 420 million
Airdrop: 10,000–13,000 tokens per address, across 8,000+ valid addresses
Total airdrop: ~80 million (~20% of supply), with the remaining 80% held by the team
Trading platform:
https://mainnet.nostrassets.com/#/marketplace/listing
As shown above, the current $TRICK price is ≈$0.0847, with a market cap of approximately $17 million. $TREAT is similar.
Price increases have reached tens of times, but personally, the market cap still seems modest. They plan to launch Fairmint, a token issuance feature. Many are already preparing to deploy the first token. We recommend keeping an eye on and participating in this development.
If you want to participate or deploy your own token, prepare an Alby wallet first. Wallet link: https://getalby.com. Follow the official website tutorial. Alternatively, you may use a TP wallet if needed.
Tutorial: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/DKWZ9bPnPecNkbUcEXZx1Q
In conclusion, the BTC ecosystem still holds many untapped concepts and projects, such as the RGB protocol and BitVM. Everything has just begun—the Bitcoin narrative will be the strongest theme in this cycle.
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