The race is on to mint one of the first Bitcoin runes

With Bitcoin set to halve in just a few hours, the race is on to mint the first tokens on the new Bitcoin Runes protocol that will launch alongside the quadrennial event.

Runes is a new fungible token protocol on Bitcoin that allows users to etch and mint tokens at the top of the chain. It’s similar to the experimental BRC-20 standard launched last year, but is said to be more efficient – ​​and comes from the inventor of the Ordinals protocol.

Either way, as with the NFT-like Ordinals before it, project creators are eager to secure some of the earliest possible token coins.

“Collectors and swordsmen like low numbers,” said pseudonymous NFT historian Leonidas Declutter. “In terms of inscriptions, some of the most valuable collections were because they had low numbers.”

As Leonidas explained, an inscription number of less than 10,000 intuitively communicates that an Ordinals project was early in the protocol. Given the emphasis on provenance around the blockchain and the fact that many early NFT and Ordinals projects have benefited from being early, creators and traders alike see an opportunity to be among the first with this anticipated new tokenprotocol.

Runes is a new protocol from Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor. Ordinals made it possible to create NFT-like “inscriptions” on the Bitcoin network, and the BRC-20 standard built on top of it made fungible tokens possible. Runes is seen by many Bitcoiners as the next step forward for tokens on Bitcoin.

Like first edition books, physical art, and NFT collections like CryptoPunks and Solana Monkey Business, collectors assign value to collectibles based on their rarity or age.

As developers attempt to inscribe the first Runes, Leonidas expects millions of dollars will be spent in fees to secure these low Rune numbers. Runestone, currently the largest Ordinals project by market cap (and which Leonidas helped create), aims to be one of those projects that grab an early spot for the upcoming meme coin launch.

“Runestone will spend more than $100,000 in one transaction to try to secure a low dollar amount for its Dog meme coin,” he said.

Earlier this month, Leonidas announced that holders of the 112,383 Runestone inscriptions will receive a Dog meme coin after the Runes Protocol is launched.

“Casey has created a similar mechanic with Runes, where they are numbered based on the order they were created,” he said. “It’s just a number, so it’s not the end all be all, but it’s definitely cool when a project gets a low Rune number.”

In addition to the battle to etch the first Runes, Bitcoin mining pools are also trying to acquire an “epic satoshi,” or a limited edition of the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin (1/100,000,000 BTC).

“According to the ‘Ordinals theory’, the first satoshi in the halving block is called an ‘epic satoshi,’” Will Foxley, co-founder of Blockspace Media, told me. Declutter. “It is thought that an Ordinals project that can successfully purchase that satoshi and write an Ordinal on it would have a significant market premium due to the rarity of the underlying satoshi.”

According to Nick Hansen, CEO of Luxor’s mining pool, it’s not just about grabbing the unusual or epic cases, but also the potential windfall that comes with it.

“For reference, an unusual sat costs between $200 and $500 depending on market variations; rare sations we’ve seen go for up to three Bitcoin ($193,242),” Hansen shared Declutter. “But it’s a logarithmic scale. We most likely think the epic [sat] will be between $4 and $6 million[that’s] probably the market value for that.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward