"Cryptoeconomic Design" TAG

Akon City, a self-described ‘futuristic cryptocurrency themed city’ proposed by the musician Akon, recently announced that it has awarded a $6 billion contract to KE international, an American engineering and construction firm, having raised an initial $4 billion from private investors. Akon City’s local economy will rely solely on cryptoassets, namely using the singer’s quasi-eponymous ‘Akoin’ token as...

Examining the origins of cryptoeconomic systems helps introduce the notion of cryptoeconomic design and demonstrates such systems’ potential. Though the concept of cryptoeconomic design certainly did not exist when Satoshi authored the original Bitcoin whitepaper, Bitcoin represents the first to-date-successful application of cryptoeconomic design. In particular, this manifests through the Bitcoin mining network. The following...

Token Distribution: It is About More than Just Tokens To properly appreciate debates on the merits of particular token distribution mechanisms, one must come to appreciate how the goods and benefits distributed in an initial token distribution event extends beyond tokens. Access to the initial distribution event is conceivably an opportunity distributed through a project’s...

Smith + Crown will be producing a series of memos detailing our insights into and methods of practicing cryptoeconomic design. Future series will focus on core token function, supply controls, protocol governance, how the technology architecture impacts the incentive architecture, and what’s next for cryptoeconomic design.

One of the most important questions in evaluating a token sale is “What is the role of the token being sold?” Often, answering this question is not easy. Tokens can be designed to perform a variety of different functions or grant holders a wide array of privileges. This diversity distinguishes investing in token sales from...