Why Runes?

So if fungible tokens already exist on Bitcoin in the form of BRC-20 tokens, then why were Runes created?

The BRC-20 token standard created a protocol for fungible tokens on top of a protocol for non-fungible tokens (Ordinals). Since Ordinals themselves are a meta-protocol built on top of Bitcoin, BRC-20s essentially became a meta-protocol on top of another meta-protocol.

While this approach was a clever solution, BRC-20s are relatively complicated and inefficient and were really only intended as an experimental proof-of-concept.

Unlike BRC-20s, the Runes Protocol is entirely unrelated to Ordinals or Inscriptions and thus does not inherit any of their complexities. Instead, it is a simple conceptualization that focuses solely on enabling fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network without any additional layers or protocols.

By stripping away the complexities inherited from Ordinals and Inscriptions, the Runes Protocol aims to provide a more streamlined and efficient approach to creating and managing fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain.