A starter to help DAOs architect the Tokenomics for their community.
The objective of a tokenomics program is to establish a compelling market offering with a clear vision statement, espousing the values of blockchain based communities. Considering the questions below, you may produce a tokenomics chart and/or a whitepaper describing the incentives for specific communities to take part in such a community.
- What is the purpose for tokenizing? Fundraising? Marketing? Contributing? Governing? Fractionalizing?
- How many types of tokens should exist?
- Who is the target audience of each token?
- What is the initial/target/maximum size of each audience?
- How many of each type of token should be minted?
- What should the ticker (token symbol) of each token be?
- How many minting cycles (or hard stops) for each token?
- Who should control minting? Should it be multisig?
- When should minting occur? Pre, Post, Lazy?
- Will tokens be released or sold in tiers (whitelists)?
- Should supply be capped?
- Should tokens be fungible?
- Should bonding be applied? What Kind?
- Should tokens be streamable?
- Are there other inflation/deflation mechanisms to consider?
- Is financial incentive separate from utility?
- Are there any vesting periods or locking requirements?
- How easily tradable/transferable should tokens be?
- Who can trade tokens? Any costs or taxes involved?
- Do tokens need to be burnable? when?
- Do tokens need to be staked? Should stake be delegated?
- Should token staking provide another (vote escrowed) token?
- Should tokens be allowed to participate in liquidity pools?
- Should tokens be lendable or used as collateral?
- Does minting or transfer need callbacks (Besides ERC standards)?
- What gas fees are acceptable?
- Who pays for gas fees?
- Is a treasury being established?
- How much is the treasury endowed with?
- What can be redeemed with each token?
- Who determines or can change entitlements over time?
"Token design is an intricate mixture of incentive mechanism design, economics, finance, game theory, software and complex system design, all of which need to be observed and iterated cautiously." -Javi
NOTE: Depending on the attributes of any blockchain based token, and the jurisdiction where tokenholders reside or use the token, it may be categorized as one or more regulated instruments, including but not limited to: securities, futures contracts, value stores, insurance products, derivatives, structured products, commodities, e-money, loans, deposits, or bonds.
- Creator Token: An artist creates, and their community gets privilege and benefits. Bonded to allow early members more benefit per supporting share.
- Governance Token: A community issues the token to afford members a vote via token-gated systems (OtOv, Quadratic, Swarm, etc).
- Security Token: A token (typically purchased as a crowdfund investment) with the expectation of an increased future value and liquidity.
- Social/Community Token: A token which affords the holder certain access or benefits to socially valuable communities, events or experiences.
- Trader/Exchange Token: A commodity token which represents the derivatives or futures market for an asset.
- Utility Token: A token that functions within an enclosed ecosystem, with little value outside of that ecosystem (besides exchanges).
- Stability (pegged) Token: A token that is programatically (or manually) marked to the value of another asset to maintain a stable transfer system.
- Staked Token: A token that can be locked (typically for a certain period of time) so that its value can be leveraged in other transactions.