Runes, a rune protocol aimed at improving the network congestion caused by BRC20, is set to go live after the Bitcoin halving. This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to participate in Runes, including instructions on how to register wallets and split UTXOs.
Since last year, Bitcoin’s Runes protocol has become one of the hottest trends in the market. The infrastructure built within this trend can be divided into two categories: scalability solutions/cross-chain protocols, such as Bitcoin L2 Merlin, which attracted over $3 billion within two months, and the largest L2 Stacks ($STX) and Nervos Network ($CKB), which have increased by 52% and 412% respectively this year.
The other category is asset issuance protocols, such as BRC20 introduced last year based on Ordinals, as well as RGB++, Atomical, and Stamps, which have attracted a large amount of capital. Currently, the total market value of BRC20 tokens exceeds $2.3 billion, and the first asset of RGB++, $Seal, achieved a 300-fold increase on the day of its listing, successfully issuing a large number of new tokens.
Currently, the market is focused on the upcoming launch of the Runes protocol, which will coincide with the Bitcoin halving. Given the success of BRC20, many are betting that Runes has the potential to be the next hundred-fold opportunity.
Runes was proposed by Casey Rodarmor, the founder of Ordinals, in September last year. It aims to solve the network congestion and abnormalities caused by BRC20, which affect normal transactions. Runes is an asset issuance protocol based on UTXO that is lighter and more concise.
The main difference between BRC20 and Runes is that BRC20 stores data in the witness part of the transaction (after the 2017 Segwit upgrade, a transaction consists of the Transaction part and the Witness part), while Runes uses the OP_RETURN function to store data directly in Bitcoin’s UTXO. This method ensures that token data is separate from transaction data, making token management simpler and more transparent.
Currently, the total market value of Pre-Runes projects has exceeded $1.2 billion, and Runestone has become the second largest NFT by market value.
However, despite the extensive discussions on Runes’ innovations, whether it will bring significant improvements in the early stages of its launch, especially in terms of user experience, remains to be seen. Technological innovation and market enthusiasm often mutually reinforce each other, as long as developers, project teams, and players continue to join and build, there is hope for the gradual improvement of the technology while maintaining its popularity.
Casey Rodarmor, the founder of Runes, is optimistic about its development. He even boldly stated at the end of last month that the market value of Runes in its first month after launch will exceed $1 billion, otherwise, he will commit seppuku.
In addition, compared to BRC20/Ordinals led by the Chinese community last year, the overseas community led by $PUPS is driving the development of the Runes ecosystem this year. With the participation of more and more well-known overseas KOLs in promotion, it shows that the acceptance of Runes in the Western community is increasing, indicating a huge potential market.
Currently, there are several ways to participate in Runes:
1) Direct minting: To participate in the first wave of minting, you should not miss the deployment of the No. 0 rune by Casey’s team after the launch of Runes (originally 0-9 runes, but on the 18th, Casey stated that only the 0 rune will be deployed). This follows a fair minting model, or observe if there are other potential good projects (with unique community culture, Ordinals OG project teams, or other blue-chip NFT project teams, Ansem’s call, etc.). This also involves installing a Bitcoin full node (Windows tutorial, Mac tutorial) and “splitting UTXOs” in advance, and the following tutorial will focus on the latter.
2) Early positioning in Pre-Runes projects: Several Pre-Runes projects have already appeared in the market, which can be viewed in the Pre-Runes list on Magic Eden. Some BRC20 tokens, such as $PUPS and $Ainn, are also included. By purchasing these projects in advance, you can expect to benefit from the rise of Runes itself and also wait for the airdrops after the launch of the Runes protocol.
3) Secondary market trading: To engage in secondary market trading, you need to find an exchange that offers rune trading as soon as possible. Currently, supported exchanges include Magic Eden, OKX (which also supports minting), RunePro, and Saturn.
4) Participate in projects that support the Runes protocol: Another way to obtain runes is to participate in other projects that support the Runes protocol. For example, the UniCross platform in the Merlin ecosystem has introduced the concept of “rune-token interchange” with the RUFI, allowing BRC-20 tokens to be exchanged for rune tokens at a 1:1 ratio. 25% of RUFI has already been distributed to Merlin and Unicross users through airdrops, while the remaining 75% will be issued through fair minting.
In summary, the above four ways to participate all require a Bitcoin wallet. Popular wallets include Unisat, OKX (recommended for mobile devices), and Xverse (recommended for computers). The following tutorial will focus on registration and UTXO splitting using the OKX wallet:
1) Registering a wallet: Go to the OKX Web3 wallet page and click “Create Wallet”. In the creation process, you must choose “Mnemonic” as the method. This is because if you choose “Private Key Wallet”, the Bitcoin network will not support Taproot addresses. However, Taproot addresses are commonly used in the Bitcoin ecosystem, so remember to use Taproot addresses when transferring Bitcoin. Note: OKX also explains that its BTC chain supports four types of addresses, representing original addresses and other addresses introduced through upgrades, and they can be transferred to each other.
2) Splitting UTXOs/Creating multiple wallets: UTXO splitting can be done through the Luminex and Wizz Cash platforms. The latter also supports one-step transfer of UTXOs to different wallets. The tutorial steps can be found here. The following image shows the Luminex platform’s page, and the tutorial steps are as follows: Connect your wallet in the upper right corner. Fill in the amount and quantity to be allocated for each UTXO according to your needs. The recommended distribution ratio can be found in this tweet. Choose the transaction fee. Click “Confirm” and then sign.
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