A lot of teams have invested time and energy in designing economic models but the space at large fails to recognize the degree to which we do not yet have the tools to engineer them properly — in a large part because we have not had enough time and experience (as a community) to build, test, measure and iterate. It’s unfair to treat these as software systems — they are on a complexity order more in line with robotic sensor networks if not large scale physical infrastructure systems like the fuel extraction and distribution systems Meltem detailed.
So when I say we don’t have experience, Releasing an ERC-20 on an exchange and evaluating a speculative spike and crash; I am talking about modeling, simulating, measuring, validating and evolving our understanding of the economic subsystems that arise for a community actively using a product with token based features.
It’s frustrating to wade through the token forest in search of teams Building products with tokens that fulfill a meaningful role — this implies the product accomplishes something for its usership that could not be accomplished without. Such things can be expected to exist in the foreseeable future, but the skill (and drive) to accomplish this seems largely uncorrelated with these epic fundraising efforts. In fact, in many cases the desire to drive up the value of a token directly conflicts with designs focusing on technical and/or UX requirements.
All that said; all I’m certain of is that we don’t know a whole lot about what tokens will make possible. Rather than spending capital to bring attention and prolong speculative demand, we should use the funds to research and implement economic systems with measurable value propositions. Personally, I’m looking for systems that facilitate exchange goods and services in fiat at lower operational costs so that facilitating network can capture a share of the efficiency gains as revenue in a directly accountable manner.
Thanks for your writing Meltem; it’s inspiring to see you driving the discussion in this direction.