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Summary:

Summary:

This article selects the top 50 projects by market capitalization, and discusses the development status of tokens from four dimensions: object-oriented, token structure, issuance method, and distribution method, and draws the following conclusions:

1. In terms of quantity, the proportion of payment currency, general platform and industry application is relatively balanced, presenting a "three pillars" situation;

2. From the perspective of the token structure, one layer of tokens is the main one, and multiple layers of tokens develop in parallel. Among them, the payment currency tokens are all first-tier tokens, the second-tier tokens include five types of tokens, and the third-tier tokens have one type;

3. From an operational point of view, the consensus mechanism and issuance methods are more flexible, the incentive methods are diversified, and community governance is integrated into the construction of the token economy system.

This article summarizes the current development model of the token economy. Specifically, the trend is to develop from a one-layer token structure to a multi-layer token, stripping the value attribute and management attribute of the token, thereby reducing the impact of the price fluctuation of the token on the normal operation of the blockchain network.

The development model of the token project can be divided into three categories according to its realization goals: the goal is to improve technology, the goal is to expand market applications, and the goal is to reduce market disturbance. in,

1. For tokens designed from the perspective of technical perfection, they focus on solving the technical difficulties of the blockchain network, emphasizing technological innovation and the universality of application scenarios. Therefore, such tokens often choose a one-layer token structure and use a The payment currency and underlying technology development platform tokens characterized by layered token structure will still be the mainstream development token economic system.

2. For tokens that serve application scenarios, the purpose is to pursue the application capabilities of blockchain technology, so personalized adjustments will be made according to different scenarios. This type of token may choose a one-tier token structure or multiple Layer token structure.

3. When the token economic system requires the blockchain community to be stable and reduce the impact of market speculation and price fluctuations, that is, to reduce market interference, a multi-layer token structure is generally selected. The multi-layer token structure consists of two parts: management tokens and value tokens. The multi-layer token structure is applicable to the token economy system based on community management. At present, the application scenarios of the multi-layer token structure are still relatively few, but it can be expected to have great potential in the design of the token economy system in the future.

Finally, this article points out the "pain points" in the development and application of the token economy:

1. The development of blockchain technology is still immature, which shows that the underlying technology of blockchain is not perfect and the operation and management mode of blockchain technology is immature.

3. The development environment of the token economy is chaotic, and there is great uncertainty in its implementation. It is manifested in two aspects. 1) The founders of the pass-through only use the pass-through economy as a means of raising funds, and do not consider the implementation of the pass-through economy. 2) There are uncertainties about whether the pass-through economy can be implemented and how long it will take. sex.

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1. Overview of Token Economy

1.1. Basic concepts

Token Economy (Token Economy) is an economy that manages "Token". According to the definition of the Token School, a Token refers to a negotiable digital equity certificate. As a digital certificate, a certificate needs to have three characteristics: negotiable, provable and valuable. Negotiable means that the pass can be used, transferred and exchanged within the whole society; provable means that the pass is real, can be quickly identified, and has the ability of anti-tampering and privacy protection; valuable means that the pass It is only the carrier and digital form of value, and it needs real asset rights as support. The asset rights and interests here include the ownership of the asset, the right to use it, and the right to benefit in the future.

Tokens in a broad sense can be divided into three categories. The first category is a functional pass that is typically characterized by ID cards, credit cards, user points, coupons, etc. For the holder, it has certain functions. For example, an ID card can prove the holder's citizen information, a credit card can reflect the holder's consumption overdraft, user points and coupons can give the holder certain consumption privileges, etc. The second category is equity tokens featuring financial derivatives, bonds, futures contracts and stocks. It corresponds to the holder's right (or loss) to obtain future income in the course of financial transactions. The third category is encrypted digital currency based on blockchain technology, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. It utilizes the characteristics of blockchain technology such as anti-tampering, traceability, and distributed bookkeeping, which can realize the verification of qualifications on the blockchain network, traceability of circulation, and guaranteed personal privacy and transaction data security. The object of discussion in this article is for the third type of pass, discussing its development status and development scale respectively.

