Casey Rodarmor Presents ‘Runes’ as BRC-20 Alternative

The creator of Bitcoin Ordinals proposes a new Bitcoin-based fungible token protocol as a prospective BRC-20 token standard alternative.

The anonymous developer “Domo” introduced the BRC-20 standard in March. Within two months, the market capitalization of BRC-20 tokens created on Bitcoin reached $1 billion, with PEPE and ORDI among the most notable.

BRC-20 enables the minting and transmission of fungible tokens through Bitcoin’s Ordinals protocol. Rodarmor argues that the problem with BRC-20 tokens is that they pollute Bitcoin with “junk” UTXOs (unspent transaction outputs).

BRC-20 tokens have the “undesirable consequence of UTXO proliferation,” he wrote in a blog post dated September 25, proposing Runes as an alternative based on UTXO.

“Protocols that are UTXO-based fit more naturally into Bitcoin and promote UTXO set minimization by avoiding the creation of ‘junk’ UTXOs.”

If this protocol had a limited on-chain footprint and promoted responsible UTXO management, it could reduce harm relative to existing protocols,” Rodarmor added.

UTXOs symbolize the amount of cryptocurrency remaining in a wallet after a transaction, which is stored in the UTXO database. Bitcoin’s UTXO architecture contributes to its auditability and transparency by preventing the double-spending problem.

Other fungible token protocols on Bitcoin, such as Good for Bitcoin, Counterparty, and Omni Layer, have their issues, according to Rodarmor.

While Rodarmor acknowledged that 99.9% of fungible tokens contain scams and memes, he believes that the correct fungible token protocol can add value to the Bitcoin network.

In a Twitter Spaces interview with The Ordinals Show co-host Trevor Owens on September 25, Rodarmor stated that he came up with the Runes concept the previous week but was unsure whether he would pursue it further.

Rodarmor’s problems with existing fungible token protocols on Bitcoin: Source: Casey Rodarmor

As a means of advancing Rodarmor’s proposal, Owens proposed offering $100,000 from the Bitcoin Frontier Fund to prospective developers who could launch a Rune application shortly after the call.