According to Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, a fungible token protocol like Runes wouldn’t leave the Bitcoin network with as much “junk” as BRC-20 tokens do.

A new Bitcoin-based fungible token protocol is being proposed by the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals as a potential replacement for the BRC-20 token standard.

The BRC-20 standard was introduced in March by an unnamed developer named “Domo.” The BRC-20 market cap hit $1 billion in less than two months, with PEPE and ORDI among the most well-known BRC-20 tokens produced on Bitcoin.

BRC-20 enables the minting and transfer of fungible tokens via the Ordinals protocol on Bitcoin. But the issue with BRC-20 tokens is that they spam Bitcoin with “junk” unspent transaction outputs, or UTXOs, argues Rodarmor.

BRC-20 tokens have the “undesirable consequence of UTXO proliferation,” he explained in a Sept. 25 blog post, proposing Runes as a UTXO-based alternative.

”UTXO-based protocols are more compatible with Bitcoin and help to minimize the size of the UTXO set by preventing the production of “junk” UTXOs.”

Despite the fact that 99.9% of fungible tokens are jokes and scams, Rodarmor thinks the correct fungible token technology can benefit the Bitcoin network:

A strong fungible token technology for Bitcoin might increase its user base, developer interest, and transaction fee income significantly.

”Related: Despite Bitcoin price crash, the majority of transactions still use ordinals”

Rodarmor revealed that he had the Runes idea last week but wasn’t sure if he would push it further in a Twitter Space with Trevor Owens on September 25.

UTXOs indicate the amount of bitcoin remaining in a wallet following a completed transaction, where the balance is used in subsequent transactions and is maintained in the UTXO database.

Bitcoin’s UTXO mechanism plays a part in making Bitcoin an auditable and transparent ledger by preventing the double-spending problem.

Other fungible token protocols on Bitcoin, like Really Good for Bitcoin, Counterparty, and Omni Layer, according to Rodarmor, each have their own issues.

The issues Rodarmor has with the current fungible token schemes on Bitcoin: the author Casey Rodarmor.