1.2. Features of Token Economy

As an emerging economic model, the token economy can quickly gain industry recognition and application without the support of blockchain technology. The earliest token economic system based on blockchain technology is a payment currency token based on Bitcoin. With the launch of the first Turing-complete smart contract in Ethereum, the token system has been expanded to other than payment services. application becomes possible. The advantages of the token economy are very obvious. On the one hand, it expands the supply channels of products or services, and on the other hand, it accelerates the realization of value through means such as decentralization. Specifically:

1. The token economy model expands the supply market. In theory, all asset rights can be certified. Anyone and any organization can issue certificates of equity based on their own resources and service capabilities; at this time, those who provide products or services are not limited to traditional producers, and anyone can be both a consumer and a producer.

2. Token economy redefines production relations. When asset rights and interests are certified, their circulation occurs on the blockchain network. Blockchain technology ensures that the entire circulation process is open and transparent, verifiable and traceable at any time. This not only greatly reduces the cost of process supervision and audit during the transaction process, but also its security, credibility, and reliability are beyond the reach of any previous transaction method. Therefore, asset rights and interests can achieve high-speed circulation and transactions on the blockchain, so that their prices can be quickly confirmed in the market.

1.3. Development of Token Economy

With the advancement of blockchain technology, more and more application scenarios choose tokenization. From the perspective of the number of token projects, according to Elementus statistics, from April 2017 to March 2018, the number of public crowdfunding token projects increased by more than 13 times (from 13 to 174), as shown in Figure 1 shown.

From the perspective of the types of token projects, according to TokenInsight's classification standards, token projects are divided into 21 categories, including payment currencies such as Bitcoin BTC, Dash, and Ripple XRP, and general platforms such as Ethereum ETH, Yuzu Coin EOS and Cardano ADA, as well as content, entertainment and advertising such as STEEM, Internet of Things such as ETC, IOTA, token exchanges such as BNB, BTS and ZRX, etc. Among them, payment currency tokens accounted for the highest share of the total market value (63%), followed by general platform tokens (27%). In fact, whether it is content, entertainment and advertising Internet of Things or token exchanges, etc., they are all specific applications of the token economy. Therefore, this article classifies them into one category, called the application category.

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2. The development model of token economy

Since Satoshi Nakamoto proposed Bitcoin in 2008, the token economy based on blockchain technology was officially born. The decentralized design of the technology brings new changes to the transaction relationship between buyers and sellers. It breaks the current economic relationship based on material ownership and credit endorsement by centralized institutions. With the advancement of blockchain technology and the gradual implementation of project applications, the token economy has greatly improved in terms of technical complexity, content depth and breadth. But the foundational role of Bitcoin in the design of the token economy system is beyond doubt. At present, the token economic system still maintains the form of issuing "tokens". The framework of Bitcoin such as consensus mechanism (POW, proof of work), issuance method (mining, block design), fee) has become a paradigm for designing a token economy system.

In order to deeply analyze the characteristics of the current token economy system, this article selects the top 50 tokens by market value as samples to discuss the current status of the token economy development, and further summarizes its evolution logic from the development of the token economy.

2.1. Analysis of the current situation of token economy

For the analysis of the status quo of the token economy, this section will discuss from four dimensions: object-oriented, token structure, issuance method, and distribution method. Among them, object-oriented is the category to which the token belongs. The category here includes three types as mentioned above: payment currency, a standardized and generalized public development platform for the purpose of promoting the practical application of the underlying technology of the blockchain, such as distributed development Platform (DAPP) and smart contracts, as well as application tokens that serve specific industries, such as PPT (Populous Token) that serves bill financial transactions, TRX-TRON tokens that serve content and entertainment systems, etc.; the token structure is the token The token level of the system, for example, the one-layer token structure represented by BTC-Bitcoin, the two-layer token structure NEO and NeoGas represented by NEO-Yicoin, and the one-layer token structure represented by STEEM-STEEM Three-tier token structure STEEM, SteemPower and SteemDollar; the content of the issuance method includes the consensus mechanism, the total amount of token issuance, the initial issuance method such as the form of token issuance, the proportion of each participant and the rules of token release; distribution The method specifically refers to the incentive method and the dividend distribution method of income.

