Attention is the scarce asset — so why is it priced in an unlimited unit?

the vision5 Sept 20265 min read

The advertising industry is a market in one genuinely finite good — human attention — quoted in a unit whose supply is not finite at all. That mismatch shows up everywhere once you look for it.

Why is attention genuinely scarce?

Because the supply is capped by biology and population, not by production. More content does not create more hours in a day; it only divides the same hours into smaller pieces.

What goes wrong when you price it in fiat?

Nominal prices climb for two unrelated reasons and nobody can separate them. You cannot tell whether attention got scarcer or the currency got looser, so budgets grow without anyone learning anything.

What if both sides are fixed?

Then the price becomes information. A rising sats price for a position means real competition for real attention — a signal, not an artefact of monetary policy.

Fixed supply of money, fixed supply of attention, one honest ruler measuring both.

How does the board apply this?

21 positions, permanently — the supply of attention is capped explicitly.
Priced in satoshis against a 21 million coin cap.
Every click, pageview and payment published, so the price can be checked.