Landholders & Affected Community

Your land. Your voice. Your place in the structure.

If your land, community, or livelihood is directly connected to resource decisions, COG$ of Australia Foundation has a dedicated pathway built for your situation — with a structure that gives you a real say before decisions are made, not after.

COG$ landholder stewardship

Why this pathway exists

Communities should not be left to live with decisions made elsewhere.

Too often, land and resource decisions are made at a distance — by people who do not live with the consequences. This project is designed to bring landholders and affected community Members closer to those decisions, give them a meaningful and binding voice, and build a structure that cannot be casually overridden or ignored.

Resident COG$

Allocated at no cost to verified Affected Zone residents.

If you are a verified resident within a declared Affected Zone — an area materially affected by a Foundation resource action — you are automatically eligible for a Resident COG$ token at no cost. Resident COG$ carries weighted local governance rights on decisions affecting your zone. It does not carry a Sub-Trust B income unit, and it is separate from landholder or personal S-NFT membership. You can hold both. Affected Zones are declared and published by the Board under the Declaration.


Three commitments

A seat at the table, not an afterthought.

The Foundation is built around three principles that matter most to landholders and affected communities.

🗣️ A voice that counts

Landholder Members hold one equal vote in Foundation governance, the same as every other Member. Your say is not weighted by how much land you hold or how much money you have.

🛡️ Stewardship over extraction

The Foundation's structure treats in-ground minerals as assets of present value — not just future inventory to be removed. Extraction is not the automatic outcome. Members vote on resource proposals, and the Foundation casts that community vote at resource company AGMs. Communities have a real, lawful governance voice in decisions that affect them — before those decisions are finalised.

📋 Binding governance

Member votes on resource proposals are formal and auditable. The Foundation casts those votes at AGMs of ASX-listed companies. This is not consultation theatre — it is a live governance structure.


Real World Assets & stewardship

Resources should not be reduced to extraction alone.

The Foundation starts from a different assumption: real value can exist in real things before they are extracted, sold off, or pushed beyond community reach. RWA COG$ are directly tied to in-ground mineral value — not speculative derivatives. Landholder COG$ give affected community Members a specific class of token designed for people whose land and lives sit closest to those decisions.

Landholder COG$ Reserved for landholders and affected community Members. No payment required to reserve — you confirm your position in the structure and receive your Independence Vault wallet. The per-hectare allocation is capped at 1,000 COG$ per hectare of eligible land — an entrenched provision of the Declaration that cannot be reduced by any resolution.
Zero-cost for LALCs & PBCs For Local Aboriginal Land Councils and Native Title Prescribed Bodies Corporate, Landholder COG$ is issued automatically at zero cost (up to the 1,000-per-hectare cap), as a founding First Nations equity commitment entrenched under the Declaration. This entitlement cannot be reduced or made conditional upon payment without FNAC endorsement.
RWA COG$ Real World Asset tokens tied to in-ground mineral value. These can be reserved by any Member but are designed with landholders and resource-adjacent communities in mind.
Evidence review Landholder status is subject to an evidence review to ensure the pathway is used correctly. The Foundation will contact you after your reservation is lodged.

What happens next

Three steps to secure your place.

The process is straightforward. Your first step is an individual membership — the landholder-specific pathway opens from inside your Independence Vault wallet once your place is confirmed.

1
Join as an individual for $4

Secure your base membership. Your one-equal-vote position in Foundation governance begins here. This is the same first step for everyone — landholders included.

2
Reserve Landholder COG$ in the form

On the join form, you can reserve Landholder COG$ (issued on Expansion Day — when the first Sovereign Node goes live, as certified by the Board and endorsed by the First Nations Advisory Council — subject to any regulatory requirements determined by applicable law) at no additional cost. An evidence review will follow to confirm your landholder or affected community status.

3
Receive your Independence Vault wallet

After joining, you receive your Independence Vault wallet. This is where your governance participation, reservations, and landholder-specific tools will live.


Things worth knowing

Designed for people, not processes.

Individual first, landholder second

The landholder pathway is built on top of individual membership. Your personal voice and wallet come first. The landholder-specific tools and reservations connect to that base. This keeps the structure clean — people first, land interests second.

No financial obligation on reservation

Reserving Landholder COG$ or RWA COG$ carries no payment obligation at this stage. You are securing your position in the structure ahead of the licensed issuance phase. You can adjust or withdraw your reservation at any time from inside your Independence Vault wallet.

Families can join together

If multiple family Members — including under-18s — are affected by the same land situation, each person can hold their own membership. Children can join through the kids pathway for $1. The Foundation is built for households, not just individuals.

Decisions go to AGMs

When the Foundation holds CHESS-registered shares in ASX-listed resource companies operating on or near affected land, Member votes on resource proposals are taken directly to those companies' AGMs. Your voice has a real destination.


The invitation

Step in before Governance Foundation Day.

The first online community vote opens at 5pm on 14 May 2026. Joining now puts you in place before that moment — with your voice registered, your wallet active, and your landholder reservation lodged. This is not a decision that improves by waiting.