Some Thoughts on $NAT and Digital Matter Theory

Starting from the quantum entanglement between the real world and the digital world, under the major trend of All Chains United (BTC), the ultimate digital world of our dreams is also about to usher in the era of All Universes United......

By @NavigatorLabs & @CryptoKitchen23

Core Views

  • DMT is creating a unified, non-arbitrary digital world. Under the major trend of All Chains United (BTC), our dream of the ultimate digital world is about to start the era of All Universes United;

  • The Block Element Table opens a new frontier for discovering native digital assets of Bitcoin, equivalent in significance to the transition from smart contracts (following Code is Law) back to block elements (following Block as ledger), aligning more with the minimalist spirit of Bitcoin;

  • $NAT is the first protocol token of Digital Matter Theory + Non-Arbitrary Token Issuance Model + Block Companion, serving as the universal token for the digital world constructed by DMT's Digital Matter Theory.

The Ordinals protocol has sparked a Cambrian explosion of Bitcoin-native digital assets in the past year, based on its decentralized nature and strong consensus: Ordinals inscriptions, BRC20, Bitmap, recursive inscriptions, BRC420, TAP, Atom, Runes, Taproot Asserts… These have created fertile ground for an emerging digital world that most people find hard to imagine, marking an era of digital world exploration akin to Columbus's voyages.

Digital Matter Theory, Ushering in a New Era of Digital Matter and Digital Worlds

Digital Matter Theory (DMT), proposed by some physicists, suggests that digital information can be regarded as a form of digital matter, similar to physical matter like wood or metal, predicting that the future use of digital information could surpass that of atoms.

Just as the real world is composed of elements, with the periodic table providing a theoretical basis for discovering new elements in the real world, scientists use the periodic table to search for new substances (like semiconductors, catalysts, etc.) in specific regions, serving the building of the real world.

Real World: Elements Periodic Table
Real World: Elements Periodic Table

In the Bitcoin blockchain, the Trac team, Bitmap founder, and TheBlockRunner team have proposed creating a form of digital matter through inherent patterns in block data, also known as the Block Element Table. Bitcoin blocks and transactions are rich, with many types of information permanently recorded and stored in a decentralized and secure public ledger. Hence, we can apply the principles of DMT to create a new class of digital value through the unified process of utilizing the inherent properties of non-arbitrary patterns. This will trigger a major explosion of Bitcoin-native digital assets.

Digital World: Block Elements Table (Digital Matter derived from Bitcoin data, leading to a non-arbitrary token ecosystem)
Digital World: Block Elements Table (Digital Matter derived from Bitcoin data, leading to a non-arbitrary token ecosystem)

Current Three Different Applications of DMT in the Bitcoin Ecosystem

  • 1st Application: Ordinals Theory. Proposed by Casey Rodarmor, the Ordinals Theory assigns coin value to Sats (the smallest unit of Bitcoin, equivalent to one hundred millionth of a BTC), allowing them to be collected and traded as digital artifacts, similar to forging artworks from real-world gold. This allocation model assigns a unique ID to each sat entering the ecosystem, which anyone can use to create digital assets to be inscribed upon the sats.

  • 2nd Application: Rare Sats. According to the Ordinals Theory, sats in unique positions on the Bitcoin blockchain are considered rare sats. For example, the first sat of each block is termed a rare sat. This form of pattern recognition assigns value to sats in rare positions, similar to how we value low-inscription-number items or rare goods.

  • 3rd Application: Bitmap Theory. The third known application of DMT proposed by Bitoshi Blockamoto, known as Bitmap theory, identifies each block on the Bitcoin blockchain as digital real estate. The transactions that make up a Bitcoin block divide that area into separate blocks. This mechanism implements the first non-arbitrary design element of the metaverse.

These examples represent the first batch of digital archaeologists on the Bitcoin blockchain who identified trends and ignited patterns, making block elements a native feature and the greatest narrative of the Bitcoin blockchain. DMT aims to provide a systematic method to construct non-arbitrary digital assets from Bitcoin blockchain data, especially non-arbitrary tokens, with these three as just applications of DMT, lacking a non-arbitrary token issuance method and model as per Digital Matter Theory.

