Author | Day
Produced by | Plain Blockchain
Due to the new expectations brought by the founder of Ordinals, the short-term popularity of "Runes" surged on the day of the Bitcoin halving. It can be said that the Bitcoin chain was unusually lively that day, with Bitcoin transaction fees skyrocketing to hundreds or even thousands of US dollars, leading to congestion on the Bitcoin network and causing the daily income of miners to exceed 100 million US dollars, setting a new record.
Since its launch after the halving, it has accounted for more than two-thirds of Bitcoin's trading volume. In addition, several mainstream platforms such as UniSat, OKX, and MagicEden have successively supported the rune market. With the fermentation during this period, let's briefly understand some of the current developments in the rune track:
01. What exactly is a rune?
As a new Bitcoin token protocol, Runes was proposed by Casey, the founder of the Ordinals protocol. Its goal is to solve the problems related to BRC-20 tokens, especially the congestion and poor user experience of the Bitcoin network caused by a large number of unused transaction outputs (UTXOs).
Advantages of Runes:
1) Simplifies the process of creating replaceable tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain, reducing the use of on-chain resources.
2) Compared to other solutions such as BRC-20, RGB, and Taproot, Bitcoin Runes provide users with a simpler way to create and manage tokens, which can improve the usability and exchangeability of tokens while avoiding the generation of a large number of useless UTXOs.
3) Runes use the OP_RETURN model, which saves more Bitcoin network resources compared to the space occupied by BRC-20 tokens.
4) Since Runes inherits Bitcoin's UTXO model and is highly compatible with the Bitcoin blockchain, Rune tokens can seamlessly integrate with the Bitcoin ecosystem, allowing them to enjoy the security and stability of the Bitcoin network.
It can be said that the Rune protocol is more concise, efficient, and developer-friendly compared to the BRC-20 protocol.
Some people think that the current name of the rune is too long compared to the four-letter BRC-20 token, which makes it less meme-worthy. The reason for this is that Casey intentionally designed it to prevent name grabbing. The naming length is between 1-26 characters, but initially only names with 13 or more characters can be engraved. With every 17,500 blocks, the minimum number of letters in the name will decrease by one character. In about four years, all names can be used, creating a dynamic naming environment.
02. Major platforms supporting runes
Currently, the main platforms that support the casting of runes are UniSat, OKX, and MagicEden. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and generally, using these three platforms is sufficient.
Market trading share, source: https://geniidata.com/user/poshi/runes-market-overview
Unisat and MagicEden have bulk sweeping functions, and their depth is better than OKX in various aspects. The reason for this is that overseas users prefer to use Unisat, and currently the popularity of runes is higher overseas than in China. Personally, I generally compare Unisat and MagicEden, and use OKX for initial offerings.
Looking at the gas on the Bitcoin chain, it can be seen that the overall popularity of runes is not high at the moment. Recently, there have been gradually increasing voices of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt), with most KOLs criticizing the rune protocol's casting system and high gas fees. After casting, the floor is rolled up again, and because of the high fees, it has blocked most buyers from sweeping orders (when gas is high, buying may result in a loss), leading to only selling without buying, ultimately making it cheaper for miners.
As for whether runes can develop in the future, it is still unknown. After all, it took several months for BRC-20 to become popular after its launch.
03. Characteristics of high-quality runes
Currently, the gameplay of runes is actually similar to memes, and traffic is still king. Here are a few judgment criteria for reference:
1) Whether there are well-known KOLs with their own traffic: Support from well-known artists and celebrities, such as Casey, and KOLs related to various top projects.
2) Special meanings: Such as SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO, or those related to certain top projects.
3) Public support from top projects or communities: Such as SHIB or Node Monkey, Puppet Monkey, which are starting to support runes for top Bitcoin NFTs.
4) Number of holder addresses: The number of addresses is generally related to popularity and how many people are involved.
5) Whether there is pre-mining: What proportion it occupies. Generally, runes with pre-mining are quite tricky unless the concept is particularly good.
New things come in all shapes and sizes, and often require comprehensive judgment.
04. Classification of runes
Currently, runes are mainly divided into three categories:
1) Airdrop type, led by the project party:
Projects launched by Ordinals OG (Original gangster), such as Runestone, RSIC, which directly snapshot NFT holders, generally leading to a sharp decline after the snapshot.
Well-known projects on ETH or other chains, such as Prometheans.
2) KOL endorsements, artists
Influential KOL endorsements like Casey, LEO. Here, it is necessary to have an understanding of KOLs. Some people can't stand it when someone endorses something new every few days.
