The new token economy reintroduces the old concept of barter system, but with new technology, higher than ever speed and scale, says Chris Chinchilla, a technical writer and blogger.
In his article he states that if each sector of economy had its own token and they operated in isolation, it would be an inconvenience instead of a progress. But all these token-based communities combined with decentralized exchanges “would become infinitely more interesting.”
“You make money by investments, work, or other means and take it elsewhere to pay for things that you need or desire, and so the system continues. The decentralized nature puts the decisions on value more into the hands of the participants than centralized authorities,” he writes.
Then Chris Chinchilla takes the token concept years into a theoretical future:
“What if your landlord used a landlord token, and your supermarket a supermarket token? Via a decentralized exchange, you agreed that tokens you earned in other communities were worth something in those communities? Thanks to the different ways you earn these tokens such as proof-of-work, proof-of-participation, proof-of-stake, proof-of-brains, your varying activities start to produce matching value across ecosystems.”
Nevertheless, the blogger wonders if this system will turn out any different in the long run, or one abstract barter system is just being replaced with another.
“One of the criticisms of better-known cryptocurrencies has often been that you can’t do much with them on a day-to-day basis. After a short couple of years where there were Bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) ATMs, and a handful of stores (online and bricks & mortar) that accepted them, adoption has decreased, and not increased. You can level the same criticism at the modern wave of tokens”, Chris Chinchilla writes.
By Jade Olafson