DMT is Creating a Unified, Non-Arbitrary Digital World

Bitmap's founder's proposition of DMT aptly summarizes and elevates these new but independent digital asset issuance protocols (such as Ordinals, BRC20, Bitmap, BRC420, etc.) from a higher-dimensional theory and narrative. Just as chemical elements make up the real world, block elements will constitute the digital world, opening the doors to a non-arbitrary digital matter world based on Bitcoin and block elements. This world corresponds to and quantum entangles with the physical matter world, creating a unified, non-arbitrary digital world — not a specific project, but a new ecosystem, a new narrative, the ultimate form of a digital civilization built on blockchain, collectively creating a true metaverse, our dream of the ultimate digital world is about to begin the era of All Universes United:

  • Bitcoin corresponds to gold in the real world;

  • Ordinals inscriptions make asset on-chain and digital artifacts possible;

  • Bitmap establishes the dimensions and terrain of the digital world land;

  • BRC420 achieves value entanglement and royalties between digital matters, unifying game assets standards, enabling cross-metaverse game asset interoperability;

  • BRC20 and other arbitrary tokens become consensus tokens for various consensus communities/projects/regions/ecosystems.

What is missing now is DMT's non-arbitrary token, protocol token, and general equivalent (i.e., universal token) for the digital matter world.

NAT's multiple applications utilize the same non-arbitrary data root in different use cases, $NAT is applicable for any application
NAT's multiple applications utilize the same non-arbitrary data root in different use cases, $NAT is applicable for any application

$NAT: DMT's First Protocol Token and Universal Token

$NAT (Non-Arbitrary Tokens) is the most valuable digital matter discovered by Digital Matter Theory in the block, with its quantity derived from the BITS element value in the block (BIT is the smallest unit of information in computing, with 1 or 0 being a bit). To understand $NAT, we analyze its value from the following four dimensions.

  • $NAT is the first protocol token issued by DMT.

    Digital Matter Theory paves the way for blockchain, equivalent in significance to smart contracts, transitioning from smart contracts (following Code is Law) back to block elements (following Block as ledger), returning to Bitcoin's minimalism, and allowing us to view Bitcoin-native digital matter from a fresh perspective, exclusive to Bitcoin's ecosystem, discovered from block elements rather than arbitrarily created by contracts. $NAT is the first protocol token synchronously issued with DMT.

  • $NAT is the first token of the non-arbitrary token issuance protocol.

    Digital Matter Theory considers token issuance protocols to mainly consist of two paths: arbitrary tokens and non-arbitrary tokens. BTC, ETH, ORDI are representatives of arbitrary tokens, subjectively set by creators; non-arbitrary tokens are more like mining, extracting from existing block elements rather than being subjectively set by creators. $NAT is the first token of the non-arbitrary token issuance protocol, releasing the protocol standard for mining block elements.

Two token issuance models: NAT represents the first branch of token issuance model, with $NAT being its first protocol token
Two token issuance models: NAT represents the first branch of token issuance model, with $NAT being its first protocol token
  • $NAT is the first token of block companions.

    Just like mining for gold in the real world often results in many accompanying minerals, the mining of BTC simultaneously generates digital matter with Bitcoin blocks, which we can call block companions. The first block companion is Bitmap, the first block companion NFT. Its issuance increases according to block data and is a type of non-arbitrary asset. $NAT is the first token of block companions, possessing FT (fungible token) characteristics. The future development of Bitmap and NAT will also produce quantum entanglement.

  • $NAT is the universal token of DMT's digital world.

    Digital Matter Theory is opening a new digital world, just like discovering gold in the real world and becoming a general equivalent consensus. The digital matter world also needs such a token, naturally discovered from blocks and becoming a general equivalent token, representing the value of the entire DMT protocol and DMT's digital world.

    $NAT is produced and increases with blocks — every block, every sat, every UXTO transaction, every digital matter created by BRC20 with BITS production is valued — NAT can be used as the universal currency in this digital matter world, similar to the current real-world dollar, but it is not sovereignly issued, found in blocks, and achieved through community consensus, like the consensus process of gold and silver becoming general equivalents.

In the digital world, the value of various DMT digital substances unearthed needs a measure and exchange medium. Bitcoin, as digital gold primarily serving as a store of value, is increasingly unsuitable for general payments, just like gold in the real world. Fiat money uses gold as a reserve, and $NAT similarly stores 546 sats when minted, making NAT, which is produced alongside BTC in each block, perfectly linked to BTC. It can replace Bitcoin in many scenarios for general payment and circulation.

