How to Mint Runes at the Bitcoin Halving Without Getting Rekt

Merry Bitcoin Halving Eve! Hoping to unwrap a Rune?

The same developer that brought you Bitcoin Ordinals will soon debut a new protocol, called Runes, which plans to rival the BRC-20 token standard. Since its announcement, the project seen huge hype with tons of projects gearing up for the Runes launch—which aligns with the Bitcoin halving.

Most notably, meme coin PUPS skyrocketed ahead of its launch. But the rise didn’t come without some controversy. There have been spats over the project’s claim to be the “first meme coin” on Bitcoin.

As the halving clock counts down, pressure is beginning to mount. Now, people are asking how they can get their hands on some shiny Runes without getting rekt.

Like a knight in shining armor, pseudonymous NFT historian, Twitter figure, and host of The Ordinal Show, Leonidas, took to Twitter to share his tips and tricks on mining Runes.

Pay the sky-high fees

Unfortunately, this ain’t gonna be cheap.

Picture this: Your Rune is close to being minted, but the block decides to move on without you. What happens? Your transaction gets left out of the block and your Rune will be left unminted—but your transaction fees will still be lost.

For the most hyped Rune projects, missing a block or two could be the difference between getting in or being left out. To combat this, Leonidas, who is spearheading the Runestone Ordinal and "pre-Rune" project, suggests traders “pay significantly higher fees” to ensure your transaction gets “squeezed in.”

It’s going to be a dog fight out there. Everyone will be attempting to do the same thing as you, meaning network fees will skyrocket and, sadly, the highest bidder always wins. So, be the highest bidder.

Be patient—if you can

Fees are expected to skyrocket as people rush to mint Runes. So, if you’re trying to mint a project which you think won’t immediately sell out—try waiting.

For most traders, this isn’t a race. Go touch grass, speak to your family, and make a cup of tea. Then when you return, hopefully, the network fees will have dropped.

“Fees tend to dip on the weekend and late at night in North America,” Leonidas said in a Twitter post. “You can just put mints in the mempool at a low fee that will sit there for a few days.”

Short for memory pool, Bitcoin’s mempool is a backlog of transactions waiting to be verified by miners and added to the Bitcoin network's next block. So, if you’re not stressed about speed, Leonidas recommends that traders enter the back of the queue and put your feet up.

This is especially relevant for projects that have a lengthy mint period.

For example, the creator of the Runes protocol, Casey Rodarmor, is releasing a project called Uncommon•Goods which will have a four year open mint. So, Leonidas writes, “you would have to be really dumb to mint that tomorrow on the highest day of fees in Bitcoin's history.”

Mind the pre-mine

When selecting which Rune(s) to mine, Leonidas suggests being wary of the amount of pre-mine that has been set by the person who etches the Rune.

Etching is the process that creates a Rune and sets its properties. Once set, these properties are immutable, even to its etcher. The etcher can allocate themselves a percentage of Runes to themselves, called a pre-mine.

“Think of the pre-mine as the amount that will be dumped on your head after a Rune mints out,” Leonidas said on Twitter. “Anything over 10% is greedy.”

Instead, he suggests looking for projects with a pre-mine of 5%—or searching for projects without any pre-mine at all.

Use your brain

There is a lot of hype surrounding the launch of Runes protocol. It would be easy to get wrapped up in the hype and drain your wallet by minting every Rune you can get your grubby hands on. Instead, Leonidas recommends that traders try to calm their FOMO.

Leonidas suggests thinking in terms of market cap and analyzing each purchase.

“If a Rune takes 100,000 mints to mint out and the fees to do a single mint are $100, then ask yourself would you buy this Rune on a DEX (decentralized exchange) at a $10M market cap,” he wrote. “This is very important to understand and can help you make informed decisions.”

Edited by Stacy Elliott.