Tokenomics

‍It is amazing how much we’ve achieved economically thanks to our traditional equity-based system. Thanks to all the accountants and law firms that keep it all squared away and to all the administrative work and stock clearing houses that tell us who owns what and how much.

We’ve come far — but we’ve reached the plateau.

Digitization and automation are how we take equity to the next level. And in this article, we will explain why. But first what is digitization?

In the crypto world when people say digitization it usually refers to tokenization which is just a fancy way of issuing a token to represent something, something like an equity share in a company. Tokens don’t live in a private database instead they are recorded on a decentralized blockchain for everyone to see and use.

This means tokens have the real potential to do equity better because they are much easier to share and void of all the admin mentioned in the intro.

It’s not hard to see tokenomics superseding traditional equity if only for the fact that tokens are truly compatible with the internet.

The most popular use case so far for tokens has been the easy creation and distribution of equity of a company to raise money. Hence the ICO craze of 2017. Today, however, there are major experimentations happening with different ways to approach tokens which we shall get into.

But first, we must understand the current traditional equity system and why it’s limited.

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Digital Silos

In short, equity is created with the help of large law firms and heavy litigations to enforce contracts.

Firms write contracts stipulating who owns what and eventually the company data will be all ‘digitized’ into a system like a CUSIP and/or register in an ISIN which are essentially data silos for company records.

These databases are highly restricted and only a select few entities such as the DTCC will have access to the database for the purpose of clearing all the trades of stock on the NYSE.

For perspective, the DTCC clocks volumes of over $2 quadrillion USD in a year. Quadrillion, that’s a number you don’t see every day.

The bottom line is that the current equity system is super centralized, inaccessible, and relies on select few middlemen, thus creating friction and illiquidity for everyone.

Some of the limitations of our current analog equity system:

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HIGH COST:‍

Getting a company publicly listed on the NYSE costs approximately $500,000. It does not include all the hidden costs along the way in the form of contract formation that can take months to set up depending on the type of business.

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COSTLY ADMINISTRATION:‍

Admin and accounting have to be outsourced and verified and checked by multiple parties to reconcile the ‘who owns what and how much’, ranking up high accounting maintenance cost and time.

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POOR TRANSFERABILITY:‍

Largely due to not being compatible with the internet companies lack an easy way to distribute company shares without involving multiple middlemen. This also means global transferability is often costly or impossible. Transferability can also be limited to region/country, effectively region-locking said asset.

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COSTLY CONFLICT RESOLUTION:‍

If conflicts should arise then resolving them may take long days in court, incurring again ever more time and money.

These friction points are contributing to the rift going on today between real company valuation versus the actual value of the services that the company provides.

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Separation of Equity and Utility

This disconnect going on between the equity of a company and the value of that company’s products and services is one of the major issues with the current system because it’s designed to prioritize profits over creating things of value.

If a corporation’s aims were only for profits, shouldn’t that profit naturally come from building better services and products that are useful to our lives? And shouldn’t that be reflected in the company's share price?

The stock market is supposed to do exactly that, but in reality, the market has become more speculative than some would like to admit.

For example, corporations flush with money often choose to buy back their own stock instead of putting that money into R&D or better employee conditions. This is happening on an unprecedented scale, where roughly 93% of profits made by US corporations in the last decade came from the rising share price of the stocks that they themselves continue to prop up by buying more of their own shares, and collectively these corporations earn more through buying back their own stocks to a collective tune of $4 trillion USD.

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That’s a load of value that is not being shared with the public. Also, that’s value not being put towards new ideas, creating jobs, or making the company better.

It isn’t illegal for corporations to buy back stock but we are getting to a stage where it might need to be because it is messing up the valuable signals that prices should bring us, and they are creating a major disincentives for all parties involved that don’t own the stock, the workers for example.

Let’s look at a real example of a mismatch of incentives.

Consider the gig-based companies — Uber, Airbnb, Lyft, and their countless copycats. They not only provide an affordable service to customers but more interestingly, they create jobs in the form of drivers and accommodation hosts that rent out unused real estate and cars. ‘Gig’ works pretty much.

These gig workers keep these companies' economic engine alive, but these gig workers have zero stock in the companies that they work for.

Wouldn’t it make sense if the workers in these internal economies started to own at least a part of the economy they themselves have created? A token of appreciation for their contribution to the ecosystem? A token economy!

A token added to a gig-based economy can work as an accurate barometer of a company’s health because of the token. If no one uses the service the tokens become useless and if they use the service it becomes valuable. Simple.

We have the tools today to better align the incentives of workers in a gig economy but how that’s done comes down to the craft of the tokenomics.

