# FAQ

Answers to common questions about Runes on Luminex. Click any question to expand the answer.

## General Concepts

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<summary>What is a UTXO?</summary>

A UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) is a concept in Bitcoin where each transaction outputs an amount of Bitcoin to an address. When this output is not yet spent, it's referred to as an unspent transaction output or UTXO.

You can think of a UTXO like a bill. If you have one $100 bill, this is like having one UTXO. When you go to spend that $100 bill, you need to pay with it, and wait to receive the change before you can spend the remainder elsewhere. However, if you split up the $100 bill, into ten $10 bills instead, you can spend all ten bills simultaneously without waiting for your transaction to complete at another place. This is the same concept of UTXOs, and why you want to split your UTXOs in advance - so that you do not have to wait for your transactions to confirm on the Bitcoin network.

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<summary>Does splitting UTXOs make mints cheaper?</summary>

Splitting UTXOs doesn't directly affect mint costs but can impact transaction fees and efficiency. The advantage of splitting UTXOs allows you to mint more, faster.

Many split up UTXOs can actually result in higher transaction fees if you need to consolidate the UTXOs to cover higher fee transactions. For example, if you have to pay for a TX that costs 0.1 BTC, but you have 10 UTXOs with 0.01 BTC each, this will cost you more in transfer fees than if you just had 1 UTXO with 0.1 BTC.

Think about the physical dollar bill again here - managing more bills is more work, thus more expensive, because you have to make more "spending" operations. Spending a $100 bill is one single operation. Spending ten $10 bills takes ten operations, which will cost more.

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<summary>Why is this block taking so long?</summary>

A Bitcoin block, on average, is mined approximately every 10 minutes. However, the actual block time can vary depending on factors like mining difficulty adjustments, network congestion, and block size.

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<details>

<summary>What is front running?</summary>

Front running in Bitcoin means that someone is placing the same transaction as you at a higher fee rate to confirm their transaction before yours.

For example, if you are minting a Rune with a limited supply at fee rate of 20 sats/vB and there is only 10% of supply available, if others mint the remaining supply at a fee rate of 100 sats/vB therefore getting their transactions confirmed before you, you will be frontrunned.

Even if your transaction confirms later when network fee rates lower back to 20 sats/vB, you will not receive the Runes you tried to mint. In this case, you will not receive your funds back because your transaction is technically still completely valid for Bitcoin, which is not Rune aware.

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<summary>Why did I get no tokens even though my transaction was confirmed?</summary>

If there is a limited supply of tokens available, and others minted at a higher fee rate than you, their transactions would be confirmed before yours, meaning the limited supply is taken by others before your transaction confirms. Unfortunately, this means that even when your transaction eventually confirms, there are no more tokens to be allocated to you.

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## Runes on Luminex

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<summary>How do I split my Runes?</summary>

1. Visit <https://luminex.io/runes/mint>
2. Click on the TRANSFER tab on the right table
3. Select the Runes token you'd like to split
4. Enter Amount to Transfer
5. Check off Split Runes - it will autofill your address as the Receiver Address - if you wish to send the Split Runes to another address, you can enter a new address
6. Enter number of UTXOs (minimum 2) - once you've entered a number, the caption below will let you know how many outputs with what balance you will receive.
7. Select Fees - we recommend not selecting a fee rate too low in order to avoid waiting for your transaction to confirm

<figure><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/ahwdIkswBUdTqjgU4vwVpqOm_Bka5OzHjveJRum7cGF7_FaTZaYf1XiAYUUQVgjSnOhWL3JFAWhL-RMkJ6qFUTrYExzH2fqdfLfv33JbRQgLTZRDbFGm7IcA09uPJvD5j5V-CkJdZKI8MhnSrWGJHSQ" alt="" width="375"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

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<details>

<summary>How To Mint: Pre Split VS Auto Split</summary>

**Pre Split**

Allows users to mint 20 times per UTXO and should be used if you have multiple UTXOs already split and ready to use. Pre Split is faster as you don't need to wait for your UTXOs to be split to do multiple mints at the same time.

