Name, ticker, picture
Fill in the coin. The picture and details become the Rune’s parent inscription on Bitcoin.
How Timechain works
Runes are Bitcoin’s own coins, and Bitcoin is too slow to trade them. Timechain issues on Bitcoin and trades on Solana: each coin trades on pump.fun at Solana speed, priced in Bitcoin, and is etched on Bitcoin as a real Rune.
Holders move it one for one between the two chains, and a program that no person controls keeps the books.
- 2008Satoshi’s pre-release Bitcoin source calls the blockchain the timechain.
- April 2024Runes go live at block 840,000, the fourth halving: fungible tokens on Bitcoin itself.
- SinceA block about every ten minutes and no pools. Names are raced and rationed, and a Rune carries only a name and one symbol.
- TimechainLaunch and trade on Solana, priced in Bitcoin. The Rune is etched for you, with a name Bitcoin assigns and its details in a parent inscription.
A launch
You connect a Solana wallet (Phantom, Solflare, Backpack or any other). Your own wallet signs; Timechain never holds your keys.
One quote, one approval
One quote in SOL covers pump.fun’s coin creation, the Solana gas and the Rune fee. You approve once.
Live on pump.fun
The coin is paired with WBTC, so its price is in Bitcoin. Buyers can pay with SOL, converted in the same transaction.
Etched as a Rune
Right after launch the coin is etched on Bitcoin. No action needed from the launcher.
The Rune
A real Rune on Bitcoin, with the coin’s picture and details in its parent inscription, together with the Solana mint address that ties the two together.
A name Bitcoin assigns
The Rune gets a reserved name, like a contract address. There is no name race and no waiting.
The brand lives in metadata
Name, ticker and picture sit in the parent inscription, so two coins can share a name, as they can on Solana.
Fixed supply
The Rune is etched with the coin’s whole supply. Nobody can mint more.
Public on Bitcoin
Each coin page links its Rune and inscription on ordinals.com and its transactions on mempool.space.
Custody
The Rune’s whole supply sits at the coin’s own Bitcoin address, held by a program (a canister) on the Internet Computer.
No person holds the key
The canister’s key is split across the Internet Computer’s nodes and is never put together in one place. No person holds it, Timechain included, and there is no backup key.
It checks before it moves
The canister reads Solana and Bitcoin itself before it moves anything.
One address per coin
Each coin’s custody address comes from the canister’s public key, so anyone can rebuild it and look. Verify a coin
The bridge
Holders move the coin one for one between Solana and Bitcoin, to and from their own wallets: Xverse, UniSat or OKX on the Bitcoin side.
To Bitcoin
Lock on Solana
Lock tokens in the bridge program and name your own Bitcoin Taproot address (bc1p). A SOL fee covers the Bitcoin network fee of your payout, shown before approval.
Receive the Rune
The canister sees the lock and sends the same amount of the Rune from custody to your Taproot address.
To Solana
Send the Rune
Send the Rune to your own deposit address for that coin.
Receive the tokens
After confirmations, the same amount is released from the bridge program to your Solana wallet.
Rune in custody=tokens circulating on Solana+tokens burned on SolanaThe bridge program can only lock and release. It never creates tokens.
Verify
Anyone can check a coin’s custody in their own browser, without trusting this site.
Rebuild the address
The custody address is rebuilt from the canister’s public key.
Read the Runes
The Runes at that address are read from Bitcoin.
Read the tokens
The tokens on Solana, circulating and burned, are read and compared with the custody balance.
Fees and costs
Costs are shown before you approve. The fee split is locked on chain at launch.
Launching
The launcher pays for their launch: pump.fun’s coin creation, the launch’s Solana gas and the Rune fee (the Bitcoin network fee to etch it), all in one quote in SOL.
If Bitcoin fees jump above the quote, the etch waits rather than overspend.
Trading
pump.fun’s own fee. The coin’s creator fee is split on chain by pump.fun’s fee sharing, locked at launch: nobody can change it, Timechain included.
Bridging to Bitcoin
A SOL fee covering the Bitcoin network fee of your payout, shown before approval.
80% of a coin’s creator fees goes to its holders. 20% goes to Timechain’s platform wallet. 15% of every coin’s creator fees buys and burns $TIMECHAIN and 5% runs Timechain.
Each buy and each burn is a public transaction on the $TIMECHAIN mint. Until $TIMECHAIN is live, the share collects and waits.
What opens when
The Bitcoin side opens in stages, in this order.
- First
Etching
Each new coin is etched on Bitcoin as a Rune right after launch.
- Next
The bridge to Bitcoin
Lock tokens on Solana and receive the Rune at your Taproot address.
- Then
Back to Solana
Send the Rune back and the same amount is released on Solana.