Summary
TLDR: The launch of Runes, a new fungible token standard on Bitcoin, coincides with the halving of the bitcoin block reward on block #840,000. Runes do not rely on Ordinals like BRC-20 tokens, making them more efficient and compatible with the Bitcoin Lightning Network. This launch aims to improve transaction speed and cost on the Bitcoin network, potentially giving Runes an edge in the token market.
Key Points
1. The launch of Runes, a new standard for fungible tokens issued directly on Bitcoin, will coincide with the halving of the bitcoin block reward on block #840,000 in the early hours of April 20.
2. Runes, developed as an alternative to BRC-20 by Casey Rodarmor, do not depend on the Ordinals mechanism of inscribing and are essentially memecoins.
3. Runestones are special messages stored in Bitcoin transaction outputs that specify operations like creating, minting or transferring runes, and their compatibility with UTXOs allows for easy integration with the Bitcoin Lightning Network, potentially facilitating faster and cheaper transactions.