Editor's note: This article is from the WeChat public account "Blockchain Catcher" (ID: iqklbs) .
Last Saturday, the blockchain catcher invited four industry experts in the Token economy to share their own practice or research experience around "how to design a Token economy system". From today onwards, we will release the sharing content of the guests one after another. You who are concerned about the Token economy are inspired.
This article is shared by Wang Wei, founder of Zhiding Technology. Wang Wei is one of the founders of Tongzhengpai. He has worked in the financial IT field for more than 20 years. He has presided over the design and development of the world's largest bank accounting system based on open platform and distributed technology. In 2014, he founded Zhiding Technology , the main product is to provide blockchain digital asset trading platform and full life cycle management solutions for industry applications.
1. Three attributes and development stages of Token
First of all, let me introduce the development process of Token. Now everyone knows that the concept of Token or Token is relatively popular, but as people with technical background, we knew about the Token Ring network 20 or 30 years ago, which is the Token Ring Network. . In the later Internet era, Token is also used to refer to the token for login verification, which is the first stage of Token.
After the emergence of Ethereum ERC20, Token entered the second stage. As a certificate for raising ether, Token automates the ICO process. For example, I set it through the ICO smart contract. You invest ether, and I will issue a Token to you. In the next few years, if my project is completed, the Token will be your proof of investment, and you can replace my currency with the Token I gave you at that time. Because of this, Token has been further developed into an asset that can be directly traded on exchanges.
After the translation of Token was born, Token entered the third stage. The concept of the Token School is actually to expand the connotation of Token. Token is no longer limited to tokens or ICO tokens, but also has various attributes such as the right to use and the right to benefit . Blockchain encryption technology can guarantee all tamper-resistant Symbols can be used as tokens. For example, a bank acceptance bill may also be issued to relevant users as tokens.
From this perspective, tokens have become an economics term. Many people are wondering whether Tokens are better translated into tokens, or better translated into tokens, but this entanglement is meaningless. In other words, tokens are no longer the translation used by the original technology, but The newly created term has a completely different economic meaning from the previous Token.
I generally define a token as a "tradable certificate" or a negotiable encrypted digital certificate, which has three attributes (here borrows Meng Yan's concept and makes some adjustments):
The first attribute is negotiable, including use, transfer, exchange, etc. The use of a certificate within the company and the circulation of the whole society have a completely different nature.
Why it can be circulated, because it has the second property - certificate, it can be identified and tamper-proof. We dare to accept the RMB now, to some extent because the RMB has a very high anti-counterfeiting technology. Many people compare the blockchain to the anti-counterfeiting technology of Bitcoin, which is correct in a sense.
The third attribute of the token is its value. As the carrier and form of the value, the token may be equity, currency, acceptance bills, property rights, and various rights behind it. This value attribute of the certificate actually comes from the recognition of the credit of the party that endorses its value, so I call it social consensus.
Token is the unity of token, certificate and value.
2. Blockchain allows assets to circulate freely in the form of tokens
From a purely definitional point of view, a token can have nothing to do with a blockchain. For example, Q coin is also a kind of token to a large extent. It can be circulated in the QQ user system of hundreds of millions of people. It can be used to buy various props, games, and even in Guangzhou and Shenzhen streets. In the past, the owner of the milk tea shop accepts Q coins to buy milk tea, and many people recognize the value of Q coins.
So, what is the relationship between token and blockchain? In fact, there are actually two forms of certificates that we can circulate in the past, one is physical and paper form, and the other is electronic and digital form. Assets in digital form such as stocks, bonds, equity, and currency constitute a huge value. The network, this value network is completely dependent on a centralized organization, that is to say, the registration and transfer of assets all depend on the centralized organization, and the place that the centralized organization can reach is the boundary of this value network.
Later, Satoshi Nakamoto invented a digital asset that is transferred in a peer-to-peer way-Bitcoin. Blockchain, as its underlying technology, enables digital assets to be circulated without intermediaries. It is registered by a certain institution, but is recorded by thousands of nodes on the blockchain, and no one can tamper with it, which gives a new meaning to the token.
We passers-by believe that blockchain technology is suitable for encrypted decentralized electronic certificates, but this technology is not limited to Bitcoin, nor is it limited to the underlying database technology, it is also very suitable for issuance, registration and circulation. certificate to realize value transfer.
