Due to the new expectations brought by the founder of Ordinals, the short-term popularity of “Rune Runes,” which went online on the same day as the Bitcoin halving, skyrocketed. It can be said that the Bitcoin chain was unusually lively that day, with transaction fees soaring to hundreds or even thousands of dollars, resulting in congestion on the Bitcoin network. It also led to a daily income of over $100 million for mining workers, reaching a historic high.
Since its launch after the halving, Rune has accounted for more than two-thirds of Bitcoin’s trading volume. In addition, several mainstream platforms such as UniSat, OKX, and MagicEden have also gradually supported the Rune market. With the development during this period, let’s briefly understand some of the progress in the Rune track:
01. What is Rune?
Rune, as a new Bitcoin Token protocol, was proposed by Casey, the founder of Ordinals. Its goal is to solve the problems related to BRC-20 Tokens, especially the congestion and poor user experience caused by a large number of garbage UTXOs (Unspent Transaction Outputs) on the Bitcoin network.
Advantages of Rune:
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 Rune provides users with a simpler way to create and manage Tokens, which can improve the availability and exchangeability of Tokens while avoiding the generation of a large number of useless UTXOs.
3) Rune uses the OP_RETURN model, which saves more Bitcoin network resources compared to the BRC-20 Token that occupies a lot of space.
4) As Rune inherits Bitcoin’s UTXO model and is highly compatible with the Bitcoin blockchain, Rune Tokens can seamlessly integrate into 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 Rune is too long compared to the four-letter BRC-20 inscription, which is not “Meme” enough. The reason is that Casey intentionally designed it to prevent name squatting. The naming length is between 1-26 characters, but at first, only names with 13 or more carved characters could be used. With every 17,500 blocks, the minimum number of letters in the name will be reduced by one character. In about four years, all names can be used, creating a dynamic naming environment.
02. Major platforms supporting Rune
Currently, the main platforms that support the casting of Rune are UniSat, OKX, and MagicEden. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and usually, using these three is enough.
UniSat and MagicEden have bulk scanning functions, and their depth is better than OKX in various aspects. This is because overseas users prefer to use UniSat, and Rune’s popularity is higher overseas than in China. Personally, I usually compare UniSat and MagicEden, and use OKX for initial purchases.
Looking at the gas on the Bitcoin chain, it can be seen that the overall popularity of Rune is not high. Recently, there have been gradually rising fears, uncertainties, and doubts (FUD). Most Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) criticize the Rune protocol’s minting system and high gas fees, as well as the practice of minting first and then crashing the floor. The high fees have also deterred most buyers from placing orders, resulting in only selling without buying, ultimately causing the floor price to rise. In the end, only mining workers will benefit.
Whether Rune can develop in the future is still unknown. After all, it took several months for BRC-20 to become popular after its launch.
03. Characteristics of high-quality Rune
Currently, Rune’s gameplay is similar to Meme, and traffic is still the king. Here are a few criteria for judgment:
1) Whether it has well-known KOLs with their own traffic: support from famous artists and celebrities, such as Casey, as well as KOLs related to top projects.
2) Special meanings: like SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO and other similar concepts, or those related to certain top projects.
3) Public support from top project teams or communities: like SHIB or Node Monkey, Puppet Monkey, which are popular Bitcoin NFTs and are starting to support Rune.
4) Number of holder addresses: the number of addresses is generally related to popularity and the number of participants.
5) Whether there is pre-mining and its proportion: unless it has a particularly good concept, Runes with pre-mining are usually not ideal.
With various new things emerging, comprehensive judgment is often needed.
04. Classification of Rune
Currently, Rune can be mainly divided into three categories:
1) Airdrop type, led by project teams:
Projects launched by Ordinals OG (Original Gangster), such as Runestone and RSIC, directly snapshot NFT holders, and the NFT prices generally plummet after the snapshot ends.
Well-known projects on Ethereum or other chains, such as Prometheans.
2) KOL endorsements, artists:
KOLs like Casey and LEO, who have influence, endorse these Runes. It is necessary to have an understanding of KOLs, as some people endorse a new Rune every few days, which can be overwhelming.
3) Specific special meaning category:
For example, 0号符文 UNCOMMON•GOODS, which takes four years to complete, is similar to Sats in BRC-20. The time cycle is long, and it is a concept related to Satoshi Nakamoto that those who understand will appreciate.
