The native asset

The asset is part of the architecture rather than a decision deferred to later, because four architectural jobs require it.

First, pricing the two scarce resources. Block space and persistent state belong to the network, so their payment cannot be left to whatever asset a transaction author happens to hold [A]. Second, storage rent, which requires seizability: rent is collected precisely from state whose owner has stopped participating, so the collector cannot depend on the occupant holding anything in particular. Ergo makes this argument explicitly for its own native asset, as the one asset on the chain that can pay storage rent regardless of what other tokens exist [S]. Third, consensus, whichever mechanism is chosen: stake to bond, or work to reward, each denominates in something, and consensus is open [A]. Fourth, the alternative to rent, a refundable deposit, is denominated in the same asset, so the asset's existence does not turn on which occupancy mechanism wins [S, precedent below].

Under the recommended state model there is additionally a genesis constraint. An asset's identity there derives from the predicate governing it [S], so a protocol-privileged fee asset is a first-class part of the chain's initial state: it exists at genesis or not at all. If instead acceptance of the asset were left to operator policy, the asset would have a market rather than a protocol role, which is a different chain [A]. Whether operators are required to accept it is itself an open decision. Supply, emission and allocation are out of scope for this page and are not prerequisites for any decision on it.