After the protocols such as Oridinals, Atomicals, and Pipe, what are the new asset issuance protocols of Bitcoin recently? What innovations do they have and how do they perform? This article is sourced from Jian Shu and organized and written by PANews.
Article
Summary:
From the soaring ATOM to the Crocodile NFT, explore the Atomicals ecosystem in one article.
Background:
Unisat Wallet announces support for Atomicals protocol ARC20 tokens.
Table of Contents
Rune Alpha
CBRC-20
BTNS
Summary
After protocols such as Oridinals, Atomicals, and Pipe, what are the new asset issuance protocols of Bitcoin recently? What innovations do they have and how do they perform?
The reason why Rune Alpha has gained popularity is mainly due to the recent high discussion of “runes” concept. The concept of “runes” was initially proposed by Casey and gained attention again due to the opposition of “inscriptions” by Luke, a BTC Core developer. The fundamental difference between “runes” and “inscriptions” is that “runes” are stored in UTXO, while “inscriptions” based on Ordinals like BRC-20 are stored in JSON text in Bitcoin script’s segregated witness data.
Although Rune Alpha claims to be “runes”, according to the Rune Alpha whitepaper, it is a new inscription protocol built on the Ordinals protocol version 0.11.1, which is different from Casey’s proposed “runes”. Therefore, Rune Alpha is not actually “runes”, but it has gained popularity by riding on the popularity of the name.
However, whether it is true “runes” is not important. Rune Alpha has already gained popularity, and in the cryptocurrency world, you can have a bad reputation, but you absolutely cannot lack fame. The minting cost of the first token $cook of this protocol is around ten U, and the current off-market price has risen to 400U, but it has not been launched on the trading market yet.
CBRC-20 is an efficient sub-protocol standard for replaceable tokens on Bitcoin formulated through Ordinals. By utilizing the new metadata and metaprotocol fields introduced in ord 0.10+ (allowing arbitrary attributes to be directly stored in the Inscription envelope), CBRC-20 maintains the functional logic of the BRC-20 sub-protocol while reducing the cost of each inscription and simplifying the indexing process.
Since CBRC-20 is an upgraded version of BRC-20, what optimizations does it achieve?
Reduces the cost of inscriptions
Deploying, minting, or transferring any CBRC-20 token only requires imprinting a digital “0” on the token. As a text file, the cost of inscriptions is reduced by 10 times compared to other ordinal sub-protocol token standards.
Simplifies indexing
CBRC-20 provides a simple way to index the status of CBRC-20 sub-protocols, as all information can be directly obtained from the envelope of each inscription.
Flexibility of MIME data
CBRC-20 standard allows the use of any MIME data to deploy, mint, or transfer CBRC-20 tokens. For example, filling in “0” as the text content of token issuance instructions reduces the cost by 10 times compared to other Ordinals sub-protocols.
Compatible with higher versions of Ordinals protocol
Unlike BRC-20, which is limited to the functionality of Ordinals 0.9, CBRC-20 can leverage the latest features introduced in Ordinals 0.10 and higher versions.
Currently, the CBRC-20 team has not developed its own market, but has made its tokens available on the trading market through various clever methods. One is through RuneX to directly list inscriptions for swap. The other is by modifying Unisat through Greasemonkey, and directly forcing Unisat to list inscriptions. The transferred inscriptions are all cbrm collections, and the founder has developed a Greasemonkey plug-in that can directly read inscription information on Unisat to see which specific inscription it is.
In addition to listing on the above two trading markets, the community has spontaneously created a trading market for CBRC-20 tokens and attached CBRC-20 tokens to BRC-20 tokens, using a method similar to a “Trojan horse” to list CBRC-20 tokens on Unisat. However, this method is highly experimental and does not guarantee the security of assets.
Recently, the founder initiated an OSMOSIS experiment and deployed the first meta-sub-protocol inscription $SYMM. How to understand the terms “meta-sub-protocol” and “cross-indexing”?
“Meta-sub-protocol” is a term used by the Ordinals community to describe interactive “protocols”. It is formalized by on-chain information and off-chain indexing (such as BRC-20, SNS, Bitmap, etc.).
