Get stoned, did Runestone's skyrocketing mark the beginning of the Rune Age?

Runestone is currently the largest Ordinals airdrop event, with a floor price of 0.04177 BTC on the OKX NFT marketplace. What exactly is Runestone, and what are the characteristics of the Runes protocol behind it that cause the market to be so FOMO?

What is Runestone?

Ordinals OG, Ord.io founder Leonidas, inspired by RSIC to celebrate the launch of Ordinals technology, has become one of the largest Bitcoin Ordinals airdrops to date by airdropping over 112,383 Bitcoin addresses. Leonidas emphasized that while Runestone as a project does not seek any practical applications or features, its value as a cultural and memento has already garnered a great deal of attention in the crypto community.

The Runestone project is based on the Ordinals protocol, which was designed as a pre-runes project. This means that once Casey Rodarmor's Runes protocol is released, those who participate in the Runestone airdrop will be able to convert it into Runes tokens. **This transition is expected to occur within 8 weeks of the launch of the Runes protocol. When Leonidas originally came up with the idea for this airdrop, Casey also commented below the tweet discussing how to reduce gas consumption, which was seen as a soft support by the community. The name "Runestone" comes from a tweet by Ordinals founder Casey, who said he was working on an implementation of the Runes protocol called Runnestone. This "edge rubbing" makes Runestone's meme attribute full.

Although Runestone currently has no direct application scenarios, its wide range of distribution and community culture have attracted wide attention from the community. Not only does it herald the innovative use of digital assets and NFTs on the Bitcoin network, but it also provides a new perspective on culture and community building within the crypto space.

Another important milestone for the Runestone project is that it has mined the largest block on the Bitcoin blockchain, and thanks to a partnership with Marathon Digital and Ordinals Bot, the 3.97 MB block not only showcases its technical prowess, but also reflects the exploration of Ordinals' technology. In addition, Runestone auctioned off the largest block, with a hammer at a record price of 8BTC, with all proceeds used to cover the network fees associated with the airdrop, a strategy that not only supports the Bitcoin ecosystem, but 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, and many community members believe that this is because Runestone is different from the previous inscription season, it has the consensus of both Chinese and Western crypto communities**, and the previous Brc-20 was more involved in the Chinese community. There are even those who believe that Runestone will become the biggest MEME in this round of bull market.

All in all, the Runestone project not only demonstrates the innovative potential of Ordinals' technology and the market's anticipation 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 frenzied trading on the secondary market heralded the official beginning of the Rune Age became a topic to watch.

What are Runes?

Now that you're out of Runestone, let's dive deeper into the Runes protocol.

The Runes protocol, which 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, the protocol aims to address the efficiency and operational complexity of its reliance on inscriptions, proposing a more concise and efficient framework for the issuance and management of Bitcoin assets.

First of all, the Runes protocol is highly compatible and scalable, and works seamlessly with Bitcoin's UTXO model and layer-2 protocols such as the Lightning Network and CKB. Compared to other fungible token protocols such as BRC-20, Runes** significantly improves the efficiency and user experience of operations through a simplified transaction process and token balance management directly tied to UTXOs.

The Runes protocol** supports Simple Payment Verification (SPV) wallets, providing users with a lightweight transaction experience**, which is not possible with traditional BRC-20. It also provides a more user-friendly, easy-to-access development environment for developers by providing reference implementations and emphasizing compatibility with existing Bitcoin scripts and address types.

Second, Runes offers more flexibility in terms of token issuance, allowing token name lengths from 1 to 28 characters, and employs a variety of innovative issuance mechanisms, including but not limited to fixed volume offerings and public inscription offerings, and even considers a more expressive issuance approach. Among them, the fixed amount method is more centralized, and the issuer directly inscribes all Runes and distributes them, while the public inscription method is based on specific parameter settings, such as block height or timestamp, and the number of assets inscribed by the user within a specified time determines the final total amount 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, through the use of OP_RETURN scripts, avoids the complexity and security risks that can be introduced by the witness portion 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 and encourage optimized UTXO usage to 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.

**With Bitcoin on the horizon for its next halving, it is expected that at the important moment of block height 840,000, the Runes protocol is officially ready to make its debut. The exact timing of the launch depends on the speed at which the block is mined, but at the current rate of block generation, it can be expected in late April 2024. This point in time marks the official entry of the Runes protocol into the Bitcoin ecosystem, opening a new chapter in the issuance and management of fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network.

It's worth noting that on the eve of the launch, existing protocols, such as Merlin, said they would provide 100% of the Runestone and Runes protocols with cross-chain bridges, DEXs, indexers, minting services, and more. This comprehensive support not only demonstrates the BTC community's recognition of the potential of the Runes protocol, but also demonstrates the cryptocurrency community's shared 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 innovation 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.