Bitcoin Ordinals & Runes: Fee Market Impact and Ecosystem Analysis

Bitcoin Ordinals and Runes protocols have fundamentally reshaped Bitcoin's ecosystem, transforming it from solely a digital gold asset into a platform for on-chain digital artifacts and fungible tokens. This shift has significantly impacted the fee market, bolstering miner revenue and enhancing Bitcoin's security budget, while also introducing new use cases and cultural dimensions. However, it also brings challenges such as increased transaction costs and network congestion during periods of high demand, alongside boom-bust speculative cycles.