This article summarizes the top 50 token economy systems by market value. As shown in Appendix 1, the development status of the token economy system has the following characteristics:

1. Three pillars of payment currency, general platform and industry application

From the quantitative point of view, the classification of different token economic systems will be different. Payment currency tokens are the most (the number is 21), and the number of general platform and application tokens is not much different, 14 and 15 respectively. Among them, application tokens are mainly token exchanges, financial transactions, and the Internet of Things. But on the whole, there is no great difference in the quantity of the three types of token economy (before the emergence of Ethereum, payment currency tokens had an absolute advantage in quantity), and the distribution is relatively balanced.

Figure 2 Quantity distribution of different token economy classifications

2. One layer of tokens is the main, and multiple layers of tokens are parallel

From the perspective of token structure, the current token economic system is dominated by one layer of tokens, and multiple layers of tokens develop in parallel. Among them, the payment currency tokens are all first-tier tokens, the second-tier tokens include five tokens, namely MKR-Maker, NEO-Xiaoyi, VeChain-VeChain, ONT-Ontology and SNT-Status, and the third-tier tokens There is one kind of currency, namely STEEM-Steem currency. Among them, STEEM and SNT are content social tokens, ONT and VeChain are general platform tokens, NEO is a digital asset management token, and MKR is a financial stock token.

3. Flexible consensus mechanism and issuance methods help the development of the token economy

As a virtual currency based on cryptography, Bitcoin has subverted the traditional economic transaction model. However, because it is a pioneering application, there are inevitably deficiencies in decentralization, technology promotion, transaction efficiency, privacy protection, etc. With the maturity of blockchain technology, the development of the token economy has become more flexible in the way of issuance.

In terms of consensus mechanism, it has gradually developed from the earliest proof-of-work mechanism POW adopted by Bitcoin to the proof-of-stake mechanism POS and the Byzantine fault-tolerant mechanism BFT, to the delegated rights-proof mechanism DPOS and the delegated Byzantine fault-tolerant mechanism DBFT, to the hybrid consensus combining various consensus mechanisms Mechanism, such as the consensus mechanism adopted by EOS-Yuzu coin is BFT-DPOS. In order to meet the needs of specific token project applications, there are also many personalized consensus mechanisms, such as the zero-knowledge proof mechanism to improve the anonymity of transactions (Zcash-Zcash-the first case adopted), the content social token STEEM-Steem The consensus mechanism adopted by the coin is Aligned Proof-of-Brain, and the token used by the cloud storage token SC-Cloud Storage Coin is the proof of storage mechanism Proof of Storage and so on.

In terms of the initial issuance method, according to the characteristics of the project, the needs of community management and technology promotion, in addition to the classic mining release, more flexible means are introduced to promote the initial development of the token economy system, including pre-mining , ICO crowdfunding, venture capital, airdrops, rewards, etc. On the whole, mining release and ICO crowdfunding are the main token issuance methods. ICO funds are generally distributed in proportion to the founding team, community foundations, investment institutions and partners, early contributors, community building, etc. In addition, the total amount of tokens issued has also increased from 21 million to tens of billions. For example, the total amount of ZIL (Zilliqa) tokens issued is 21 billion, and the total amount of XVG (Verge) tokens issued is about 16.6 billion.

