If miners start issuing electronic tokens backed by their mineral reserves, and these tokens become widely accepted as payment, there will soon arise a need for standardization.
The first requirement from the public will be that token issuers will have to be audited. If the issuer of a token isn't verified by a reputable auditing firm, few if anyone will want to hold their tokens.
The next requirement will be that the tokens are standardized, so that a person can hold tokens issued by many different miners without a constant need to convert back and forth. The metric system will no doubt be the standard. Tokens will be issued in grams, kilograms and metric tonnes, depending on the mineral being tokenized.
This again, will lead to a need for further standardization. The large number of different minerals being tokenized will prompt a call for one or two particularly popular minerals to serve as the ultimate standard.
The most desirable mineral will become the ultimate standard. It will be the mineral that people are most likely to go and get from the issuer in order to hold in physical possession at home or in a bank box.
That mineral will not be iron, or nickel, nor will it be copper or oil. It will be gold, and silver will be second in line. Only factory owners will want to cash out on their iron and nickel tokens. Regular people will never do that. Where does one store a few tonnes of iron or nickel? A kilogram of gold or silver on the other hand. That's quite interesting to hold, especially if one suspects that issuers have more tokens outstanding than they have physical metal in store.
If we define money to be the most sought after resource on the planet, we can predict that gold and silver will quickly become money again if miners successfully tokenize their mineral reserves.
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