Runes as a simple protocol with minimal on-chain footprint and responsible UTXO management.
UTXOs (Unspent Transaction Outputs) are individual units of Bitcoin value associated with specific addresses on the blockchain, representing funds that have not yet been spent and can be used as inputs in new transactions.
Runes is different from the BRC-20 token standard, which is complex and not UTXO-based. The latter characteristic causes the BRC-20 token standard to produce excessive junk UTXOs, which congest the Bitcoin network.
The goal of Runes is to replace the less efficient Ordinals-based BRC-20 token standard.
Furthermore, the Runes protocol also strives to be better than other existing fungible token protocols on Bitcoin like RGB and Taproot Assets. These options rely on off-chain data.
For instance, Taproot Assets stores the metadata of its assets off-chain, making the asset information detached from Bitcoin’s main layer. On the other hand, options like Omni Layer and Counterparty need a native token to operate. In a nutshell, Rodarmor believes that these issues make these existing protocols cumbersome and less user-friendly.