Bitcoins Ordinals creator Casey has announced the final implementation of Runes in Ord 0.17.0, making them part of the Ordinals protocol.
The first Rune, known as Uncommon Goods, is hardcoded and will likely be etched by major BTC mining companies. The genesis Runes token, UNCOMMON•GOODS, is an open mint starting on the halving block and ending at the next halving.
