So I have been thinking about Bitcoin mining and how it shall evolve as the halvings come in, and I feel that while the process is a noble competitive search for nonce values, it could be more. Especially when mining rewards shrink.

Consider the ordinals craze from early 2023. Casey Rodamor sold this idea that we could do NFTs on bitcoin satoshis, and the demand for then was so hot that Bitcoin miners were in this interesting situation where they could mint ordinal-filled blocks or mint transaction-filled blocks. The fees went through the roof. And the miners pocketed them.

Now that the ordinals fad is out-of-style, miners are back to mining good-old transactions-filled blocks but as we go along, most BTC transactions are going to simply be an aggregation of what ETF providers and Crypto exchanges are moving around.

So how will miners make money? Making them from mining rewards is good. But it won't be enough for long. The return to mining when there is a need (like with ordinals) is going to be the big thing soon with aggregation of transactions not just for ETFs, but everything requiring money transfer or even just a signed agreement.

I'm seeing the mining of peace agreements taking precedence over transactions in the near future. I'm seeing governments "hijacking" (read borrowing) miners and our block space so that they can get some crucial transactions signed into digital stone. Ordinals were a stepping stone. A miserable one at that with some bad artwork going into the all important blockchain.

Aggregation not simply for ETFs and Crypto exchanges clearing, but everything that requires massive movement of capital and weaving a web of trust, will take precedence over mining coffee transactions. Hence giving miners, once in a while, a boost in earnings from fees.

What say y'all on this. Am I cooking something here?