After Casey Rodarmor, the founder of Ordinals, proposed the Rune protocol, there were imitations appearing. This article will explore how Runes should face the challenges of imitations and why it has been successful.
1. The Controversy of Real and Fake Runes
1.1 Origin of Runes
1.2 “Refreshing” Design of the Rune Protocol
1.3 Rune Alpha – Imitation of Runes
2. Voices from the Community
2.1 Enthusiastic Embrace
2.2 Opposition and Resistance
2.3 Neutral Observation
Conclusion:
Proposed by Casey Rodarmor, the founder of Ordinals, Rune has attracted widespread attention in the Bitcoin community, demonstrating its technical potential and application prospects despite the challenges posed by imitations like Rune Alpha.
Casey stated that although he was skeptical about creating alternative token protocols on the Bitcoin network, due to its popularity and the advantages of generating significant transaction fee income for Bitcoin, attracting developer attention, and user groups, he attempted to create a simpler and more efficient alternative token protocol. This protocol promises to optimize token operations in the Bitcoin ecosystem through a simplified UTXO model and an efficient token transfer mechanism.
The Rune protocol supports token issuance, allowing the creation of any number of tokens and the setting of human-readable symbols and decimal places. Its transmission mechanism is based on tuples of integer sequences, involving token IDs, output indexes, and allocation amounts.
Features of the Rune protocol include the ability to specify divisibility (equivalent to decimal), supply, symbol (only supporting a single Unicode character length), and rune names during registration.
Rune names must be uppercase letters with variable lengths, gradually allowing shorter-length rune registrations as block heights increase. Names cannot be duplicated and have a unique number starting from 0 based on deployment order, as well as a unique ID encoded based on height and deployment order at the current height, for example, 173940/256 represents the 256th rune deployed at height 173940.
Additional characters can be added within names, or “・” can be used as a name display separator. This only affects name display and does not affect registration. For example, if “CASEY・RUNES・EVERYTHING” is registered, “CASEYRUNES・EVERYTHING” or “CASEYRUNESEVERYTHING” cannot be registered.
The distribution mechanism is pending: according to the current code, all supplies will be sent to the registrant’s wallet address during registration, and there may be changes in the future.
Advantages of Runes over the BRC-20 protocol include being based on the UTXO model, which is more consistent with Bitcoin’s native architecture. It avoids the need for off-chain data and native tokens, resulting in a smoother user experience. The transfer of Runes is achieved through the OP_RETURN script, making token distribution and transfer more efficient. The issuance mechanism of Runes is defined by a specific message format, providing greater transparency and clarity in token flow and distribution. Runes protocol resolves the issues of UTXO diffusion and low efficiency in the BRC-20 protocol, simplifying the operation process, where registration and transfers only require a single transaction, thereby improving overall efficiency. Runes aims to minimize its on-chain footprint, reducing the generation of bad UTXOs. It is also compatible with the Lightning Network, providing new use cases and possibilities for developers and users. Runes incorporates a destruction mechanism, where Runes included in transactions containing invalid protocol information will be destroyed.
Due to its theoretical legitimacy and advancement, the Rune protocol has attracted significant attention from the Bitcoin community. However, its slow development progress has provided an opportunity for imitations to mimic its ideas and profit from it.
Runes Deployer by Ordinals Wallet
Just one day after Casey released the concept of the Rune protocol, Ordinals Wallet quickly followed suit and started deploying “Runes,” while promoting it in the community, social media, and media. Although Ordinals Wallet seized the first wave of traffic for Runes’ concept, progress stagnated and everything came to a halt.
Rune Alpha
On December 5th, the Bitcoin network’s inscription project Rune Alpha was officially launched, with the first token issued on its mainnet being $COOK. According to Rune Alpha’s official statement, they had technical exchanges with Casey, and Rune Alpha was built on the ord 0.11.1 foundation and written into the Ordinals repository.
Part of the Bitcoin community that eagerly anticipated the Runes protocol mistakenly believed that this project, Rune Alpha, was the Runes protocol proposed by Casey, and under the FOMO sentiment in the market, they rushed into Rune Alpha to participate in token minting.
On December 6th, Casey released a tweet stating that he had no affiliation with any Runes-related protocols and services and that he would not trace and identify these imitations when the official Runes protocol is launched. At the same time, some users reported issues such as asset transfers and the burning of tokens being used as gas in interactions with Rune Alpha. In response, Rune Alpha stated that these were due to user error and warnings had been issued in the Discord community.
Although Rune Alpha can no longer continue marketing based on “legitimacy” narrative, market FOMO and speculative sentiment still prevail. The unique feature of token minting in Rune Alpha is “limited time, unlimited quantity.” Users can mint within 150 blocks between 819863 and 820013, with each minting allowing up to 1000 tokens, and there are no restrictions on the total supply. According to data from the Dune scoreboard, as of now (12.22 20:50), $COOK has been fully minted within the 150 blocks, with 199,153 tokens minted and held by 10,481 people.
Following the official launch of the Runes protocol on the Bitcoin testnet signet by Casey, Rune Alpha quickly responded by deploying tokens on the signet and attempting to demonstrate that Rune Alpha can be identified and indexed by the official Runes protocol in the new version ord 0.13.1. At the same time, Rune Alpha responded to the calls from its community and is actively building its Marketplace.