Let's do a thought experiment. If you hold a stock and think it will go up in the future, you want to give these 10,000 shares to your son, but the current mechanism cannot be realized. If you sell it in the secondary market, you can't Make sure your son just buys it. If you go to a securities company for registration and settlement, they will only be responsible for bulk transactions, not retail investors.
So here comes the problem, although these 10,000 shares are your property, and it is reasonable for you to give the shares to your son, but you do not have sufficient right to dispose of this property, that is to say, the asset registrant sets The rules determine your ability to dispose of property, so is this some kind of violation of your property rights?
For another example, I bought an air purifier on a crowdfunding website in October last year, and the other party said that it would be sent to me in February this year, but in December last year, there were no smog days in Beijing for two consecutive months, and I regretted buying it. This air purifier, if the other party delivers the goods to my house in February this year, then I can only put this air purifier into the second-hand market and sell it at a very low loss.
So I thought, is there a market dedicated to options trading on this common commodity? There is a very famous example in history. The Hong Kong government specially designed a secondary market for real estate. If my real estate is planned to be delivered in two years, I can transfer the ownership of the real estate in this secondary market. In fact, all kinds of assets have the demand for this secondary market, but it is difficult to establish under the previous commercial system, because the establishment of such a secondary market is not objectively a commodity producer or a crowdfunding service Provider's obligations.
The tokenization of assets can solve this problem. If all assets such as stocks and certificates can exist on the blockchain in the form of tokens in the future, this value network can break through the traditional boundaries . When I issue an instruction on the system, there are countless machines in the world to help me complete it. Register and your tenure can be proven beyond traditional boundaries.
Taking this air purifier as an example, the crowdfunding website can issue the purifier certificate you have to the blockchain and confirm the right, and then you can trade the purifier's certificate in the secondary market like a flea market. The crowdfunding website doesn’t have to do it on its own, as long as anyone has the ability to get the data out of the crowdfunding website’s system and be recognized, this can be done, and it only needs to register the products on the website” The pre-sale proof" is placed on the blockchain.
Therefore, when the token is combined with the blockchain, it can generate an ability to break through the boundaries and not be restricted by any registrant to dispose of your assets. The core function of the token is circulation, which can create infinite possibilities. sex.
3. How to design the token economic system?
From the perspective of the values of the whole world, if we only have the dimension of money to judge value, then the significance of issuing so-called various certificates will be greatly weakened, but the actual human value scale is multi-dimensional . The criteria for judging the value of a particular thing are different.
For example, why do some people invest in stocks and others in bonds now? Why is there such an economic activity as discounting bank acceptances? This is because value-added income is also an important dimension in judging the value There are different judgments.
Let's talk about the classification of tokens. I divide tokens into four types according to different dimensions:
The first is the value type, which directly corresponds to a certain value. For example, this token is worth 1,000 yuan, and you can use it as a stored-value card or exchange certificate;
The second is income type, which means that the token itself is not worth 100 yuan, but it can continue to generate income in the future, such as stocks and bonds;
The third type is the rights type, which refers to the rights or interests obtained by the holder in a specific application scenario, such as VIP cards and discount cards;
The fourth type is the identification type, which refers to the identification of certain valuable assets or objective facts, such as old age certificates and real estate certificates, which have no value in themselves.
For example, many people are now paying attention to Binance Coin. It has two core features: first, it can deduct the transaction fees on the platform; second, the Binance platform will take 20% of the net profit for each quarter. It is used to repurchase Binance Coins, and the repurchased Binance Coins are directly destroyed until the total amount of Binance Coins is 100 million. These two characteristics reflect the value attributes of Binance Coin in two different dimensions. One is the right, which will give you a discount when you buy the coin, and the other is the income. The repurchase every quarter represents the future and represents the Added value.
This reflects a problem that many token designs will encounter: that is, something is used for consumption, but if it will increase in price, will you spend it? For example, if the price of Binance Coin keeps rising, I just need to use it to offset the handling fee and I will lose money immediately, because I can use it to deduct more handling fees or sell it for profit. From this point of view, the value attributes of a consumable thing and a profitable thing should be contradictory, or at least not completely consistent.
The reason why all ICO projects and their economic systems cannot be justified often comes from here.