3) Specific special meaning type
Such as 0-number rune UNCOMMON•GOODS, which takes four years to complete, similar to Sats of BRC-20, with a long time cycle, and SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO (Satoshi Nakamoto) concept, understood by those who understand.
Runes 0-9
0号符文 UNCOMMON•GOODS: Deployed by Ordinals founder Casey, no pre-mining, unlimited mining for 4 years, anyone can participate, similar to sats in BRC-20, large total supply, long time frame, suitable for layout during a bear market.
1号符文 is Z•Z•Z•Z•Z•FEHU•Z•Z•Z•Z•Z, with a total supply of one billion, 99.99% pre-mined. It was heavily mined in the first few days, and retail investors bet on the project team destroying the pre-mined tokens. However, the project team later tweeted that they would airdrop a portion of the pre-mined tokens.
2号符文 is DECENTRALIZED, belonging to the Ethereum NFT old blue chip cyberkongz, 100% pre-mined, with some airdropped to Prometheans NFT holders, and the price of Prometheans has also risen sharply.
3号符文 DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON, belonging to runestone, 100% pre-mined, currently airdropped to runestone holders, with a total market value of around 400 million US dollars, considered the leader in the rune market. The founder is extremely active on Twitter and has been promoting DOG.
4号符文 THE•RUNIX•TOKEN, a project of the L2 project RuneChain under BVM, 100% pre-mined, with NFT Runer holders able to mine runes.
5号符文 DOG•DOG•DOG•DOG•DOG, anonymous team, 100% pre-mined, currently no details available.
6号符文 SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO (中本聪), 20% pre-mined, relatively high popularity, already listed on some small exchanges, the only criticism being that the project team's pre-mining proportion is too high.
7号符文 MEME•ECONOMICS, anonymous team, 20% pre-mined, with chips too concentrated.
8号符文 RSIC•GENESIS•RUNE, belonging to RSIC, 100% pre-mined, already airdropped to previous RSIC miners based on their points, the project team holds chips and was listed on OKX Jumpstart yesterday.
9号符文 LOBO•THE•WOLF•PUP, deployed by Buoyant Capital, 100% pre-mined, already airdropped to Runestone and Rune Doors holders, with a small portion reserved for project operations.
It can be seen that runes 0-9 are mostly led by the project team, mostly through 100% pre-mining and then airdropping to their own project holders.
Meme Themes
WANKO•MANKO•RUNES: Casey's concept, after the runes were cast, Casey commented and tweeted his appreciation for the rune. Additionally, Casey has retweeted several tweets related to this rune.
ANARCHO•CATBUS: Casey's concept, Casey has mentioned the concept several times on Twitter, and the relevant tags have always been included in his Twitter introduction. This rune has never been milked by Casey. ("Milk project" is a crypto slang term referring to a high-risk investment project in the cryptocurrency field that lacks real value support and relies solely on continuously introducing new investor funds to pay returns.)
SEPPUKU•IN•MAY•AND•GO•AWAY: Casey's concept, on the day the rune was deployed, Ordinals founder Casey posted on social media expressing his interest in the rune, and within a few hours, the rune was completely swept. This meme originated from a previous tweet by Casey, stating that if the rune ecosystem did not reach a market value of 1 billion US dollars in the first month, he was prepared to commit seppuku. (Seppuku is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment.)
Here are a few mentioned by Casey, and the founder of Rune Leo has milked several as well, such as ORDINALS•ARE•DEAD, CASEYS•MOM•HAS•GOT•IT•GOING•ON, and so on. Those interested can check out the tweets themselves. However, due to the excessive milking of these individuals, most of the runes ended up with mediocre performance. This is just to give everyone a direction for finding runes.
Community-led
BITCOIN•PEPE•MATRIX: Based on the PEPE concept, the rune uses magical pepe memes and the 69 420 concept previously mentioned by Musk, attracting a lot of attention, and the endorsing artist has previously painted the Rare Pepes series.
Currently, there are almost no community-led runes, so I'll just list one here.
05. Conclusion
The above is an introduction to runes. It can be seen that the current development of runes is very rough, as can be seen from the recent on-chain fees for Bitcoin. The popularity of runes has dropped rapidly. However, as the mainstream narrative of this round of the bull market in the Bitcoin ecosystem, it is still worth paying attention to.
Maybe the wind will change in a while. Players who play on the chain should maintain an open attitude towards such new things. Of course, with expensive fees, one must be cautious of the risks, as many have also been "buried" in them.
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