In this conversation, Raph, the core contributor to the Ordinals and Runes protocol, discusses the development and impact of these innovations on the Bitcoin ecosystem. Raph shares his journey from a junior developer to becoming a lead maintainer, emphasizing the growth and success of the protocol, especially with their unexpected adoption and influence. Raph highlights recent updates like the release of the latest version of Ord, which aims to enhance developer experience and indexing performance. He touches on intriguing features such as burning mechanism to ensure collection immutability, and possible applications for off-chain activities like gaming and voting.