Original - Odaily
Author - Nan Zhi
Today, Ordinals founder Casey released Runes’Official documentation, including setup and functionality descriptions, as well as detailed documentation of technical details. According to Caseys previous announcement, the Runes released by it will be launched in late April. Odaily will analyze the functional documents in this article and compare its similarities and differences with the BRC-20 token.
What are runes?
Rune allows Bitcoin transactions to etch, mint, and transfer digital goods native to Bitcoin. Each inscription is unique, and each unit of runes is homogeneous. They are interchangeable tokens suitable for multiple uses.
Runes
Rune protocol information is called a runestone and is stored in the Bitcoin transaction output. The runestone output scripts start with OP_RETURN and OP_ 13 respectively, which are compressed and decoded into a series of 128-bit integers according to the rules specified by Casey, and finally parsed into a runestone. Each transaction can only have one runestone at most.(For specific operation details, please refer to Ordinals founder talks about Runes protocol for the first time》Section 4)
Runestones can be used to etch new runes and cast existing runes.
etching
Runes are created through etching, which creates a rune and sets its properties.. Once set, these properties areUnchangeable. This operation can be understood in terms of the deployment of ERC 20 tokens.
name
The name consists of the letters A through Z and is between 1 and 28 characters long. For example UNCOMMONGOODS could be a rune name. Names can also contain separators, represented by dots, to improve readability. UNCOMMONGOODS can be etched into UNCOMMON·GOODS. The uniqueness of a name does not depend on the separator. Therefore, a rune cannot use the same sequence of letters as an existing rune, even if it uses a different spacer symbol.
Premine (preallocated)
The Etcher of Runes can allocate a certain number of Etched Runes to himself, this allocation is called a Premine and is optional and optional.
(Odaily note: In the early days, Ceasy did not consider adding this feature. The launch of this feature provides the possibility for more complex token economics.)
Divisibility
The divisibility of a rune refers to how many smallest units it can be divided into. Divisibility is the maximum number of digits after the decimal point for the number of runes. A rune with a divisibility of 0 is indivisible, a rune with a divisibility of 1 can be divided into ten subunits, a rune with a divisibility of 2 can be divided into a hundred, and so on.
(Odaily note: This is the smallest unit of tokens that users can choose.)
casting restrictions
Runes can be minted publicly, open to everyone, and casting limits can be set. When specified conditions (Casey calls them Terms) are exceeded, the casting will stop. For example, the runes can be restricted to a specific starting (block) height, ending (block) ) height and a (quantity) upper limit.
other information
Identification: A rune has a specific Unicode code. For example, a rune with a divisibility of 2 and a quantity of 101 units is identified as 🧿 and will be reflected as 1.01 🧿.
Upper limit: The number of times a rune can be cast is its upper limit. Once the upper limit is exceeded, casting will stop.
Burn: The rune can be burned by a method specified by Casey.
What is the difference with BRC-20?
underlying differences
Runes are built based on the Bitcoin networks UTXO and attachment information, and simulate token operations by marking specific information with OP_RETURN. BRC-20 records data in witness data and has the characteristics of UTXO expansion. This is also one of the fundamental reasons why Casey opposes BRC-20. He believes that the junk UTXO generated by BRC-20 excessively occupies the Bitcoin network space. And there are potential security issues.(See BTC Ecosystem - Revealing the Behind-the-Scenes Story of Ordinals’ Founder Asking Binance to Remove ORDI》）
On the other hand, Casey believes that the key to the success of BRC-20 is that it pioneered the fair launch of assets method on the Bitcoin network, where everyone can participate and be responsible for the cost of minting. Casey hopes to inherit its advantages while avoiding its technical shortcomings (UTXO bloat problem).
So from a token perspective, what are the differences between the two?
Token difference
Greater freedom of setting
BRC-20 stipulates that the token name is fixed to 4 letters, and only the total number of tokens and the number of single engravings can be set. Runes is more open to names and supports the setting of token precision.
More comprehensive token functionality
The BRC-20 token only has a transfer function and only supports one-to-one transfers of a single type of token. Runes supports complex transfers, including multiple objects and multiple tokens in a single transfer. A series of features such as setting minting conditions, pre-allocation, burning, and batch airdrops make Runes closer to the ERC-20 tokens familiar to the majority of users, greatly improving its functionality.
in conclusion
Last year, Casey announced that Runes would be launched when the Bitcoin network block height reaches 840,000, which would be around mid-to-late this year. During the time when he proposed the concept of Runes in September last year, a large number of Runes tokens and NFTs have emerged, including dozens of projects such as Runes Alpha (COOK), Runecoin (RSIC), and Runestone. The release of this document once again previewed the The official version will be launched soon.
Back to BRC-20, its second popularity in 2023 is mainly due to the new narrative of Bitcoin token issuance, rather than the complexity of functions.The downfall of BRC-20 lies in the limitations of network performance and the loss of narrative novelty. Runes has made great improvements in functionality, but it is not a sufficient condition to attract a large number of users., it remains to be seen whether Casey can bring another growth to the Bitcoin network with Runes.