Through this example, I want to tell everyone that the above problem must be considered when designing the token. Many projects mix the three value components of Token (real intrinsic value, future income right and subjective value) , and use A Token carries three values with conflicting relationships, which makes it difficult to clarify the value of this Token. But it is not impossible to do so, because it may make investors and the general public easier to understand, anyway, just buy a Token.
If you want the economic system to be simpler and more self-justifying, you can design it as three tokens that have nothing to do with each other. The real value is used for consumption, and the income value is equivalent to my equity in the entire economy. The subjective value represents the What rights do I have in this system.
But on the other hand, isn't Binance Coin more successful, and why? This actually reflects the issue of multi-dimensional values. Some people have a large transaction volume and are concerned about the actual need to deduct the handling fee; some people have a small transaction volume and are concerned about future income; some people even have a sense of identity with Binance, so they go to buy its Token to consume. In a sense, these behaviors are reasonable, which leads to the fact that Binance Coin cannot exist because of logical contradictions.
Therefore, how to design in the end depends on what your purpose is, whether you want to create an ecology or meet the current financing. If your purpose is to raise funds, then the issuance of three kinds of Tokens must be unsuccessful, because the purpose of investors is to realize income, and it is likely that the Tokens representing community rights will not be bought by investors.
Before designing the token economy system, we need to think about three questions:
First, why do we design tokenization? As a carrier of value, how can tokens generate higher value through circulation? What is their source of value? Taking distressed assets as an example, the value of tokenization may be to find more buyers in the secondary market. If the token we design is helpful for market entities to find demand or reduce costs in economic activities, then tokenize.
Second, for whom does the token create value? The economic system of the token includes the roles of asset issuers, consumers, intermediaries, etc., but sometimes the design of the token economic system may not meet the interests of everyone.
Let me give an example. Everyone may know that mobile companies or airlines have consumption points. Some people suggest that points can be placed on the blockchain so that users can exchange points. However, the issuer of points may not agree with this. Because for the point issuer, the point is actually the issuer's liability to you, and the disappearance of the point is often the issuer's greatest interest. If you put the points on the blockchain to achieve wider circulation, the points will eventually be transferred to the hands of those who need the points, and the point issuer will have to pay more for the point exchange, and they are definitely not willing.
Therefore, although blockchain points can be done, the design of the point system must solve the above problem, taking into account the interests of everyone, and it cannot be done without taking into account the interests of the issuer, because they have the final say whether to do it or not.
Third, where are the boundaries of circulation? Blockchain technology can allow tokens to break through all boundaries, but does your token need to be circulated across borders? There is uncertainty in the exchange model between tokens of different attributes or changes due to the environment, and even the exchange relationship cannot be formed. So what is the role of cross-border circulation? In a word, how to determine the circulation boundary has a great influence on the design of the token economic system and whether to use the blockchain to realize it.
Four, three summary
First, do we have a need to cross boundaries? Even if there is no need to cross the border, the token can still exist. I can still design a Token system to circulate within my company, or a city government can issue a Token to reward good citizens, but only the need to cross the border is getting stronger and stronger. At the same time, the role of the blockchain to realize the token economy will become more and more important.
Second, the token economic system also depends on the formation of social consensus. This society is not only composed of ordinary citizens, the government, regulatory agencies and exchanges are also part of the society. The token economic system you design must take into account the cognition of all stakeholders. Nowadays, the circulation of many assets is subject to certain regulations. Due to the limitations of the system, I believe that if it is to be tokenized, it should communicate with the government and regulatory agencies to reach a consensus of the entire society before it can be implemented.
Third, strike a balance between privacy and security . The technology of blockchain is indeed still relatively early. Users need to manage digital assets with an address and key. Once the password is lost, you will never be able to retrieve these assets. Geeks may accept it, but this is true in the real world. Most people can't accept it. In other words, the traditional real-name registration of assets actually has its value, but it depends on how it is combined with blockchain technology.
Finally, I borrow a sentence from "A Brief History of Humanity": "As human beings, we can't break away from the order constructed by our imagination. Every time we think we have broken the walls of prison and marched toward freedom, we are only in another way. A bigger prison in the space, and slightly expand the scope of activities.” There is indeed an objective need to break through the boundary, and it is also the biggest role of the token economic system, but after all, we still live in the real world, we still need to maintain moderation, maybe how to recognize , Setting this boundary is the most important issue to be considered by the token economy.