How to Value $NAT

Based on the analysis above, we can evaluate from three stages:

  • Start-up phase:

    1. Valuation method one: Estimate at 30-100 times the average minting cost of $10, about $300 - $1000;

    2. Valuation method two: $NAT ≈ SATS. SATS becomes the mining reward for inscription indexing, and NAT becomes the universal token of the DMT digital world, both becoming the core token in their respective fields. With a total of 21 million SATS, each currently at $75 and a market value of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, NAT is only 800,000 in circulation. When it reaches a market value of 1 billion U.S. dollars, it equates to about $1250 per NAT.

    3. Valuation method three: $NAT ≈ 10 x Bitmap. Bitmap, as land NFT, based on the market value ratio of land to platform tokens in multiple metaverse platforms like Decentraland, is about 1:10. Therefore, the market value of NAT is about 10 times that of Bitmap. Currently, each Bitmap is 0.005BTC, making NAT worth about 0.05BTC each, approximately $2250.

Data source: Twitter user @OrdinalNinja
Data source: Twitter user @OrdinalNinja
  • Growth phase (this bull market):

    1. Valuation method one: $NAT, as the first token of the DMT protocol and a leading concept, along with other tokens like ORDI and ETHS from the BRC20 protocol, each valued at approximately $70,000 and $13,000 respectively, the first tokens of these protocols currently have no ceiling. $NAT is expected to potentially reach $10,000 per token, about a 10 billion U.S. dollar market value, with no upper limit set.

    2. Valuation method two: Bitcoin ecosystem MEME tokens account for 10% of BTC's value, and Ethereum ecosystem's SHIB accounts for about 5% of ETH's market value. Currently, Bitcoin ecosystem MEME tokens are just in their growth phase, with ORDI already far ahead at about $70,000 each. $NAT also has the potential to be a leading Bitcoin MEME token, accounting for about 5% of Bitcoin's value, approximately a 50 billion market value, averaging to about $50,000 per NAT.

  • Maturity phase (next few decades):

    1. Valuation guess one: $NAT ≈ Ordinals + Bitmap + recursive inscriptions + BRC420 + BRC20, etc., the total value of all digital substances. The real world has GDP, $NAT is equivalent to the GDP of the DMT digital world or the digital substance production value of the Bitcoin chain;

    2. Valuation guess two: Could $NAT exceed Bitcoin? According to the World Gold Council, about 209,000 tons of gold have been mined, valued at approximately 13 trillion U.S. dollars, while the global GDP in 2022 was 100 trillion U.S. dollars. $NAT, as a general-purpose currency like the U.S. dollar, might also surpass Bitcoin's value, depending on the future production value of the digital world. In 2022, the U.S. M2 total was 21 trillion U.S. dollars, China's M2 balance was 33.5 trillion U.S. dollars, and the value of currencies issued by countries around the world far exceeds the total value of mined gold (Note: This paragraph is just conjecture and data listing, the author is not an economics professional. If there are experts, they can design a 'GDP statistical model and M2 calculation model' for the digital world).

The Development Prospects of $NAT

  • Establish a digital world payment system with $NAT as the settlement token. Because DMT itself is the entire digital world, and the payment system is the most important financial tool in this digital world. Specifically, it means building a trading market with NAT as the settlement token, and a tools market, models market, skins market, cloud rendering market, Bitmap trading market constructed with NAT as the payment token. Any ecosystem project built around the DMT digital world can use this trading payment system, with market builders charging transaction fees in $NAT.

  • Build an ecosystem with $NAT as the token and Bitmap as the land. DMT is a new and vast digital world, capable of accommodating the dreams of all crypto natives, and this world certainly cannot be built by one or a few project parties. It requires community consensus and joint construction, just like the ecosystem built around Bitcoin. Anyone can build a metaverse project based on the DMT framework using NAT as the token and Bitmap as the land, without permission, only requiring community recognition, and charging $NAT as a service fee. At the same time, because of the universality of land and tokens, these ecosystem projects are interoperable.

Q&A

① What is the difference between $NAT and Bitmap?

