As the market experienced a sharp correction, Bitcoin once fell to 66,000, and Ethereum also fell back to 3,300 US dollars. The accompanying copycats were also generally affected. Many people thought that the halving was coming. Perhaps it was the market's insight into traditional finance and human society. The important turning point of each cryptocurrency bull market was around the time of Bitcoin halving. Concepts represented by AI, re-staking, DA, DePIN, Ordinals, etc. have become the hottest narratives in this round of bull market.
The theme of this article is the narrative of April. Ordinals protocol v.017.0 was officially released, which includes the final implementation of the long-awaited "Rune" protocol.
Runes will be launched soon and will be officially activated at Bitcoin block height 840,000, which is expected to take about ten days. Does it mean that the war of Ordinals is about to begin?
Ordinals Eco Runes are coming
As the halving approaches, we are seeing more Bitcoin-related protocols being built, many of which do not yet have tokens. This is to be expected given the recent performance of Stacks (STX). We saw a mini version of this in December 2023, looking forward to the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF. Coins like MUBI, BSSB, ORDI and TRAC have seen amazing gains. I think we will see a larger scale situation in the weeks/months before and after the halving.
First of all, let me explain Ordinals, commonly referred to as "Bitcoin NFTs", which can create unique digital assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin holders now have the opportunity to expand their investment in these assets. The Ordinals protocol, which introduced the concept of data on Bitcoin, was launched in January 2023. However, it was not until the end of 2023 that people really began to experiment with data and Bitcoin NFTs began to take off.
As Bitcoin prices continue to rise through 2023 and the probability of ETF approval increases, Ordinals really begin to take off.
Next, let me explain runes. In September 2023, Casey Rodarmor, the founder of Bitcoin Ordinals, proposed a new protocol called Runes. It was announced that the Runes protocol will be officially launched on the mainnet in late April this year, around the time of Bitcoin halving. Although the "official" version of the Rune protocol has not yet been officially released, the eager anticipation for runes has spawned many unofficial rune projects and markets. These include consensus-leading projects $PSBTS and $COOK, as well as the trading market Rune Alpha supported by the OKX Web 3 wallet.
The main difference between inscriptions and runes is their storage location and function on the blockchain. Inscriptions are engraved in the segregated witness data, while runes are engraved in OP_RETURN. Inscriptions are stored in UTXO, while inscriptions such as BRC-20 based on Ordinals are JSON text in the segregated witness data of Bitcoin Script.
As mentioned earlier, as the Bitcoin halving approaches, we begin to wonder whether inscriptions and runes will set off a new wave of craze?
Looking back at history, Bitcoin Inscription has experienced two waves of enthusiasm. The first wave was in April 2023, when the leading token ORDI rose from US$0.005 to US$28, an increase of more than 5,000 times in two months.
The second wave was in October 2023, when ORDI rose from US$3 to US$96. OKX and Binance launched the inscription trading market, which led to the rise of more inscription assets.
In short, as the Bitcoin halving approaches, the market's focus will return to the Bitcoin ecosystem again, and the popularity of runes may lead to a new wave of enthusiasm in the inscription ecosystem. In the long run, I think both inscriptions and rune leaders are worth paying attention to. Now, "Runes" are coming. People often joke that Ordinals is an ecosystem that "never stops quarreling", and the imminent launch of "Runes" also means that this conflict of ideas will become a real competition, and the competition between Runes and BRC-20 is about to begin.
Potential to watch
Runestone（runes）
There is a fun analogy that compares Runestone to the $SATS of "runes". The Runestone project is based on the Ordinals protocol, which is designed as a pre-Runes project. This means that once Casey Rodarmor's Runes protocol is released, people who participate in the Runestone airdrop will be able to convert them into Runes tokens.
In the recent update of BRC-20, not only 5-character tickers are supported, but also "self-issuance", that is, the project party deploys and completes it by itself, and also supports the burning mechanism. In the short term, these updates of BRC-20 are more conducive to hype than Runes. They not only facilitate the centralized issuance of projects, but also enable old projects to come up with some deflationary gameplay to stimulate market performance. This is the current advantage of BRC-20.
The advantage of Runes is that, first of all, it is a standard at the Ordinals protocol level. To use a not very appropriate analogy, it is ERC404 and DN404 on Ethereum. The former is the creator of the "picture-to-coin integration" craze not long ago, while the latter is a cheaper protocol that fully complies with Ethereum standards and is working towards becoming an EIP. As the official "son" of Ordinals, Runes will not have the stability problems caused by changes in the Ordinals protocol like BRC-20, and can fully enjoy the possible improvements brought by the new features of the Ordinals protocol. At the same time, it is also based on UTXO, so players do not need to carve transfer inscriptions first and then send transfer inscriptions to complete transactions, which greatly saves costs.
In summary, the Runestone project not only demonstrates the innovative potential of Ordinals technology and the market's expectations for the Runes protocol, but also explores new forms of crypto assets as souvenirs and cultural symbols. Whether the successful airdrop of Runestone and the frenzy of trading on the secondary market herald the official beginning of the Rune Age has become a topic worthy of attention.
As Bitcoin is about to usher in the next round of halving, it is expected that the Runes protocol will be officially ready to debut at the important moment of block height 840,000. The specific launch time depends on the mining speed of blocks, but according to the current block generation rate, it can be expected to be in late April 2024. This time point marks the official entry of the Runes protocol into the Bitcoin ecosystem, opening a new chapter in the issuance and management of homogeneous tokens on the Bitcoin network.
Rootstock Infrastructure Framework——RIF
RSK (Rootstock) is a general-purpose smart contract platform secured by the Bitcoin network. RSK adds value and functionality to the Bitcoin ecosystem by supporting smart contracts, near-instant payments, and greater scalability.
Projects that are not yet launched but are worth paying attention to:
Babylon、Bitsmiley、B²、Flash、Bevm、Merlin等
Tsuki1567