Due to the non-overlapping nature of the two BRC/CBRC meta-sub-protocols, it is possible to mint inscriptions for both protocols simultaneously. If the holder holds both, the $SYMM in their hands is considered “valid”. The image on the left shows a two-in-one $SYMM inscription, and the image on the right shows the minting process.
Overall, CBRC-20 is similar to a “Trojan horse” in that it uses the method of minting inscriptions for multiple protocols simultaneously, thereby conducting a certain degree of “vampire attack” on other protocols. Just like the Trojan horses that the creators often post on Twitter, CBRC-20 has achieved “listing by borrowing shells”.
Broadcast Token Naming System (BTNS) is an ecosystem on the BTC main chain built by one of the early BTC holders and development members, @jdogresorg. The basic idea is to attach broadcast signals to each BTC transaction on the blockchain, using blockchain records as data basis and ledger indexing as a means, to make it possible for BTC to release its own native on-chain assets, tokens, and NFTs.
BTNS-420 is a token protocol standard with integrated asset release and transfer features based on BTNS and developed by @jdogresorg. The emergence of BTNS-420 makes the BTNS concept possible.
What are the differences between BTNS tokens and inscriptions and runes?
Firstly, the token assets in the BTNS ecosystem do not modify or occupy BTC, which is more in line with the direction of the BTC ecosystem. In contrast, inscriptions and runes rely on storing in BTC itself, resulting in a large number of BTC tokens being used and resource waste. The asset minting based on broadcasting is more open and fair. Although the indexing is constructed by @jdogresorg, all broadcast data is stored with BTC transaction information, making it completely transparent, open, and queryable. The existence of indexing is more for limiting and tracking the total amount of assets, rather than centralized indexing of whoever wants to index.
BTNS has no potential risks because it is completely open source, and all infrastructure construction is based on the characteristics and functions of BTC itself, without significant controversial discussions.
What value does BTNS bring?
BTNS makes it possible to release on-chain assets based on the BTC main chain, relying entirely on the characteristics of BTC itself. Its release enables BTC to construct all assets without loss of total amount. With further improvements, it is very likely that BTC will become a fully playable and environmentally friendly mainstream ecosystem chain (note that it is an ecosystem chain, not just a value currency).
The recent revolution of inscriptions and runes has caused congestion in BTC. The author believes that if BTNS is introduced to build the ecosystem, its framework and upgraded token protocols allow airdrops, fair indexing (indexing based on rules or specific instructions), and other methods, making asset acquisition not reliant on speed or gas fees but a fairer choice. For example, airdrop based on registered addresses, block restrictions, or low gas transaction indexing.
According to the community, @jdogresorg is currently on vacation and has suspended development work. This is also evident from his Twitter updates. So, there has been no progress in the development of the market so far.
These are the introductions of the recent new protocols of Bitcoin. Both Rune Alpha and CBRC-20 are not separate from the concept of inscriptions and runes. They are both asset issuance methods based on Ordinals, but CBRC-20 performs better in terms of innovation, enabling the minting of inscriptions for multiple protocols simultaneously. BTNS is a larger concept that belongs to the category of meta-protocols, while Rune Alpha and CBRC-20 belong to “layer 2 protocols” (referring to standards or protocols developed based on Ordinals). BTNS, in the form of “broadcasting”, allows the issuance of assets on Bitcoin without occupying Bitcoin (this does not evaluate the advantages or disadvantages of occupation).
Related Websites:
Rune Alpha Official Website: https://runealpha.xyz/
CBRC-20 Official Website: https://cybord.org/explore.html
References:
1. “BRC-20 Whitepaper”
2. “CBRC-20 Whitepaper”
3. Casey Rodarmor’s Blog
4. “Rune Alpha Whitepaper”
Related Reports:
ARC-20 Meme Token Quark: Why has it become a new favorite in the Bitcoin ecosystem? A tutorial on minting inscriptions.
Reasons for the surge of Ordi: Rumors of Binance Wallet launching BRC-20 inscription board, official denial.
Dragon-themed coins in the Year of the Dragon: Besides “$Silly,” what other meme tokens and inscriptions have Dragon elements?
Tags:
BTNS
CBRC-20
Oridinals
UniSat
Bitcoin
Asset Issuance Protocols