$NAT and Bitmap are both the first materials discovered by DMT digital matter theory, and are the two essential elements constituting the non-arbitrary DMT digital world. Bitmap is the land of this non-arbitrary digital matter world. Holding Bitmap is like holding a real-world land title, a proof of ownership of this digital world's land, one of the many types of digital substances in DMT, existing in NFT form. NAT is the universal currency of this non-arbitrary digital matter world, a token. If you must draw comparisons, you can understand Bitmap as the land in Decentraland, and $NAT can be understood as MANA.

② What is the difference between the DMT digital world and metaverses like Decentraland?

  • Under the trend of all chains uniting, the ultimate universe we dream of is also about to kick off the unification of all universes. The DMT digital world is the entire digital universe, with countless Decentralands, Sandboxes in this world, each block being a small universe.

  • Decentraland and other metaverses are arbitrary, their land supply, digital substances, and MANA tokens are all set by the project parties. These digital substances do not exist in Decentraland themselves, they are empty land, similar to industrial park recruitment, requiring various resources to be introduced;

  • The DMT digital world is non-arbitrary. The substances constituting this world all come from the various digital substances created in each block. The DMT digital world only needs to present these in 3D visualization. In simpler terms, BTC is currently 2D, and the DMT digital world will present the entire Bitcoin chain and Bitcoin ecosystem in 3D. Any project content must first be written into the Bitcoin chain to enter the DMT digital world.

3D visualization of Block 548829: https://symphony.iohk.io/
3D visualization of Block 548829: https://symphony.iohk.io/
  • The land and platform tokens of existing metaverses like Sandbox are issued by project parties, not publicly free minted. In contrast, the land Bitmap and token NAT of the DMT digital world are launched based on the spirit of Free Mint (free minting). Essentially, the land Bitmap and token $NAT do not belong to any project party, but any project party can build ecosystem projects around these two assets, mutually empowering each other.

  • Decentraland was originally born on the Bitcoin network in 2015. Due to scalability issues, it moved to Ethereum in 2017. The idea of Decentraland's decentralized mainland was born from Bitcoin and is suitable for the DMT digital world. The DMT digital world will bring Decentraland's decentralized mainland concept back to Bitcoin.

③ Regarding the Additional Issuance of NAT, $NAT Currently Has Only Over 800,000, Not Arbitrarily Issued, Scarce and Fair

  • Firstly, it's clear that the additional issuance of NAT increases with the increase in blocks and decreases with the increase in difficulty. Secondly, in the past 15 years, there have only been over 800,000 Bitcoin blocks, with 50,000 new blocks added each year. The growth rate in 2024 is about 6%, and it decreases year by year (for example, by 2050, the growth rate will be only 2.2%, and by 2114, when Bitcoin is fully mined, the rate will drop to 0.0076%. Introducing a destruction deflation mechanism will lower this rate even more). In contrast, the issuance of ETH is fixed at 5% annually, and DOGE also has an annual issuance of 5%. Comparatively, NAT's growth is more reasonable. Looking back, NAT's growth in 2014 was about 10%, so the growth rate of NAT more closely aligns with the process of a real-world country transitioning from rapid growth in a developing nation to slower growth in a developed nation, in accordance with economic development laws.

  • The total amount of BITS in each block can serve as the smallest unit, just as one SATS has 100 million, so the current total amount of NAT is over 800,000, with about 10,000 holding addresses, equating to over 80 NAT per person, which is quite scarce. NAT increases with blocks, also ensuring that subsequent participants have the opportunity to mint for free. Finally, miners will join in mining NAT. In the early stages, NAT, as a Bitcoin block-associated ore, will become the primary ore after Bitcoin is fully mined, turning into the main asset mined by miners.

④ Why Can't $SATS or $BPM Become the Universal Currency of the Digital World?

  • SATS is currently widely recognized by the community, for example, Unisat Wallet uses it as a fee for inscription transactions and a reward for inscription index mining. However, SATS has already been fully minted and cannot be issued further based on the future value growth of the digital world, limiting its growth.

  • $BMP's current total is 1 billion, only supporting claims for block numbers before 817500, and the last claim date is set for December 31, 2023. Subsequent participants in the DMT digital material world can only purchase on the secondary market. BMP is issued based on whether BITMAP is held. For the DMT digital material world, BITMAP is just one of the assets, and like SATS, it cannot be issued further based on future digital world value growth, limiting its growth potential as well.

Notes

Statement: This article represents only personal views, with some opinions gathered from community leaders. It does not constitute investment advice. DYOR!

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