Runestone is currently the largest Ordinals airdrop activity, with the current floor price on the OKX NFT market being 0.04177 BTC. What exactly is Runestone? What are the characteristics of the Runes protocol behind it that cause such FOMO in the market?
What is Runestone?
Ordinals OG and Ord.io founder Leonidas, inspired by RSIC, celebrated the launch of Ordinals technology by airdropping more than 112,383 Bitcoin addresses, becoming one of the largest Bitcoin Ordinals airdrop projects to date. Leonidas emphasized that although Runestone as a project does not seek any practical applications or functions, its value as a piece of culture and souvenir has attracted great attention in the crypto community.
The Runestone project is based on the Ordinals protocol and was designed as a pre-Runes project. This means that once Casey Rodarmor’s Runes protocol is released, those participating in the Runestone airdrop will be able to convert it into Runes tokens. This transition is expected to occur within 8 weeks of the Runes Protocol going live. When Leonidas initially proposed the idea of this airdrop, Casey also commented under the tweet to discuss how to reduce gas consumption, which was regarded as a soft support by the community. The name "Runestone" comes from a tweet by Ordinals founder Casey. At that time, Casey said that he was developing a feature implementation called Runestone under the Runes protocol. This "edge" has made Runestone's meme properties full.
Although Runestone currently has no direct application scenarios, its wide distribution range and community culture have attracted widespread attention from the community. It not only heralds innovative applications of digital assets and NFTs on the Bitcoin network, but also provides a new perspective on culture and community building within the crypto field.
Another important milestone for the Runestone project is the mining of the largest block on the Bitcoin blockchain. Thanks to its cooperation with Marathon Digital and Ordinals Bot, this 3.97 MB block not only demonstrates its technical strength, but also embodies Exploring Ordinals technology. In addition, Runestone conducted an auction for the largest block, and the auction was successfully hammered down at a record price of 8 BTC. All proceeds from the auction were used to cover network fees related to the airdrop. This strategy not only supports the Bitcoin ecosystem , also demonstrates the Runestone project’s commitment to giving back to the community.
In addition to the narrative of "Fairness" + "Airdrop" + "Rune", Runestone is so FOMO in the secondary market. Many community members believe that this is because Runestone is different from the previous Inscription season. It has both Chinese and Western crypto communities. consensus, while the previous Brc-20 was more attended by the Chinese-speaking community. Some even think that Runestone will become the biggest MEME in this bull market.
All in all, 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 crazy trading on the secondary market heralds the official beginning of the Rune Age has become a topic worthy of attention.
What are Runes?
After understanding Runestone, let’s explore the Runes protocol in depth.
The Runes protocol, originated from Ordinals founder Casey Rodarmor, aims to introduce a new type of asset on the Bitcoin network - runes. As an improved version of BRC-20, this protocol is committed to solving the efficiency and operational complexity issues caused by its reliance on inscriptions, and proposes a more concise and efficient Bitcoin asset issuance and management framework.
First of all, the Runes protocol has excellent compatibility and scalability, and can be seamlessly connected with Bitcoin’s UTXO model and second-layer protocols based on it, such as Lightning Network and CKB. Compared with other homogeneous token protocols such as BRC-20, Runes significantly improves operation efficiency and user experience through simplified transaction processes and token balance management directly bound to UTXO.
The Runes protocol supports Simple Payment Verification (SPV) wallets, providing users with a lightweight transaction experience that traditional BRC-20 cannot achieve. It also provides developers with a friendlier, more accessible development environment by providing a reference implementation and emphasizing compatibility with existing Bitcoin scripts and address types.
Secondly, Runes provides greater flexibility in token issuance, allowing token name lengths from 1 to 28 characters, and adopting a variety of innovative issuance mechanisms, including but not limited to fixed total issuance and public inscription distribution, even more expressive forms of distribution were considered. Among them, the fixed total amount method is more centralized, and all Runes are directly inscribed by the issuer and then distributed; while the public inscription method is based on specific parameter settings, such as block height or timestamp. The number of assets inscribed by the user within the specified time determines the number of Runes. The final total number of Runes. This not only enriches the token design space of the Bitcoin ecosystem, but also improves security and effectively avoids some common security risks.
In terms of UTXO management, Runes uses the OP_RETURN script to avoid the complexity and security risks that may be caused by the witness part of the transaction, reducing unnecessary UTXO generation, thereby improving the overall health and efficiency of the network.
The Runes protocol is designed to reduce the on-chain footprint, encourage optimized UTXO usage, and integrate seamlessly with Bitcoin’s infrastructure. It aims to promote the development and innovation of the Bitcoin ecosystem by handling fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain in a more concise and intuitive way.
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 time to go online depends on the mining speed of blocks, but according to the current block generation rate, it can be expected in late April 2024. This point in time marks the official addition of the Runes protocol to the Bitcoin ecosystem, opening a new chapter in the issuance and management of homogeneous tokens on the Bitcoin network.
It is worth noting that on the eve of the launch, existing protocols, such as Merlin, stated that they would 100% provide cross-chain bridges, DEX, indexers, minting services and more incentives for the Runestone and Runes protocols. This comprehensive support not only reflects the BTC community’s recognition of the potential of the Runes protocol, but also demonstrates the cryptocurrency community’s common pursuit of innovation and progress.
Although Runes is still in its early stages, the widespread attention and discussion it has generated in the cryptocurrency community has proven its innovativeness and application value. Through a simplified UTXO model and an efficient token transfer mechanism, the Runes protocol not only brings new vitality to the Bitcoin network, but also opens up new possibilities for the diversified development and technological innovation of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
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