4. Diversified incentive methods enhance the vitality of the token system

In terms of incentives, mining rewards and transaction fee node rewards still play an important role in the current token economy system, especially payment currency tokens such as Bitcoin-BTC, Monero-XMR, Bitcoin Cash-BCH, etc. , and common platform tokens such as Cardano-ADA, Qtum-QTUM, etc. Among them, the content of mining rewards has also changed. For example, ETH-Ethereum introduces fixed rewards and uncle block rewards, while ETC-Ethereum Classic introduces fixed rewards, uncle block rewards and Gas rewards.

For application platform tokens, the incentive method is generally adjusted according to the content of the token project. For example, the incentive content of Bytom-BTM (serving for assets on-chain) includes transaction fees and platform profit dividends (for holding BTM coins), and Cloud Storage Coin-SC uses PC storage space to earn SC coins, etc.

5. Community governance is integrated into the construction of the token economy system

There is no community governance mechanism for payment currencies and general platform tokens represented by Bitcoin-BTC and Ethereum-ETH. At present, more and more token economic systems are aware of the role of community governance mechanisms in promoting the sustainable development of the token economy, especially for general platform and application tokens. The community governance mechanism through secondary distribution such as repurchase and Giving back to users and other means guarantees token value and user activity. As a governance structure, it can not only act as an arbitration institution to resolve disputes, but also act as a management team to formulate community development strategies.

The tokens with more representative community governance mechanisms include Quantum Chain-QTUM, Cardano-ADA and Grapefruit Coin-EOS, etc. Among them, Quantum Chain-QTUM controls the blockchain community through the DGP smart contract and votes. Complete the modification of blockchain network parameters or add or delete management and governance seats through voting; Cardano-ADA has designed a treasury system, which is donated by some newly produced tokens and transfer fees, token holders How to use it can be decided by voting; Grapefruit Coin-EOS community organizations have the rights to freeze accounts, change codes, and amend the constitution.

2.2. The development model of token economy

The current token economic system has significantly improved compared to the earliest token—Bitcoin-BTC—in terms of token structure, token classification, and operation mode (consensus mechanism, issuance method, incentive method, and community governance). . It can be found from Appendix 1 that the vast majority of tokens are developed with Bitcoin-BTC as the reference point. The emergence of each token economic system aims to solve the (possible) "pain points" of Bitcoin-BTC in the process of being put into operation, such as insufficient concealment of transaction information and user information, long transaction confirmation time, small and unreliable blocks, etc. Capacity expansion, price fluctuations, large energy consumption, etc. This section will focus on the analysis of the development context and mechanism from Bitcoin-BTC to the current token economy system, that is, the development model of the token economy:

1. Development mode 1: aiming at improving the underlying technology

Bitcoin-BTC aims to create a decentralized peer-to-peer currency payment system. Its characteristics are as follows: it uses POW as the consensus mechanism for block generation, and only about 7 transactions per second (ie TPS=7) , the block size is 1M, and the core encryption algorithm used is SHA-256. From a technical perspective, Bitcoin-BTC will have some limitations during its operation.

First of all, Bitcoin-BTC is not completely anonymous and cannot provide the same degree of privacy as cash. Using Bitcoin-BTC will leave many public records, and therefore there is a risk of identity disclosure. Therefore, there are a variety of mechanisms designed to protect the privacy of users, such as the CryptoNote-based technology: Bytecoin-BCN and Monero-XMR, and the Zcash-Zcash based on the zero-knowledge proof mechanism.

Secondly, due to the emergence of professional mining equipment such as mining machines and mining pools, ordinary users are at an absolute disadvantage compared to mining machine holders in the process of Bitcoin-BTC mining, which eventually leads to the creation of newly generated Bitcoins. -BTC is concentrated in the hands of a few people, forming the so-called "pseudo-centralization". Therefore, many algorithms are applied to the pass to minimize the advantages of ASIC mining machines over CPU mining, such as the Equihash algorithm adopted by Bit Gold-BTG, the Blake-256 hash algorithm adopted by DCR, and the Wincoin- The SCRYPT algorithm adopted by WC is to reduce the computing power "monopoly" of mining equipment.

