Will Rune Protocol Be Next Big Thing on Bitcoin?

Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, has pitched a new token protocol for Bitcoin, Rune, which he claims addresses the shortcomings of BRC-20.

There has been crazy development in the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem this year. First Ordinals, then BRC-20 tokens took the crypto industry by storm.

How Rune Addresses Shortcoming of BRC-20 Protocol on Bitcoin

Rudarmor claims that 99.9% of fungible tokens on Bitcoin are scams and memes. But, he compares them to casinos, saying they are not going away anytime soon.

Hence, he believes “worse is better.” Because fungible token protocols can bring revenue from transaction fees and onboard more users and developers to the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Rudarmor argues:

“If this protocol had a small on-chain footprint and encouraged responsible UTXO management, it might serve as harm reduction compared to existing protocols. At least one of which, BRC-20, is already quite popular, and has the undesirable consequence of UTXO proliferation.”

UTXO refers to the unused amount in transactions. 

Click here to learn more about Unspent Transactions Output (UTXO).

Indeed, BRC-20 transactions received backlash from some Bitcoin developers for spamming the network. The BRC-20 protocol started a meme coin frenzy, clogging the Bitcoin network. Due to the clogging, daily minting fees started hitting record highs in May 2023. 

However, Rudarmor claims that Rune being UTXO-based can solve the shortcomings of BRC-20. Moreover, Rune aims to tackle the issues that Bitcoin’s other fungible token protocols bring. Some of these problems are as follows:

Complexity
Poor user experience
Junk unspent transactions output (UTXO)
Requirement of native token for operation

Lastly, Rudarmor concludes that he is unsure if such protocols should exist on the Bitcoin network. 

He says that Rune can onboard more users to Bitcoin by not depending on the off-chain data, running without a native token, and syncing well with the native UTXO model. However, he is concerned with scams on the Bitcoin fungible token protocols, saying it is “a near totally irredeemable pit of deceit and avarice.”

Click here to read everything you need to know about BRC-20 tokens.

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For BeInCrypto’s latest Bitcoin (BTC) analysis, click here.