Adam Krellenstein is one of the 3 co-founders of Counterparty: a metaprotocol that launched in January 2014 in order to tokenize real world assets on Bitcoin. It makes use of OP_RETURN transactions in order to send small pieces of data which designate the existence of a specific token that has specific characteristics such as supply, description, name, and other metadata.

Back in 2021, I’ve written a long article that explains the origins of Counterparty and how can anyone can use it in order to issue NFTs with it (thanks to Grittoshi and Roberto Scott, it was also translated in French and Spanish). But now that the protocol is being maintained by Adam Krellenstein, more features will get added to make the ecosystem much more competitive against dedicated token platforms such as Ethereum and Solana. The first contributions include improvements to the core codebase, making it easier to run Counterparty nodes, and the creation of the Horizon suite that consists of a wallet and a blockchain explorer.

As of 2025, Counterparty also faces steep competition from the ordinals and runes, as well as BRC20s and STAMPs. All of these are Bitcoin-native ways to create tokens on the most secure blockchain of them all, and in the end it will be the protocol with the strongest community and the most active user base that wins.

On the other hand, Counterparty is quite a honey badger. It’s been around for longer than a decade, it faced multiple boom and bust cycles and there were many instances when it appeared to die. But it keeps coming back because lots of Bitcoin artefacts were built on it and the world is filled with collectors who want to hold a piece of BTC history.

In this interview with Adam Krellenstein, we talk about everything which concerns Counterparty in 2025: including the conflict with former maintainer Jdog, who served as main developer for about a decade and built his own infrastructure (Freewallet.io and TokenScan.io). Furthermore, I introduce to Adam my Bitcoin Heads collection (of which he might become an esteemed member) and the new DAVIDPEPEBTC art token that my girlfriend created (which was distributed as an airdrop shortly after the episode ended).

Overall, it was a productive discussion that gave me hope that Counterparty might rise again.

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This episode is sponsored by LayerTwo Labs, SideShift, Citrea, NoOnes, Bitcoin.com News, and HODLING.ch!

Time stamps of my interview with Adam Krellenstein:

Introducing Adam Krellenstein (00:00:50)

Counterparty’s Unique Features (00:01:30)

Historical Significance of Counterparty (00:02:09)

Comparison with Mastercoin/Omni (00:03:19)

The Birth of Bitcoin Maximalism (00:04:48)

Vitalik’s Influence and Ethereum (00:08:43)

Pushback from Bitcoin Core Developers (00:09:16)

Concerns about Data Storage on Bitcoin (00:10:36)

Counterparty Software and Decentralization (00:12:51)

Art and NFTs in Counterparty (00:14:51)

Airdrop Announcement (00:14:24)

Off-Chain Data Storage Challenges (00:16:00)

Counterparty’s Original Vision (00:18:19)

The Popularity of Digital Art (00:18:51)

The Role of Digitally Native Assets (00:19:32)

Article about Counterparty on Bitcoin Takeover Website (00:21:08)

The Role of Bitcoin in Counterparty (00:22:30)

Decentralization of Counterparty Launch (00:23:12)

XCP Token Creation and Burning Mechanism (00:24:27)

Value Creation vs. Destruction (00:26:00)

Onboarding Users with Dispensers (00:29:41)

Counterparty’s Development History (00:31:01)

Challenges in Running Counterparty Nodes (00:35:30)

Counterparty 2.0 and Ledger Fork? (00:39:17)

Community Dynamics and Development (00:41:00)

Future of Smart Contracts on Counterparty (00:42:58)

Counterparty Ecosystem Health (00:43:46)

Atomic Swaps Feature (00:44:18)

Layer Two Proposals (00:45:18)

Comparison with Ordinals & BRC20 (00:47:44)

Counterparty’s Functional Advantages (00:48:30)

Sponsors (00:49:29)

Expectations at Launch (00:52:31)

Future of Counterparty (00:53:39)

Cultural Shifts in Bitcoin (00:55:23)

Collaboration with Ordinals (00:58:54)

Differences Between Runes and Counterparty (01:00:09)

Encoding Data in Bitcoin Transactions (01:01:07)

Future Improvements for Counterparty (01:03:11)

Community Dynamics (01:03:58)

Counterparty Wallet Development (01:05:36)

Bitcoin Head Cards (01:07:04)

Community Engagement and Nostalgia (01:08:29)

Bitcoin’s Security Budget (01:09:21)

Transaction Fees and Counterparty (01:10:33)

Recommended Counterparty Wallets (01:11:30)

Data Storage on Bitcoin (01:12:32)

Ecosystem and Community Reception (01:15:08)

Pepe Cash and Market Trends (01:16:45)

Current Developments in Counterparty (01:18:10)

Counterparty Roadmap (01:21:14)

Use Cases of Counterparty (01:23:35)

Stablecoin Possibilities (01:24:30)

Can Bitcoin Privacy Kill Counterparty? (01:25:38)

Counterparty’s Resilience (01:26:26)

Discussion on Counterparty’s Usage (01:26:46)

Closing Remarks and Where to Follow Adam Krellenstein (01:27:02)

Counterparty Communication Channels (01:27:18)

Airdrop Announcement (01:27:46)

Shoutout to Chris Derose (01:28:25)