Again, each transaction of Bitcoin-BTC will generate transaction fees, and the confirmation time of the transaction is very long. For high-frequency, low-value transactions, the required transaction fees will be very high. Therefore, Nanocoin -NANO adopts a data structure called directed acyclic graph (DAG technology), which supports unlimited transactions, free and instant arrival.

Finally, proof of work POW will cause a waste of network resources and power resources. In principle, Bitcoin-BTC mining is the process of calculating math problems. This process requires the investment of network resources and power resources. As the difficulty of mining increases, the input of required resources will greatly increase. Currently, payment currency tokens are still dominated by POW, but many general-purpose platform and application tokens are gradually choosing POS, BFT, and some mixed consensus mechanisms.

2. Development path 2: Aiming at expanding application scenarios

Due to the preconception of the payment currency attribute of Bitcoin-BTC, within five years after its appearance, the token economic system is almost equivalent to the payment currency token. This situation was broken when Ethereum-ETH launched the ERC20 smart contract platform. Since then, the public development platform based on the application of the underlying blockchain technology has gradually grown up, and the concept of token economy has gradually become well known and recognized by the industry. The more representative general-purpose platform tokens include Ethereum-ETH, Grapefruit Coin-EOS, Cardano-ADA and Quantum Chain-QTUM, etc. The consensus mechanism they adopt is mainly the proof-of-stake mechanism POS.

With the gradual landing of the token economy and the increase in the types of tokens, a series of application-type tokens have been born, which can be divided into two types: one is the token economy system combined with actual projects, and the Egyptian token that focuses on Internet of Things applications Outa-MIOTA and Ethereum Classic-ETC, TRX-Tron, the main content social platform, PPT (Populous Token) serving financial transactions, and Bytom-BTM platform. The other is a platform that focuses on token transactions, that is, token exchanges, such as Binance Coin-BNB and Huobi Points-HT.

3. Development path 3: aiming at community sustainable management

From the perspective of market transactions, the general problem of payment currency tokens represented by Bitcoin is that they are very vulnerable to market shocks. Relatively small transactions or business activities can significantly affect its price. In particular, when a large number of speculators intervene, the price of payment currency tokens will fluctuate like a roller coaster.

In order to minimize the interference of market factors, especially the impact of token price fluctuations on the blockchain network, a multi-layer token structure came into being. In essence, the multi-layer token is to separate the value attribute and management attribute of the pass, so that the value fluctuation of the pass will not affect the normal operation of the blockchain network. For example, the general-purpose platform token ONT-Ontology two-tier tokens: ONT and ONG, ONT pledges to participate in the consensus, which is the management token, ONG is the means of incentivizing transactions, that is, the value token; digital asset management token Ant Coin-NEO consists of two layers of tokens: NEO and NeoGas (GAS), where NEO is a management token used to manage the NEO network, and GAS is a fuel token used to control resources when using the NEO network. It is a value token; the financial stock pass MKR includes two layers of tokens, the Dai stable currency, which is a value token, and MKR is a management token and a utility token, participating in the management system. The content social media token STEEM-STEEM adopts a more complex three-tier token structure: STEEM, SteemPower (SP) and SteemDollar (SMD), among which STEEM is the basic unit of accounts on the Steem blockchain, entering Or those who exit the Steem platform must sell STEEM, which can be converted into SP or SMD; SP is a permission certificate, reflecting the influence of the holder, and the Steem platform will allocate STEEM to SP stakeholders, and the conversion of SP back to STEEM must After 13 weeks, SMD can be exchanged for currency, can be exchanged with STEEM, and anchored to the US dollar. Therefore, in terms of attributes, STEEM and SP are management tokens, and SMD is a value token.

