TL;DR
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ICYMI the Rune protocol is a brand new venture by the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals (we wrote about the way it works right here) that launched concurrently the BTC halving.
Like Ordinals, it lets individuals ‘etch’ (i.e. mint) tokens on-chain.
The 2 major variations are:
Ordinals are ‘non-fungible’ (one-of-a-kind) whereas Runes assist you to create fungible tokens on the Bitcoin community.
This opens up every kind of potentialities like stablecoins constructed on prime of BTC, or new forms of governance tokens.
The Rune protocol reduces the quantity of ‘Unspent Transaction Outputs’ (UTXO’s – extra on that right here).
In principle this implies much less congestion on the Bitcoin community, which ought to lead to cheaper transaction charges.
Earlier than the halving there was a ton of pleasure about Runes so it’s no shock that inside the first few days there are already just a few hundred Runes tasks.
The beauty of Runes to this point (and Ordinals that got here earlier than it) is that it has result in a rise within the variety of builders enthusiastic about contributing the the Bitcoin venture once more.
Sadly, only a few blocks after the halving, Runes minters have already paid over $5M USD in transaction charges.
Because the mud settles, and the primary mover benefit fades over time, will probably be fascinating to see if Runes is the subsequent narrative to push BTC again to it’s all time highs.
Can it stay as much as the hype?
Solely time will inform.