Bitcoin Runes and BRC-20 tokens may only be a stepping stone in the evolution of Bitcoin-native decentralized finance (DeFi).
The emergence of Runes and Bitcoin DeFi came from a desire to add more utility to the world’s safest blockchain network, according to Rich Rines, a Core DAO contributor building Bitcoin DeFi solutions. Rines told Cointelegraph:
“[Bitcoin] started as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system then morphed more into a store value and now protects $1.5 trillion of wealth. We’ve seen over the last one and a half years this desire to add more utility to the underlying Bitcoin through the rise of Ordinals, token protocols like BRC 20s and now Runes.”
Runes is a new protocol for issuing fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network that launched on April 20, the day of the Bitcoin halving. Runes are part of a wider developer movement known as Bitcoin DeFi, or BTCFi, aiming to add more utility to the Bitcoin network.
While Runes created widespread excitement among Bitcoin holders, the token standard may only be a stepping stone in the evolution of BTCFi due to the decentralized nature of the network, according to Rines:
“Hard to say if [Runes] remains the standard since Bitcoin is so decentralized. We will have to get to some sort of social consensus on some of the standards that win. Market demand and people voting with their dollars will ultimately be what helps coalesce on the final answer.”
Bitcoin Runes made a recovery this week. On April 20, Runes-related transactions accounted for the majority of Bitcoin transactions, or 81.3% of daily BTC transactions, according to Dune Analytics Data.
Share of transactions over the Bitcoin network. Source: Dune
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