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Larry declared both Uber and WeWork to be “almost worthless.” The reasoning behind his thinking is that both companies don’t have a load of loyalty from the drivers and tenants. The workers just aren’t incentivized to stay on the Uber or WeWork platform if a cheaper and more profitable option comes along. They have no stake in the empire. They have no stake in the company.

Point is, these corporations could gain a lot by offering a token in some form because it can really tie people to the success of their ecosystems.

It’s true, companies do issue stock options to employees but in an overwhelming amount of cases, they do not. They do not do this due to all the clunky regulatory framework that’s blocking companies from sharing their own pie.

To make the point concrete, let’s consider the benefits of linking shares of a company more closely to a utility token:

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DIGITAL SYNERGY‍

Since crypto tokens are digital they allow for a load of automatic functions that synergize with the countless digital services that we use today on the Internet.

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SUPERIOR ACCOUNTING‍

Because tokens have temper-proof accounting control systems inbuilt into the blockchain network, it greatly reduces the headaches around ‘who owns what and how much’.

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MORE ACCURATE PRICING‍

If the utility of the token is well placed into the product, in that it synergizes well with the product, it can provide better pricing for the product along with greater tangibility to the token.

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PURE OWNERSHIP & GOVERNANCE

‍Token holders can store their own tokens in their wallet. Allowing more parties to get involved in a direct way and exercising self-sovereignty. Tokens can also be used as a voting tool to help govern company, product or business.

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GLOBAL & TRANSFERABLE‍

Tokens allow for true global value transferability and is much more inclusive than regular old stock shares. This brings greater liquidity when compared to traditional stock which is typically restricted to a country.

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RESILIENCE‍

Successful tokenomics create great system resiliency which in turn can lead to the companies products and services functioning autonomously as the network economy grows and becomes self-sustaining. This is very much already the case for Bitcoin as a self-sustaining money system.

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Unlimited Token Models

Well-crafted token models will organically lead to community-owned and operated digital services that don’t need expensive litigation to compel honest behavior. Basically, a free market working at its best.

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Already there are startups pushing the boundaries of tokenization. Stablecoin for example, where each token say a USDT token is just a proxy for one regular USD. The stablecoin model is arguably the most successful token system but just by a different name. We see the same model replicated with BUSD and USDC. The great thing about a USD tokens is that they operate on the blockchain and thus can be used globally and programmatically. They are also much more transparent, accounting for each token you can check the supply, address, and number of holders on the blockchain right here.

Another simple use for a token is to simply use it to pay for stuff. Any company is already doing this today with points, credits or even things like Starbuck points, these are just tokens that can be used within the system itself. For example, HollaEx a software provider allows users to pay for software using XHT (HollaEx Token) and provides a discount. XHT is also used to activate coins and markets within their software and is an integral part of the HollaEx white-label exchange system.

The possibilities are endless, especially when coupled with your owe exchange, and we are going through a transition period where many of the rules and contracts we have today on paper are slowly being programmed into digital smart contacts and tokens.

There is still a long way to go before we get all the contracts right but it has to begin with business experimenting with tokens. Businesses have to take risks and think of innovative ways to inject tokens into their business model.

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Starting a Token

In the early days, people would fork the Bitcoin code and change a few rules and start a whole new token.

After the advent of the ERC-20 protocol, many would launch right away on the Ethereum blockchain as early as possible and try to get listed on as many exchanges as possible, and think about the utility of the token later.

But times have changed, and launching directly on the blockchain can be counterintuitive. A lot can go wrong since token rules can’t be changed once submitted to a blockchain. And getting listed on exchanges can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Instead, a more organic way of starting a token would be within your own exchange system. The history of exchange technology shows the ease of starting an exchange is exponentially getting easier.

At HollaEx we’ve created the tools to start digital marketplaces. HollaEx is a powerful white label exchange software kit that allows anyone to create, add and manage coins and tokens all from their own live-running crypto exchange. Anyone can create their own tokens internally within their exchange. Users of the white label would simply add the token during the exchange setup.

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Starting a token within an exchange means there is a marketplace for the token from the get-go and it allows for easy purchasing and distribution of the token because there is an inbuilt wallet for accepting deposits.

Having an exchange system allows for the early stage parameters of the token to be setup first before submitting it to the blockchain, for example, token name, symbol and increments can all be set within the exchange setup.

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HollaEx essentially kills two birds with one stone. One, it allows the token to be created which means early marketing and promotion of the token can take place. And two, it allows for a marketplace to develop around the new token thus avoiding expensive listing fees and long negotiations with other crypto exchanges.

HollaEx is the ultimate token and marketplace creator. To find out how to start your own exchange and token today visit our website or arrange for a live demo.

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