Deniz 
With the release of the much-anticipated Runes protocol, Bitcoin’s [BTC] fourth halving has come at last. The market analysts concur with Bitcoin Ordinals that the new protocol may breathe life into Bitcoin’s popularity and bring with it new users.
In a way similar to the ERC-20 standard of Ethereum, Runes is Bitcoin’s next fungible token standard. This widens the scope of its utilization in the market of bitcoin-backed assets, including governance tokens and memecoins.
In response to the forthcoming protocol, Franklin Templeton, a manager of $1.5 trillion in assets, has made the following observation:In response to the forthcoming protocol, Franklin Templeton, a manager of $1.5 trillion in assets, has made the following observation: “We are excited to see if Runes can do for Bitcoin’s fungible token and DeFi market what Ordinals did for Bitcoin’s non-fungible token market.”
Looking at the broader picture, the release of Bitcoin Ordinals in December 2022 saw a massive surge. Soon after, the Bitcoin network traffic saw a burst, and fees also increased to the highest level.
Casey Rodarmor created the Ordinals protocol for Bitcoin and the Runes protocol. So, the question becomes: Does it have the ability to appreciate BTC in the manner that the Ordinals did?
How Will Bitcoin Maxis Respond to Runes?
The market capitalisation of Bitcoin Ordinals is now over $2 billion, and it is being celebrated as a ‘cultural shift’ in the Bitcoin network. However, it should be indicated that the technique has often met with resistance. One of the Bitcoin developers, Dashjr, even termed ordinals and inscriptions “spam” on the network.
Nevertheless, market analysts are optimistic regarding Runes’ capability to underpin Bitcoin. Ansem, the crypto analyst, says Runes is one of the Bitcoin altcoins worth holding. “I’m still heavily spot Solana + giga long Bitcoin, not via leverage, but via Bitcoin altcoins, I’m fairly confident this is just standard bull market pullback & we hold here. Runes summer.”
But some claim that Runes is just an element of the growing Bitcoin L2 ecosystem that can fight with Ethereum and Solana [SOL] and can also revolutionize the DeFi sector. Alliance DAO’s Imran Khan is a BTC L2 fan who offers mentorship to crypto entrepreneurs. According to him, “For those that missed Eth defi summer 2020, I expect something similar with Bitcoin. The upcoming launch of Runes, L2s, memes/ordinals, and defi protocols is the perfect storm brewing.”
Bear in mind that Casey Rodarmor, the man behind Ordinals and Runes, is unsure of how Bitcoin maxis will respond to Runes following the Bitcoin halving. According to his beliefs, “I don’t want them (Bitcoin Maxis) to like Inscriptions or Runes, but I think they shouldn’t care. Bitcoin is money for enemies.”
The principal aim of Runes protocol is to enable the emergence of memecoins as well as the introduction of “degens” to the Bitcoin network. It is very similar to the way Solana’s network activity was initiated by mememania.
What the community is going to do and whether the value of Bitcoin will rise after the halving is still an open question.