Open Discussion on Small Business Tokens
The more I use steemit, the more I'm convinced it's a work of genius that has far deeper planning and adapting behind it than 90% of crypto projects.
There's just so much to do here. There are incentives everywhere: incentives to power up the steem I hold, so I get rewards from the reward pool (15% of the reward pool goes to steem power holders) that protect from inflation. It also reduces the float, which is important considering every day $3 million worth of steem is created. Sending steem is easy. Delegating steem power creates secondary markets that allow steem power holders to earn passive income on their investment and spreads out the power of voting to even more people. Upvoting does not require tipping. That alone is incredibly powerful, although it does make the system more difficult for newcomers to understand.
Steemit's multiple tokens allow unexpected interactions to take place that iterate upon the platform's capabilities, and create an ecosystem. This makes it far more interesting than if it were simply a tipping platform.
Warning: Half baked thoughts on possibilities in token models follow
Legacy Token Model Thinking
One of the future basic use cases for cryptocurrencies seems to begin with creating a token. Next, sell the token to raise capital; we'll call it an equity share, but on a blockchain. This increases its fungibility and reduces the cost of raising capital. Douglas Rushkoff described this in his book, "Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus".
Basic equities are great, but I think we will see better models. Personally, I'd like to see a two token model that creates incentives for investors to stake their equity token and receive rewards in the form of services from the business. Let's look at how a pizza parlor might use an equity token and staking.
Tony's Pizza is successful enough that they want to build a second pizza parlor in the next town. However, borrowing money from the bank is expensive, and Tony is interested in allowing his customers to invest directly. Tony talks to some ethereum experts and decides he's going to create two tokens on the ethereum blockchain.
Image courtesy of numista.com
The first token is Pizza Bricks (PBX). PBX is the basic token that creates a second token, Pizza Bites (PBZ), when it is staked. The rate of PBZ created by PBX depends on how many PBX are staked. Tony retains 60% of PBX after the token sale. Investors who own PBX are share owners in Tony's Pizza, and are also able to use their PBZ tokens to get free pizza. Alternatively, a market in trading PBZ tokens would arise where investors trade their tokens for another cryptocurrency, allowing them to realize their investment in either pizza or income. Tony can also sell his PBZ tokens that his 60% stake generates at the market rate to would be diners, or offer them in giveaways or promotions, although he'll want to be careful not to flood the market. PBX can be freely traded as well.
I think a two token model that creates tokens that can be used or traded is far superior to a one token model that just allows owners to get discounted food.
The one token model would just be a crowdfunding model using the blockchain instead of kickstarter. It is an unimaginative use of tokens that don't fully embrace the power of token modeling.
This is either a pie in the sky idea or the best way to get Main Street businesses on board the crypto train. I have no idea if it will work, especially in the US, where equity laws are well established. As a member and frequent visitor of a local winery, I imagine something similar could be done there, where free glasses of wine are generated by those staking their winery tokens.
Please, comment
Maybe this has all been discussed a million times elsewhere, but I don't see any pizzerias, wineries, breweries, or anything else offering token sales yet. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
And if you own a small business and want to do a token sale? Let's talk. :-)
-Jeff
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The trick is in getting it to the masses in a way that is easy for them. Right now you're still at a stage where to get tokens you send Ethereum to a long string of numbers and you get a thing that tells you that you got x number of tokens. It's all still very "out there."
An improved user interface (UI) could be extremely helpful in getting adoption. Otherwise, even if you have a token, people might not buy. It's more familiar to send a check.
I think we'll see this improve in the next few years.
I have to wonder if this model is more favorable than rewards with crowdfunding. We are currently funding ideas without any equity. I like a slice of the pie.
Yes, I do too.
Owning a stake in a company that offers an organic rewards system, that can be sold at will is a better model than many out there.
Great post Jeff
Tokens are great but we can not live in a world which each small business have a token
It's will be very hard to track the exchange rate and will be very hard to know what is the real price , right now there are more then 1,500 different alts which in my eye way too much
There is a need in tokens but to avoid scams and to have some control the world can not handle more then ~100 in my opinion
Why can't we crowdsource micro-loans then? The technology is there and we can spread the risk. We already have aid organizations doing it for the third world, we need to create ways to build capital and wealth outside traditional channels.
Yes technology is there and we need to create ways to build capital and wealth outside traditional channels.
How ever we can not live in a world that have 1,000,000,000 different tokens from few reasons , in this case you will have many scams and frauds, you will make it really hard for people to know how much they are really pay about service or a product you must to have some base currency otherwise you in a way to chaos
Why can't there be 1,000,000,000 different tokens? There are already that many coupons, discount clubs, reward programs etc. You don't participate 99.99% of them. Why would you buy a coin that you don't use a service for, in a city, state or country you don't live in?
I see how you are concerned about so many tokens. My model does not imagine these tokens would all be available on Binance, and certainly liquidity would be harder for smaller businesses.
But the tokens here shouldn't be viewed in the same way you might view bitcoin or ethereum. You wouldn't spend your PBX to buy gas. The token acts far more like a security than a currency.
I think you nailed with the US equity laws - huge road block.
Outside the US I think this has more ability to be adopted and used like the new crowd sourcing tool. Buy our tokes for our expansion and get 1 free pizza a month/ lifetime discount while you hold the coins.
Earn PBZ as loyalty points and trade them for PBX if you are a loyal customer.
Hopefully we can change the way crowd sourcing works in under-served areas.
I hope we see a lot of experimentation with it around the world. So far, the SEC has been friendlier than many imagined, but we might be the late comer if this model proves workable in other areas.
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