The founder of the Ordinals protocol has released a new rune. Is it as expected?

Author: Cookie, Blockbeats

If you are familiar with the Runes protocol, you should know that the 0th rune "UNCOMMON•GOODS," which was the first rune to be etched (deployed) after the launch of the Runes protocol, was created by Casey. However, this rune is "limited time and unlimited quantity," and the minting period lasts a full 4 years, making it difficult to form short-term speculation.

However, last week, Casey made another move. This time, he etched a new rune called "MEMENTO•MORI" onto the 0th inscription, with a total of 100 million (100,000 pieces). Half of this total, which is 50 million (50,000 pieces), has already been airdropped at Bitcoin block height 868113, targeting users who subscribed to the Bitcoin podcast "Hell Money" and submitted their airdrop addresses. This podcast is co-hosted by Casey and Erin Redwing.

According to Casey and Erin in the Hell Money podcast, "MEMENTO•MORI" was not a random idea. First, before the launch of the Runes protocol, Casey proposed a hard-coded idea to deploy the first 10 runes (essentially deploying the first 10 runes directly). Although this idea was ultimately not implemented, "MEMENTO•MORI" was one of the considerations for those 10 runes at that time.

"MEMENTO•MORI" is a Latin phrase that means "remember that you will die," reminding people to reflect on the brevity of life and the inevitability of death, encouraging them to confront the limitations of life in their daily lives, cherish the present, and live a meaningful life rather than being solely obsessed with material wealth or fame. The rune was ultimately etched onto the "skull" image of the 0th inscription, corresponding to this theme and the spooky atmosphere of Halloween.

0th Inscription

Another layer of motivation for issuing this rune is that Casey and Erin view the subscribers of the Hell Money podcast as a community that supports them. They have long been very grateful for the support from subscribers to the Hell Money podcast and wanted to do something for them, which is why 50% of the total was airdropped to subscribers without reservation.

The remaining 50% will be open for minting at block height 868186. The expected time to reach this block height was between 1 PM and 2 PM Beijing time, but since the specific time fluctuates with the Bitcoin network's block generation speed, the minting unexpectedly started at 10:30 AM. The 4-digit miner fee rate anticipated by most market players may not have been adequately reacted to due to the early start of minting, and the interval between block discoveries during the first 6 blocks after minting was remarkably short, averaging a terrifying 4.5 minutes.

According to Magic Eden, the current total market value of this rune has reached 14 million dollars. Based on data from satosea.xyz, the average miner fee rate (cost) for minting this rune is approximately 584.5 sats/vb (420 dollars per piece). This is the first rune deployed by Casey that can truly allow the market to speculate. Does this market value meet your expectations?