0-9号符文
0号符文 UNCOMMON•GOODS: Deployed by Casey, the founder of Ordinals, with no pre-mining and no upper limit, it can be participated by anyone. It is somewhat similar to sats in BRC-20, with a large total supply and a long time frame, making it suitable for layout during the 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 and 99.99% pre-mining. It was heavily minted a few days ago, and retail investors gambled on the project team destroying the pre-mining. However, the project team later announced that they would Airdrop a portion of the pre-mining.
2号符文 is DECENTRALIZED, belonging to Ethereum NFT’s old blue-chip, cyberkongz, with 100% pre-mining. Some will be Airdropped to Prometheans NFT holders, and the price of Prometheans is also rising.
3号符文 is DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON, belonging to runestone, with 100% pre-mining. It has been Airdropped to runestone holders, and the overall market value is about $400 million, making it the leader in Runes. The founder is extremely active on Twitter and has been promoting DOG.
4号符文 is THE•RUNIX•TOKEN, a project of RuneChain under the L2 project BVM, with 100% pre-mining. Holders of the NFT Runer can mine Rune.
5号符文 is DOG•DOG•DOG•DOG•DOG, from an anonymous team, with 100% pre-mining, and currently no details are available.
6号符文 is SATOSHI•NAKAMOTO (中本聪), with 20% pre-mining and relatively high popularity. It has been listed on some small exchanges, and the only criticism is that the project team’s pre-mining proportion is too high.
7号符文 is MEME•ECONOMICS, from an anonymous team, with 20% pre-mining, and the chips are too concentrated.
8号符文 is RSIC•GENESIS•RUNE, belonging to RSIC, with 100% pre-mining. It has been Airdropped to previous RSIC miners based on their score ratio and was listed on OKX Jumpstart yesterday.
9号符文 is LOBO•THE•WOLF•PUP, deployed by Buoyant Capital, with 100% pre-mining. It has been Airdropped to Runestone and Rune Doors holders, with a small portion reserved for project operations.
It can be seen that Runes 0-9 are mainly led by project teams, with most of them using 100% pre-mining and then Airdropping to their own project holders.
Meme Themes
WANKO•MANKO•RUNES: A concept by Casey, and after the Rune was minted, Casey commented and tweeted his appreciation for this Rune. Additionally, Casey has retweeted several related tweets about this Rune.
ANARCHO•CATBUS: A concept by Casey, and Casey has mentioned this concept multiple times on Twitter, always adding related hashtags in his Twitter bio. However, Casey has never minted this Rune. (“Minting a project” is a crypto slang that refers to a high-risk investment project in the crypto field that lacks real value support and relies solely on continuously introducing new investor funds to pay returns.)
SEPPUKU•IN•MAY•AND•GO•AWAY: A concept by Casey, and on the day of the Rune’s deployment, Casey posted on social media saying that he is paying attention to this Rune. In less than a few hours, the Rune was completely minted. This meme originated from a previous tweet by Casey, stating that if the Rune ecosystem’s market value does not reach $1 billion in the first month, he is prepared to commit seppuku. Here, I have listed a few Runes mentioned by Casey. Leo, the founder of Runestones, has also minted several, such as ORDINALS•ARE•DEAD, CASEYS•MOM•HAS•GOT•IT•GOING•ON, and so on. Those interested can check their tweets. However, because these individuals have minted too many Runes, most of them have performed poorly, so this is just a direction for everyone to search for Runes.
Community-led BITCOIN•PEPE•MATRIX: A Pepe concept, this Rune uses magical Pepe memes and the 69 420 concept mentioned by Musk, attracting a lot of attention. There are almost no Runes led by the community running out at the moment, so I will only mention one.
05. Conclusion
The above is an introduction to Rune. It can be seen that the development of Rune is still rough at the moment. As can be seen from the recent high fees on the Bitcoin chain, the popularity of Rune has dropped rapidly. However, as the mainstream narrative of this round of the bull market, the Bitcoin ecosystem is still worth paying attention to.
Perhaps in the future, the wind will change direction again. Players who are active on the chain should maintain an open attitude towards these new things. Of course, high fees should be paid attention to, and risks should be noted, as many people have been “buried” in them.
