Ordinals founder Cesay: Comprehensive introduction to the Runes protocol for the first time

Original author: Jasmine, Ordinals community user

The founder of the Ordinals and Runes protocols, Cesay, detailed the upcoming launch of the homogenous token protocol Runes for the first time in the latest episode of the hellmoneypod podcast, coinciding with the Bitcoin halving in April.

2 minutes to see what Casey talked about (with Alpha at the end).

1. What is Runes?

Runes is a protocol for issuing homogeneous tokens on the Bitcoin network. In Casey's words, Runes does not issue "garbage" coins, but only provides a place to issue them. The core of the protocol is based on #UTXO and is designed to be very simple.

2.Runes 基于 UTXO 是什么意思？

2. What does Runes based on UTXO mean?

UTXO stands for "Unspent Transaction Output". In the Bitcoin network, during the transaction process, some existing inputs (Input) need to be selected and consumed to generate new UTXOs, which can then be used as inputs for future transactions.

Runes is based on UTXO, which means that transaction outputs can contain not only Bitcoin, but also different quantities and types of Runes. For example, a transaction output can contain 1 Bitcoin, 100 A Runes, and 1000 B Runes at the same time.

3. How to issue (etch) a new Rune symbol?

· The issuance process of Rune token is called "etching". Each Rune's name is unique and can be composed of uppercase letters A-Z and the "•" symbol.

In order to balance the issuance pace of Rune and prevent popular and short names like Rune from being quickly occupied in the early stage, the Runes protocol requires a name length of at least 13 letters during the first four months of launch, such as "PEPE•IS•AWESOME".

Afterwards, approximately every four months, the minimum length of the name is reduced by one letter until the next halving event, at which point Runes containing only a single character (a total of 26) can be created.

· Runes issuance adopts the Commint-Reveal mechanism to prevent miners from knowing the name of Rune in advance and thus preempting it.

· The unit of the Rune token can be a traditional currency unit, such as $, or any Unicode emoji. This design makes the Rune token more interesting and personalized, such as "100 PEPE•IS•AWESOME".

4. How to transfer Runes?

Although Casey is the founder of Ordinals, Runes is not based on the Ordinal protocol. When transferring Runes, the order of inputs and Sats is not critical, but the order of outputs directly affects the result of the transfer. Typically, in a transaction, all Runes in the inputs will be 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.

· What is an OP_Return 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, OP_RETURN outputs can be considered a type of output used solely for carrying data and not usable for transactions.

· How to transfer funds to a specific output or address?

In theory, if the output does not contain OP_Return or 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 Xiao Ming while keeping 75. At this time, you can set the first output of the transaction to OP_Return, the second output to your own address, and the third output to Xiao Ming's address. In OP_Return, indicate that you want to transfer 25 Runes to the third output (i.e. Xiao Ming's address), and the remaining 75 Runes without a specified receiving address will automatically be transferred to the first non-OP_Return output (i.e. your own address).

5.Runes is compatible with SPV wallets

Attention to developers of Runes wallet:

SPV (simple payment verification) wallet is a lightweight Bitcoin wallet that only downloads and verifies block header data related to user transactions, instead of downloading the entire blockchain. Users can use SPV wallet to manage and use Rune tokens, enjoying a lightweight, simple, and fast transaction experience.

6.Brc20 vs Runes

Casey believes that the key to the success of Brc20 is its pioneering open minting model, which allows everyone to participate in the minting process. Casey recognizes the success of Brc20 and suggests that Runes should learn from its advantages while avoiding its technical flaws, mainly the problem of garbage UTXO inflation.

7.有哪些 Alpha ?

7. What are the Alphas?

Rune offers two issuance methods: Fixed Total Supply (project parties can pre-mine) and Open Mint (fair launch, project parties cannot pre-mine). Casey believes that the current market is filled with various speculative behaviors, competing to become the first Rune. The first Rune will become the Schelling point (Schelling point: the tendency of people's choices in game theory without communication) .

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