However, according to the current code, the official Runes protocol’s mainnet will start parsing from the block height at the time of Bitcoin’s halving, only indexing tokens issued after the halving height and meeting the Runes protocol standards.
1. Ordinals Official Community Ordicord https://discord.com/invite/ordinals
Since late September, discussions about Runes in the community have been increasing.
From November onwards, there have been numerous discussions in the community about the technical implementation of Runes and imitations. Users in the Ordinals ecosystem generally hold an optimistic attitude, considering Runes as an upgraded version based on the Ordinals protocol, and they have high expectations for the technical progress of the official team.
On December 16th, a new wave of discussions emerged in the community following Runes’ roadshow at the Taipei Blockchain Week. Community users began to take notice of the imitation project Rune Alpha, and they expressed doubts about whether the first token deployed based on this protocol, Cook, can reflect on the official Runes protocol.
Users started actively experiencing the Runes protocol on the Bitcoin testnet signet, and community managers actively assisted users in resolving issues.
Based on reference community discussions, it is known that the current indexing of Runes and Ordinals on the signet is incompatible. After Runes is officially deployed on the Bitcoin mainnet, users will need to rebuild a unified index.
The use of new terminology, such as “rune” and “etch,” in the Runes protocol instead of “inscription” and “inscribe” in previous protocols, reflects the higher precision and lighter weight of the Runes protocol.
2. OrdinalHub
https://discord.com/invite/ordinalhub
Users in the OrdinalHub community also show recognition and expectations for Runes. They want to actively contribute but feel helpless due to the slow development progress and lack of information.
3. sating.io
https://discord.com/invite/kcwE9jH67n
UniSat Community
https://discord.com/invite/unisat
The UniSat team expressed interest in Runes and will keep an eye on the protocol’s progress while preparing for technical support.
Subsequently, UniSat added the Runes module, and the BRC-20 protocol added the token $rune.
In the UniSat community, individual users related to the BRC-20 ecosystem showed a stance of “BRC-20 > Runes.” Some “die-hard fans” of BRC-20, who are closely related to the interests, firmly support the BRC-20 protocol, considering it more legitimate, decentralized, fair, and irreplaceable. They have purchased the BRC-20 protocol token $rune to resist the Runes protocol led by Casey. (The UniSat official responded to this comment with a “thumbs up” gesture). At the same time, they questioned whether Casey has been “slandering” the BRC-20 protocol because he wants to develop a new protocol.
1. ordinex
https://t.me/ordinex
The community leader of ordinex expressed that they have started paying attention to Runes, which theoretically surpasses the BRC-20 protocol as a homogeneous token protocol. However, they remain cautious and believe that for ordinary users, they are not very concerned about the technical logic behind a protocol. Therefore, for competition between different protocols, large-scale market adoption is the key to success.
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2. Leather
https://discord.com/invite/67cZyTz8w6
The developers of the Leather wallet have added basic support for Runes in their GitHub repository.
3. Trac
https://discord.com/invite/trac
Trac believes that Runes is superior to the BRC-20 protocol, expressing a positive opinion.
Based on the incomplete Runes code, the current mechanism is not a “fair mint.” All supplies will be sent to the registrant’s wallet address during registration, and future changes are unclear. This is one of the reasons why some BRC-20 supporters criticize Runes. Some users in the Trac community believe that the Pipe protocol combines the advantages of the BRC-20 and Runes protocols.
1. Innovativeness and Application Value of the Runes Protocol:
The Runes protocol demonstrates the possibility of implementing token functionality in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Its simplified UTXO model and efficient token transfer mechanism bring new dynamics and expandability to the Bitcoin network. This marks a significant expansion of Bitcoin’s functionality, adding new layers of applications while maintaining its original features.
2. Comparison between the Runes and BRC-20 Protocols:
In terms of efficiency and user experience, the Runes protocol exhibits significant advantages over the BRC-20 protocol. Based on the UTXO model, Runes avoids the reliance on off-chain data and native tokens, providing a smoother user experience. Additionally, the issuance mechanism and transparency in the token transfer process of Runes offer users a clearer and more secure operating environment.
3. Community Response and Acceptance:
The Runes protocol has attracted widespread attention in the Bitcoin community. Despite the relatively slow development progress, the community maintains an optimistic attitude towards its technical potential and application prospects. At the same time, the community has shown different reactions to imitation projects like Rune Alpha, reflecting the complex interests and diversified perspectives within the cryptocurrency field.
4. Future Outlook and Challenges:
The main challenge for the Runes protocol is how to further enhance its feasibility and acceptance in practical applications while maintaining its core advantages. Additionally, competition with other protocols and the market’s adaptability to new technologies are important factors for its future development.
In conclusion, the Runes protocol, as an innovative attempt on the Bitcoin network, demonstrates its potential in optimizing token operations. Despite challenges from the community, market, and technology, the emergence of Runes undoubtedly injects new vitality and possibilities into the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem. In the future, with the maturity of the technology and further recognition from the market, Runes is expected to play a more significant role in the cryptocurrency field.