Based on the Medium article by Obie Fernandez. 

What is Burning?

Burning is the process of destroying a card or collectible to create utility by liberating its' coin value. Coins are useful when participating in certain challenges, as enough coins may help you earn special rewards and collectibles. Coins are also useful when attempting to create new collectibles from old ones.
 

Why Burn?

Simply put, burning can help liberate the coin value of the burned collectible. This is the first step towards having useful in-game currency (coins) and towards being able to mix new collectibles from old ones.
 

What You Need to Burn

Burning functionality is available to holders of collectibles with given ‘fire’ capabilities, such as lighters and matchbooks. Some examples include:
 

GENESIS Lighter

The original and arguably the best. Capable of 60 burns and refillable. Wondering how you can refill your collectible? Click here to find out more about mixing. 

Haglof Lighter

High-capacity fire artifact that is capable of 120 burns, but not refillable.

Lara Matchbook

Basic fire artifact capable of 12 burns, and not refillable. Why twelve instead of twenty, the usual amount of matches in a matchbook? Because you never get to use all the matches in a matchbook, there’s always some that blow out immediately.

Late Night Pizza

The heartburn is real. Capable of 2 burns and not refillable.

How to Burn

To burn, just add any fire collectible to your hand. Then click on the card to visit the details page for your collectible – you’ll see a fire icon below the card. You'll also see a capacity indicator next to the fire icon which shows how many burns remain.

Next, click and hold the fire icon to burn the card. Watch it get white-hot and then combust. If you change your mind before the card combusts, just let go of the button and the collectible will cool off.

Take note: 

• Burning is permanent and irreversible. Be careful – don’t play with fire on collectibles that you don’t want to lose!
• Lighters and matchbooks that are “out of fuel” will no longer work.
• The number of uses remaining on a burn artifact will be displayed in that item's description in the marketplace. 
• Until we add support for multiple burning artifacts in your hand, we suggest only equipping one at a time.
• If your fire icon is grayed out on a particular card, it means that the blockchain has not been synced with that collectible yet. (You won’t be able to list it for sale either.) Give it a few minutes and try again.

Buyer beware: Some players may try to sell fire collectibles with no uses remaining.

Why do we like Burning?

We see burning as a vital part of controlling supply and demand in our marketplace. Turning excess inventory into coins that are useful for creating new user-generated collectibles and buying non-music-related in-game items helps to prevent oversupply and overabundance of low-value items listed for sale in the marketplace. Burning collectibles increases the scarcity and value of all remaining items, and clears the way for dropping new collectibles without depressing the value of old ones.
 

Will some players overuse burning and regret it? Probably. Will some players experiment with strategies that involve burning and cornering the market on certain collectibles? Undoubtedly. Rather than being scared of these outcomes, we consider it part of the fun of the game, and part of what makes RCRDSHP so innovative.