After the protocols such as Oridinals, Atomicals, and Pipe, what are the new asset issuance protocols for Bitcoin recently? What innovations do they have and how do they perform? This article is from the book by Jian Shu, compiled and written by PANews.
Table of Contents:
Rune Alpha
CBRC-20
BTNS
Summary
After the recent discussion on the concept of “runes”, Rune Alpha has gained popularity. The concept of “runes” was initially proposed by Casey and gained attention again due to BTC Core developer Luke’s opposition to “inscriptions”. The main difference between “runes” and “inscriptions” is that “runes” are stored in UTXO, while “inscriptions” based on BRC-20 like ordinals are stored in JSON text in Bitcoin script’s segregated witness data.
Although Rune Alpha claims to be “runes”, according to the Rune Alpha whitepaper, it is actually a new inscription protocol based on the ordinals protocol version 0.11.1, which is different from the concept of “runes” proposed by Casey. So Rune Alpha is not actually “runes”, it just rides on the popularity of the name.
However, whether it is true “runes” is not important. Rune Alpha has successfully gained popularity. The cost of minting the first token $cook is around ten U, and its off-exchange price has risen to 400U, although it has not yet been launched on the trading market.
CBRC-20 is an efficient sub-protocol standard for substitutable tokens on Bitcoin formulated through ordinals. By utilizing the new metadata and metaprotocol fields introduced in ord 0.10+ (allowing arbitrary attributes to be stored directly in the Inscription envelope), CBRC-20 maintains the same functional logic as the BRC-20 sub-protocol while reducing the cost of each inscription and simplifying the indexing process.
CBRC-20 has achieved several optimizations compared to BRC-20. It has reduced the cost of inscription by ten times, simplified indexing by providing a simple method to index the CBRC-20 sub-protocol’s state, and increased flexibility in using MIME data for deployment, minting, or transfer of CBRC-20 tokens. CBRC-20 is also compatible with higher versions of the Ordinals protocol.
Currently, the CBRC-20 team has not developed its own market but has made its tokens available on the trading market through various clever methods. One method is through direct listing on the RuneX inscription SWAP market, and another is through modifying Unisat using a Tampermonkey script to force listing on Unisat. The inscriptions transferred and listed are all CBRC-20 collections. The founder has developed a Tampermonkey plugin that can directly read the inscription information on Unisat and see the specific inscription.
In addition to the above two trading markets, the community has spontaneously created a trading market for CBRC-20 tokens and attached CBRC-20 tokens to BRC-20 tokens using a method similar to a Trojan horse to list CBRC-20 tokens on Unisat. However, this method is experimental and does not provide security for the assets.
Recently, the founder initiated an OSMOSIS experiment and deployed the first meta-meta protocol inscription $SYMM. How to understand the terms “meta protocol” and “cross-indexing”? “Meta protocol” is a term used by the Ordinals community to describe interactive “protocols” by formalizing on-chain information through off-chain indexing (such as BRC-20, SNS, Bitmap, etc.). Due to the non-overlapping nature of the two BRC/CBRC meta protocols, it is possible to mint inscriptions that simultaneously complete the deployment/minting/transfer of both meta protocols. If the holder holds both, the $SYMM in their hand is considered “valid”. The image below shows a combined $SYMM inscription.
CBRC-20, like a Trojan horse, uses the inscription method of CBRC-20 to mint inscriptions for multiple protocols, thus performing a kind of “vampire attack” on other protocols. Similar to the Trojan horse frequently mentioned by creators on Twitter, CBRC-20 has achieved “shell listing”.
The Broadcast Token Naming System (BTNS) is an ecosystem on the BTC main chain built by one of the early BTC holders and development members, @jdogresorg. Its basic idea is to attach broadcast signals to each BTC transaction on the blockchain and use the blockchain records as data to enable BTC to release its own on-chain native assets tokens and NFTs through ledger indexing.
BTNS-420 is a token protocol standard that integrates multiple ecological features such as asset release and transfer based on BTNS, built by @jdogresorg. The appearance of BTNS-420 makes the concept of BTNS possible.
The difference between BTNS tokens and inscriptions and runes is that the tokens in the BTNS ecosystem do not modify or occupy BTC, which is more in line with the direction of the BTC ecosystem. Inscriptions and runes, on the other hand, rely on storing in BTC itself, which results in a large number of BTC tokens being occupied and wasted. Asset minting based on broadcasting is more open and fair. Although the indexing is constructed by @jdogresorg, all broadcast data is stored along with BTC transaction information, making it completely transparent, open, and queryable. The existence of indexing is more about limiting and tracking the total amount of assets, rather than selectively indexing based on centralization.
BTNS has no potential risks as it is fully open-source and all infrastructure is built on the characteristics and functions of BTC itself without major controversial discussions.
BTNS brings the value of making asset release on the BTC main chain possible, completely relying on the characteristics of BTC itself to construct all assets without any loss of total amount. With further improvements, it is very likely to make BTC a fully playable and environmentally friendly mainstream ecosystem (note that it is an ecosystem, not a value coin).
The recent revolution of inscriptions and runes has brought congestion issues to BTC. The author believes that if BTNS is introduced to construct the ecosystem, its framework and upgraded token protocols allow for airdrops, fair indexing (specifying or specific instruction indexing), and other methods to make asset acquisition more fair, such as registered address airdrops, specified block restrictions, and even low gas transaction indexing.
According to the community, @jdogresorg is currently on vacation and has suspended development work. From their recent Twitter updates, this seems to be the case. Therefore, there has been no progress in the development of the market.
In summary, Rune Alpha and CBRC-20 are both based on the concept of inscriptions and have not deviated from it. They are both asset issuance methods based on the ordinals protocol. However, CBRC-20 has done better in terms of innovation, allowing the minting of inscriptions for multiple protocols simultaneously. BTNS is a larger concept that falls under the category of meta protocols, while Rune Alpha and CBRC-20 belong to “second-layer protocols” (standards or protocols developed based on the original protocol like ordinals). BTNS allows the issuance of assets on Bitcoin without occupying Bitcoin itself using a “broadcast” method (here, the superiority or inferiority of occupation is not evaluated).
Related Websites:
Rune Alpha Official Website: https://runealpha.xyz/
CBRC-20 Official Website: https://cybord.org/explore.html
Reference Articles:
1. “BRC-20 Whitepaper”
2. “CBRC-20 Whitepaper”
3. Casey Rodarmor’s Blog
4. “Rune Alpha Whitepaper”