Last week's once-every-four-years Bitcoin halving came and went – just as Satoshi Nakamoto programmed it 15 years ago. Now, it looks like the initial fee bonanza might be fading, and the question is whether Runes transactions will provide a sustainable source of ongoing revenue for miners, especially now that the block rewards have been cut in half. This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time.