4. The development trend of token economy

Generally speaking, tokens designed from the perspective of technical improvement aim to solve problems such as information concealment, technology promotion, transaction efficiency, and high energy consumption. This type of token focuses on solving technical difficulties in blockchain networks, emphasizing technology The universality of innovation and application scenarios, therefore, this kind of pass often chooses a token structure, such as the payment currency and the underlying technology development platform represented by Ethereum. However, due to the immature development of blockchain technology and the limitations of existing consensus mechanisms, encryption algorithms, and incentive methods, one of the important contents of future token development will still be to improve the underlying technology. The token structure token will still be an important part of the future token economy system.

For tokens that serve application scenarios, aiming at the implementation of the token economy in specific scenarios, it is necessary to organically combine the needs of specific applications with the characteristics of the token economy. This type of token pursues the application capabilities of blockchain technology, so Personalized adjustments will be made according to the content of the scene. Therefore, this type of pass may choose either a one-tier token structure or a multi-layer token structure.

Figure 3 The development context of the token economy system

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3. Pain points in the development of token economy

From the launch of Bitcoin-BTC in 2008 to the formal introduction of the concept of "token economy" in 2018, the token economy has experienced nearly 10 years of development. As well as the external investment environment, etc. have been greatly improved and improved: from the payment currency token "one big" to the multi-type token "a hundred flowers bloom", from the "confused" about blockchain technology to today's "everyone They're all talking about blockchain." However, there are still many difficulties in the development and application of the token economy.

3.1. The development of blockchain technology is not yet mature

As an important application field of blockchain technology, the token economy is also restricted by the development of blockchain technology, which is specifically reflected in two aspects. On the one hand, the underlying technology of the blockchain is not yet perfect, and there are no technical systems and evaluation standards that are more prominent in terms of decentralization, enhanced privacy protection, reduced waste, and improved transaction efficiency. The first three are actually called The "impossible triangle" of "blockchain" technology. The investment in dedicated mining equipment with huge computing power has further increased the requirements for the decentralization of blockchain technology.

On the other hand, the operation and management mode of blockchain technology is in the exploratory stage. As an emerging technology, it has changed the previous economic relationship based on trust and endorsement. Therefore, there will be greater risks in copying some mature operation and management models. Taking community governance as an example, the essence of community governance is to coordinate the relationship between people in the blockchain network, including the coordination of benefit distribution and cost sharing. Governance tools include on-chain governance tools such as consensus mechanisms, hard forks and soft forks, and off-chain governance tools such as social media, offline meetings, and market value management. The difficulty of community governance lies in how to quickly reach an agreement on the content of the agreement (whether it is on-chain or off-chain) for many participants, especially when there are differences and interests.

3.2. The landing process of token projects is difficult

In terms of quantity, the payment currency, general platform and application tokens present a "three pillars" situation, but in terms of market value, the gap between the three types of tokens is very obvious. As shown in Figure 4, the total market value of the global token economy is 251.82 billion US dollars, payment currency tokens account for 63% of the total market value, general platform tokens account for 27%, and application tokens account for less than 10%. The token economy is mainly based on payment services and decentralized development platforms. There are very few token projects that use actual projects as application scenarios. Except for content, entertainment, advertising and Internet of Things technology, non-financial tokens are only 1 %, the landing process of the token project is difficult.

Figure 4 Market capitalization of tokens in different industries (Source: TokenInsight)

3.3. The development environment of the token economy is chaotic, and there is great uncertainty in its implementation

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Four. Summary

Four. Summary

Token Economy (Token Economy) is an economy that manages "Token". Among them, the encrypted digital currency based on blockchain technology is an important part of the certificate. It utilizes the characteristics of blockchain technology such as anti-tampering, traceability, and distributed bookkeeping to realize the verifiable qualification, traceable circulation, and guaranteed security of personal privacy and transaction data on the blockchain network. Its advantages are very obvious. On the one hand, it expands the supply channels of products or services. On the other hand, it can accelerate the landing of value through means such as decentralization. Focusing on this type of token, this article selects the top 50 tokens by market value, and discusses their development status and development models.

