GPU capacity is allocated by whoever can pay the most. Cloud infrastructure expands based on provider growth targets, not system demand. Spectrum is auctioned on political timelines. National networks are sized by forecast models that are wrong before they are published. Cybersecurity resources are deployed reactively, after the breach.

The structural failure is the same across all digital infrastructure: capacity expansion is driven by commercial incentive or political allocation, not by measured system state. Oversupply creates waste and monopoly concentration. Undersupply creates bottlenecks and exclusion. Neither is governed by a mechanism that responds to real conditions in real time.

Progressive Depletion Minting (PDM) inserts a control layer beneath these decisions. Compute allocation, bandwidth release, and infrastructure funding are tied to measurable depletion thresholds. Expansion requires condition-gating. Contraction runs continuously. Each successive expansion is structurally harder than the last, preventing monopolistic accumulation while preserving system capacity for genuine demand.