Source:
Runes Chinese Community
Author:
Jasmine
In the latest episode of the hellmoneypod podcast, Cesay, the founder of the Ordinals and Runes protocols, detailed the homogenized token protocol Runes, which will be launched in April during the Bitcoin halving.
Summary of Casey’s discussion (with Alpha at the end)
Table of Contents
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1. What are Runes?
2. What does Runes based on UTXO mean?
3. How to issue (etch) a new Rune?
4. How to transfer Runes?
What is OP_Return output?
How to transfer to a specific output or address?
5. Compatibility of Runes with SPV wallets
6. Brc20 vs Runes
7. What are the Alphas?
Runes is a protocol for issuing homogenized tokens on the Bitcoin network. In Casey’s words, Runes does not issue “garbage” coins but rather provides a place to issue “garbage” coins. The core of this protocol is based on #UTXO and is designed to be very simple.
UTXO stands for “Unspent Transaction Output.” In the Bitcoin network, during a transaction, some existing inputs (Input) are selected and consumed to generate new UTXOs, which can then be used as inputs for future transactions.
Being based on UTXO means that Runes transaction outputs can contain not only bitcoins but also different quantities and types of Runes. For example, a transaction output can contain 1 bitcoin, 100 A Runes, and 1000 B Runes.
The process of issuing Rune tokens is called “etching.” Each Rune has a unique name and can be composed of uppercase letters A-Z and the “•” symbol.
To balance the issuance pace of Runes and prevent popular and short-named Runes from being quickly occupied in the early stages, the Runes protocol requires a minimum name length of 13 letters for the first four months after its launch, such as “PEPE•IS•AWESOME.”
Afterward, approximately every four months, the minimum name length decreases by one letter until the next halving event, at which point Runes with single-character names (a total of 26) can be created.
Runes issuance uses the Commit-Reveal mechanism to prevent miners from knowing the name of the Rune in advance and attempting to rush to obtain it.
The unit of Rune tokens can be a traditional currency unit, such as $, or any Unicode emoji. This design makes Rune tokens more interesting and personalized, for example, “100 ? PEPE•IS•AWESOME.”
Although Casey is the founder of Ordinals, Runes is not based on the Ordinals protocol. When transferring Runes, the order of inputs and Sats is not crucial, but the order of outputs directly affects the result of the transfer. Typically, in a transaction, all Runes in the inputs are transferred to the first output by default. However, by constructing an OP_Return output, it is possible to direct the transfer of Runes to a specific output.
OP_RETURN is an opcode in the Bitcoin transaction scripting language used to mark a transaction output as unspendable while allowing up to 80 bytes of arbitrary data to be embedded on the Bitcoin blockchain. Therefore, an OP_Return output can be considered as an output type used only for carrying data, which cannot be used for transactions.
In theory, if the output does not contain OP_Return or if OP_Return does not contain any data, all Runes will be transferred to the first non-OP_Return output by default. For example, suppose you have 100 A Runes and want to transfer 25 to Xiaoming while keeping 75. In this case, you can set the first output of the transaction as OP_Return, the second output as your own address, and the third output as Xiaoming’s address. In the OP_Return, specify that you want to transfer 25 Runes to the third output (Xiaoming’s address), and the remaining 75 Runes without a specified receiving address will be automatically transferred to the first non-OP_Return output (your own address).
Attention to developers of Runes wallets:
SPV (Simple Payment Verification) wallets are lightweight Bitcoin wallets that only download and verify block header data related to user transactions instead of downloading the entire blockchain. Users can use SPV wallets to manage and use Rune tokens, enjoying a lightweight, simple, and fast transaction experience.
Casey believes that the success of Brc20 lies in its creation of an open mint model, allowing everyone to participate in the minting process. Casey acknowledges the success of Brc20 and states that Runes should learn from its advantages while avoiding its technical shortcomings (primarily the problem of expanding garbage UTXO).
Rune offers two issuance methods: fixed total supply (the project party can pre-mine) and Open Mint (fair launch, the project party cannot pre-mine). Casey believes that the current market is full of speculation and everyone is rushing to become the first Rune, which will become the “Shilling Point.”
To prevent the first Rune from being taken or pre-mined by VC or the project party, Casey decided to hardcode the first 10 Runes (Rune 0 – Rune 9) into the Runes protocol, only supporting open mint, allowing everyone to participate fairly and have fun together.
Currently, he is collecting interesting and memeable token names, units, and minting rules from the community. Casey mentioned a few names he finds interesting, such as COMMUNISTRUNE, ANARCHISTRUNE, CYBERPUNKRUNE, and more.
Friends with big ideas and meme skills are welcome to provide suggestions and submit the form here: [Google Form link]
Finally, Casey straightforwardly states that 99.9% of homogenized tokens are scams. Let’s not pretend to change the world, but rather admit that this is an industry full of gambling and speculation. Let’s be honest and good to everyone. IT’S JUST FOR FUN!
This article is authorized and reprinted from PANews.
Hell Money podcast link
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