First of all, this article discusses the development status of tokens from four dimensions: object-oriented, token structure, consensus mechanism and issuance method, and distribution method, and draws the following conclusions:

1. From the perspective of quantity, the distribution of payment currency, general platform and industry application is relatively balanced, presenting a "three pillars" situation.

2. From the perspective of the token structure, one layer of tokens is the mainstay, and multiple layers of tokens develop in parallel. Among them, the payment currency tokens are all first-tier tokens, the second-tier tokens include five types of tokens, and the third-tier tokens have one type.

3. The consensus mechanism and distribution method are more flexible. In terms of consensus mechanism, it has gradually developed from the earliest proof-of-work mechanism POW adopted by Bitcoin to the proof-of-stake mechanism POS and the Byzantine fault-tolerant mechanism BFT, to the delegated rights-proof mechanism DPOS and the delegated Byzantine fault-tolerant mechanism DBFT, to the hybrid consensus combining various consensus mechanisms mechanism. In terms of the initial issuance method, according to the characteristics of the project, the needs of community management and technology promotion, in addition to the classic mining release, other means are introduced to promote the initial development of the token, including pre-mining, ICO crowdfunding, venture capital, Airdrops, tipping, etc.

4. Diversified incentive methods. Mining rewards and transaction fee node rewards still play an important role in the current token economy system, especially payment currency tokens and general platform tokens. For application platform tokens, the incentive method is generally adjusted according to the content of the token project.

5. Community governance is integrated into the construction of the token economy system. Especially for general platform and application tokens, the community governance mechanism plays an important role in promoting the sustainable development of the token economy.

Secondly, this article summarizes the current development model of token economy. The development path of the token economic system represented by Bitcoin-BTC is divided into three categories: one is to solve the problems of information concealment, transaction efficiency, and large energy consumption from a technical point of view; the other is to start from the expansion of application scenarios, Implement the token economy into more projects; the third is to reduce market disturbances, that is, to reduce the impact of market factors (such as price fluctuations) on the blockchain community. Specifically, the one-layer token structure is developed into a multi-layer token, which separates the value attribute and management attribute of the token, so that the value fluctuation of the token will not affect the normal operation of the blockchain network.

At the same time, this article discusses the future development direction of the token economy system:

1. For tokens designed from the perspective of technical perfection, they focus on solving the technical difficulties of the blockchain network, emphasizing technological innovation and the universality of application scenarios. Therefore, such tokens often choose a one-layer token structure, and The payment currency and underlying technology development platform tokens characterized by a one-layer token structure will still be the mainstream development of the token economy system.

2. For tokens that serve application scenarios, they aim to pursue the application capabilities of blockchain technology, so individual adjustments will be made according to different scenarios. Such tokens may choose a one-tier token structure or Choose a multi-tiered token structure.

3. When the token economic system requires the stability of the blockchain community and reduces the impact of market speculation and price fluctuations, it will generally choose a multi-layer token structure. The multi-layer token structure consists of two parts: management tokens and value tokens. The multi-layer token structure is applicable to the token economy system based on community management. At present, the application scenarios of the multi-layer token structure are still relatively few, but it can be expected to have great potential in the design of the token economy system in the future.

Finally, this article points out the "pain points" in the development and application of the token economy:

1. The development of blockchain technology is still immature, which shows that the underlying technology of blockchain is not perfect and the operation and management mode of blockchain technology is immature.

2. The landing process of token projects is difficult. In terms of market value, payment currency tokens account for 63% of the total market value, general platform tokens account for 27%, and application tokens account for less than 10%. Except for content, entertainment and advertising and Internet of Things technology, non-financial tokens are only 1%.