According to Cointelegraph, the inventor of Bitcoin Ordinals has proposed a new Bitcoin-based fungible token protocol called Runes as a potential alternative to the BRC-20 token standard. The BRC-20 standard, launched in March by an anonymous developer, allows for the minting and transfer of fungible tokens via the Ordinals protocol on Bitcoin. However, it has been criticized for spamming Bitcoin with 'junk' Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXOs).
Rodarmor, the inventor of Bitcoin Ordinals, argued that BRC-20 tokens have the 'undesirable consequence of UTXO proliferation' and proposed Runes as a UTXO-based alternative. He believes that protocols that are UTXO-based fit more naturally into Bitcoin and promote UTXO set minimization by avoiding the creation of 'junk' UTXOs. UTXOs represent the amount of cryptocurrency left in a wallet following a completed transaction and play a role in making Bitcoin an auditable and transparent ledger by preventing the double spending problem.
While Rodarmor admitted that 99.9% of fungible tokens are filled with scams and memes, he believes the right fungible token protocol can add value to the Bitcoin network. He stated that 'creating a good fungible token protocol for Bitcoin might bring significant transaction fee revenue, developer mindshare, and users to Bitcoin.' However, Rodarmor is unsure whether he will pursue the Runes idea further. In response, Trevor Owens, co-host of The Ordinals Show, offered $100,000 from the Bitcoin Frontier Fund to prospective developers that can create a Rune application to further Rodarmor's proposal.
