Introduction to the recent emerging asset issuance protocols in the Bitcoin ecosystem

1. Rune Alpha

The popularity of Rune Alpha mainly stems from the recent heated discussions about the "rune" concept. The "Runes" were initially proposed by a developer and regained attention due to criticism from another core developer regarding "inscriptions". The key difference between "Runes" and "inscriptions" lies in their storage locations: the former is stored in UTXOs, while the latter is stored in the isolation witness data of Bitcoin scripts.

It is worth noting that although Rune Alpha claims to be "runes", it is actually a new inscription protocol based on the ordinals protocol version 0.11.1, which is not consistent with the originally proposed "rune" concept according to its white paper description. Nevertheless, Rune Alpha has successfully attracted a lot of attention by leveraging the popularity of "runes". The minting cost of the protocol's first token $cook is about a dozen dollars, and the current off-market price has soared to around 400 dollars, but it has not yet officially launched on trading platforms.

2. CBRC-20

CBRC-20 is an efficient meta-protocol standard proposal for fungible tokens on Bitcoin, based on the Ordinals protocol. It reduces the cost of each inscription and simplifies the indexing process while maintaining the functional logic of the BRC-20 meta-protocol by leveraging the metadata and metaprotocol fields introduced in the new version.

The main optimizations of CBRC-20 include:

1. Reduce recording costs: The inscription cost is reduced by about 10 times.
2. Simplified indexing: All information can be obtained directly from the inscription envelope.
3. MIME Data Flexibility: Allows the use of any MIME data to deploy, mint, or transfer tokens.
4. Compatible with higher versions of the Ordinals protocol: Can utilize the latest features.

The CBRC-20 team has adopted various innovative methods to launch its tokens on trading markets, including direct listing through a specific trading platform and utilizing a browser extension to force listing on another platform. Additionally, the community has spontaneously developed a CBRC-20 token trading market.

Recently, CBRC-20 launched the OSMOSIS experiment and deployed the first meta-meta protocol inscription $SYMM. This method allows multiple operations of meta protocols to be completed simultaneously, achieving a certain degree of "backdoor listing" effect.

Three, BTNS

The Broadcast Token Naming System (BTNS) is an ecosystem built by an early Bitcoin holder and developer member. Its fundamental idea is to achieve the issuance of Bitcoin native assets (token and NFT) by attaching broadcast signals to each Bitcoin chain transaction, using blockchain records as data basis and ledger indexing as a means.

BTNS-420 is a token protocol standard built on BTNS, integrating various ecological features such as asset issuance and transfer.

The main differences between BTNS and inscriptions, runes:

1. BTNS does not occupy Bitcoin resources and is more in line with the development direction of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
2. The asset minting process is more open and transparent.
3. No major controversies, completely open source and developed based on the original characteristics of Bitcoin.

The potential value of BTNS:

1. Enable the issuance of Bitcoin main chain assets without occupying the total supply of Bitcoin.
2. It is expected to develop Bitcoin into a complete ecological chain.
3. Provide a fairer way to acquire assets, such as airdrops, specified block limits, etc.

Currently, the development work of BTNS is temporarily at a standstill, and the trading market has not yet been launched.

Summary

Rune Alpha and CBRC-20 both belong to the asset issuance methods based on Ordinals, with CBRC-20 being more innovative. BTNS is a larger concept that falls under the category of meta-protocols, using a "broadcast" form to achieve asset issuance, avoiding the occupation of Bitcoin. These emerging protocols bring more possibilities and development space to the Bitcoin ecosystem.