# Motivation for Runes One of the primary motivations behind Runes is to create a dedicated, [fungible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungibility) token standard for Bitcoin without inheriting the complexity of Ordinals. However, this is not the sole reason for its development. [Casey Rodarmor](https://twitter.com/rodarmor) noted that memecoins and speculation continue to gain traction across the crypto world, but largely outside of Bitcoin. It was observed that after users speculated on other [Layer 1 (L1) blockchains](https://www.alchemy.com/best/layer-1-blockchains-l1s) like [Ethereum](https://ethereum.org/en/), [Solana](https://solana.com/), or [BNB Chain](https://www.bnbchain.org/en), they would often use a portion of their profits to buy the base L1 token. For example, if a user made gains within the Solana ecosystem, they might be more inclined to purchase some [$SOL](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/solana/) with those funds. Casey aims to see this cycle take place within the Bitcoin ecosystem and is extremely honest and direct about the purpose of Runes: "Runes are a form of degenerate gambling… Runes are not the future of finance… Runes are a fungible token protocol, so that people can meme…" This is a crucial point because some Runes issuers might promise a certain level of utility and value from buying their Runes. While this might hold true in the medium term, and utility may start to develop over time, we should not lose sight of the fact that part of the initial motivation for Runes was to facilitate speculation on top of Bitcoin. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://book.runesterminal.io/3.-runes/motivation-for-runes.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.