Digital Mineral Rights & its Impact on the Future of Bitcoin

Traditionally, mineral rights are the ownership rights to extract resources like fossil fuels, metals and ores, as well as mineable rocks such as limestone and salt. They are a foundational asset that is at the root of the supply chains for almost all products around the world. Bitcoin is also planning to set up such mineral rights in the long term in some countries.

In Texas, the legacy of mineral rights ownership is a narrative that is foundational to the history of the state. It is passed on to succeeding generations. The ownership of mineral rights is much more than a legal claim; it is a symbol of culture, strength, and legacy. 

The extraction and production of hydrocarbon minerals have created tremendous wealth and prosperity for mineral rights owners in Texas. However, it comes with heavy responsibility that includes a farsighted financial perspective and a commitment to ethical and environmental fellowship to ensure the well-being of future generations who will inherit the mineral estate.

In the future, the world economy is expected to rely on Bitcoin to coordinate large transactions between manufacturers and industrial firms.

Mineral Rights in Texas

In Texas, mineral owners can track ownership through legal records. Mineral rights are segregated with rights of ownership of the land surface. These are separately known as mineral estate and surface estate. 

The mineral estate is further divided into fractional shares of ownership. It is common in Texas for mineral estates to be divided into ownership shares in small fractions. The mineral estate owner owns the supreme power of the surface estate owners. Mineral estate ownership holds more value than surface estate ownership, even if a single entity holds both.

It allows mineral estate owners to explore, extract, develop, and produce oil, gas or other energy sources under the property. It is generally achieved by entering into a contract called a mineral lease agreement. The contract is between a specialized company and owners to extract and explore resources below the surface. It is done in exchange for a lump sum payment and royalty payments that result from selling these resources in the marketplace. 

Bitcoin and Mineral Rights

These two terminologies can be perceived as completely unrelated but they do share some similarities in reality. Both Bitcoin and mineral rights are subject to limited supply. 

Like Bitcoin, it has a maximum supply of 21,000,000 tokens and is limited to that number. The count cannot be increased easily due to the scarcity of programming. Likewise, mineral rights facilitate the ownership of scarce resources that are extracted beneath the land surface. 

Both Bitcoin and mineral rights have forms of ownership that allow the buying, selling and transfer of these rights or ownership to others. Moreover, the value of each asset is determined based on the market dynamics of demand and supply. 

No single entity can control the issuance or transactions of Bitcoin, as it operates on a decentralized network. However, mineral rights represent ownership of an asset found across world markets without involving a centralized network. 

Bitcoin Scarcity and the Cost of Production

The scarcity of Bitcoin is not only related to its capped supply but also because of its relative relationship with the world’s goods and services. The supply of bitcoins is not increasing in proportion to the nominal amount of goods and services. 

This is the reason why the prices of other goods and services are trending lower than Bitcoin. Thus, the store of value for Bitcoin as a participant in the global market is increasing.

This can help Bitcoin achieve its goal of becoming the default mode of transactions and payments.

Conclusion: Ownership of Bitcoin as Mineral Rights in the Future

Author Aaron Roberts at Bitcoin Magazine stated, 

“Owning Bitcoin Today is owning the mineral rights in the future.”

With this statement, he has rightly highlighted the potential of Bitcoin as a mode of payment worldwide. In the future, there can be a day when the producers of capital-intensive goods and scarce natural resources will stop accepting diluted money for their products. Then, Bitcoin will be adopted as the mode of payment and it will further boost the value of tokens. 

So those who have already accumulated Bitcoin will receive benefits and will also be able to dominate the sector. Bitcoin owners will be able to utilize these tokens to power the global economy, similar to mineral rights owners today.

FAQs

Will Bitcoin prices be appreciated or depreciated?

It will be appreciated as the increase in adoption and lower supply will boost the price of Bitcoin as per the quantity theory of money.

Why is Bitcoin supply scarce?

The generation of new Bitcoin needs a significant amount of energy consumption and capital investments in physical hardware and infrastructure.

Adarsh Singh is a true connoisseur of Defi and Blockchain technologies, who left his job at a “Big 4” multinational finance firm to pursue crypto and NFT trading full-time. He has a strong background in finance, with MBA from a prestigious B-school. He delves deep into these innovative fields, unraveling their intricacies. Uncovering hidden gems, be it coins, tokens or NFTs, is his expertise. NFTs drive deep interest for him, and his creative analysis of NFTs opens up engaging narratives. He strives to bring decentralized digital assets accessible to the masses.