Think about the physical dollar bills again here - if you have prepared multiple $10 bills, versus having one single $100 bill

<figure><img src="https://3989327914-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2Fn0wtOYnWlrKQT4AhtCtx%2Fuploads%2FOP8DOMuyVn5mfBY56Z9J%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=b49baffc-898a-47af-b9dd-620a7348288f" alt="" width="375"><figcaption><p>In this specific case, the user is able to mint 14 times * 20 mint using the Pre-Split option.</p></figcaption></figure>

**Auto Split**

Allows users to mint up to 2000 mints at a time by calculating and splitting your UTXOs for you. This option is ideal for users who want to mint a lot at once but have not prepared split UTXOs in advance. Do not use this option if the Rune is being highly minted at high fee rates as this option splits your transactions into two blocks (vs one for Pre Split option).

<figure><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/YAsei_gsfsLZnVtutzCkYDo4WNomVOucs38VBNXn4wF1nnNHmjQKfO9I7BXUzaKvHnYetTUuHeq9hNABuXLBiPjRAEwY5Ks1KUXdqXHKtivY253y_PH0V6vFL3teVvUPYig5P41RWCZnMBGvsTU_j7Q" alt="" width="375"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

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<summary>Why does Auto Split take longer then two blocks sometimes?</summary>

The Auto Split function takes two blocks to bulk mint. It will split your UTXOs in the first block, and mint for you in the second.

Network fees are dynamic - in a situation where you send your Auto Split mint at 100 sats/vB and first block confirms at a fee rate of 100 sats/vB, but the second block increases to 200 sats/vB, your transactions meant for your second block will not confirm until fee rates decrease back down to 100 sats/vB, taking longer than two blocks to confirm.

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<details>

<summary>How do I set my fees?</summary>

We provide you with the option to select your own fee rates. SLOW, MEDIUM, and FAST are calculated based on the current network fees. If you prefer to set your own specific fee rate, you can select CUSTOM and enter the number.

If you are minting using the "Pre Split" option, it will also indicate if your fee rate is faster than current pending mints.

<mark style="color:red;">**WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND USERS TO SELECT FAST OR SET A HIGHER FEE RATE USING THE CUSTOM OPTION FOR EXTREMELY POPULAR MINTS TO AVOID BEING FRONTRUNNED.**</mark>

<figure><img src="https://3989327914-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2Fn0wtOYnWlrKQT4AhtCtx%2Fuploads%2FEFXsVQeFy7jHHIjsvCHa%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=6ba19d70-d3c3-4b13-bb75-aecb3cf0b962" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

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<summary>Can I Speed Up my TXN?</summary>

Yes, you can speed up transactions from your Pre-Split mints by checking under "My History" and the "Mint" tab. You should find a green clock icon that you can click to be prompted with a pop up.

<figure><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/RiL1-Jeg4CN1dBisRuN9PqMJqwKgecL0yUYfoyJ3GXpXXSTqMkrxP92pojLF5rEO3-TNnxOLs36wdOZgngQl9vVPH9eEhuE_9sVlNDMj6iTr6Vrtj5-L4shn-1fCDcahCw-NxK2-dRTk6gHH5aYbPtU" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/k57LNK5cSQ3-ytWv0H3ARlrwYVCH5DI0sclJVu1Q8Anh3x4J_UvsS_LwETDYUY_myHzQdoq9pl7WjT2VZ8bEkbOn4o9eBLtIjNmU4XMORC9wzNxjltjaiRnbef_yMPo2B8rIHiD3yxlOQomcAf438O8" alt="" width="375"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Enter a fee rate that will impact the GAS RATE CHANGE, which is the effective fee rate in green. This will be the fee rate your transaction will be confirmed at, please double check that the fee rate is high enough to be included in the next block by checking network activity.

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**Related Documentation**:

* [What are Runes?](https://luminex.gitbook.io/luminex/runes/what-are-runes)
* [Luminex Tools for Runes](https://luminex.gitbook.io/luminex/runes/luminex-tools-for-runes)
* [Runes: Mint Page](https://luminex.gitbook.io/luminex/runes/runes-mint-page)
