Alkanes

A metaprotocol placing WebAssembly contract execution over Bitcoin, where token balances travel as protorunes in protostones.

Chain

Bitcoin

Carrier

Protostone inside an OP_RETURN runestone envelope

Ownership model

hybrid

Decimals

asset-defined

Operations

deploy, execute, transfer

Also written

alkane

Where it came from

Created outside Bitcoin Universe by The Alkanes project, 2024.

Smart contracts compiled to WebAssembly, with balances carried as protorunes.

Where the specification lives

The specification and reference documentation for Alkanes live in bitcoinuniverseio/alkanes and are published at https://bitcoinuniverseio.github.io/alkanes/. That site is the authority. This page exists so you can find it and compare it with the rest of the estate.

Bitcoin Universe indexes or implements it in bitcoinuniverseio/alkanes-rs and bitcoinuniverseio/index-alkanes.

Support in Bitcoin Universe products

Read only

You can see this protocol in the product. No trade action is implemented.

Execution model: Read paths only.

Where it appears

• Core: view, view-collection, view-activity
• Wallet: view, send, receive
• Inscribe: mint

Implemented

• viewread-only
• view-collectionread-only
• view-activityread-only

Not implemented, and why

list

Alkanes mutations remain read-only until exact Alkane state, transferability, builder, signed-transaction validation, broadcast, settlement, and reorg recovery are deployed and proven.

update-listing

Alkanes mutations remain read-only until exact Alkane state, transferability, builder, signed-transaction validation, broadcast, settlement, and reorg recovery are deployed and proven.

unlist

Alkanes mutations remain read-only until exact Alkane state, transferability, builder, signed-transaction validation, broadcast, settlement, and reorg recovery are deployed and proven.

buy

Alkanes mutations remain read-only until exact Alkane state, transferability, builder, signed-transaction validation, broadcast, settlement, and reorg recovery are deployed and proven.

make-offer

Alkanes mutations remain read-only until exact Alkane state, transferability, builder, signed-transaction validation, broadcast, settlement, and reorg recovery are deployed and proven.

accept-offer

Alkanes mutations remain read-only until exact Alkane state, transferability, builder, signed-transaction validation, broadcast, settlement, and reorg recovery are deployed and proven.

cancel-offer

Alkanes mutations remain read-only until exact Alkane state, transferability, builder, signed-transaction validation, broadcast, settlement, and reorg recovery are deployed and proven.

sell

Alkanes mutations remain read-only until exact Alkane state, transferability, builder, signed-transaction validation, broadcast, settlement, and reorg recovery are deployed and proven.

settle

Alkanes mutations remain read-only until exact Alkane state, transferability, builder, signed-transaction validation, broadcast, settlement, and reorg recovery are deployed and proven.

reconcile

Alkanes mutations remain read-only until exact Alkane state, transferability, builder, signed-transaction validation, broadcast, settlement, and reorg recovery are deployed and proven.

Operational behaviour

Indexing

State is read from Universe Alkanes authority. Supporting reads come from Configured mempool/Esplora providers for UTXO and settlement reads.

What must be true before any change is accepted: Alkanes mutations remain read-only until exact Alkane state, transferability, builder, signed-transaction validation, broadcast, settlement, and reorg recovery are deployed and proven.

Confirmation

No supported mutation reaches confirmation or settlement.

Reorganisation

Read state follows the authority; no executable order state exists to roll back.

Freshness

No node-tip/indexer-tip comparison or maximum observation age is enforced.

Provenance

Capability facts on this page were generated from backend/packages/ecosystem-contracts/lib/protocols.js in bitcoinuniverseio/core at 15dd03b5986a. Implemented behaviour is not the same as production availability: see how to read our status.