Ethereum Tokenomics: Powerful Flywheel or Cycle of Doom?

Token distribution mechanisms have adopted a lot of the structures from within the traditional financial world — including vesting schedules and vesting cliffs — which have resulted in some unintended consequences like adverse price action as tokens vest; and the inability of holders with large economic interests in a protocol to exercise governanc... See more

In both cases though, you also need to care about the net income of all token holders in aggregate. That is the measure of the token’s overall value capture from generating income, and hence is a major component in its valuation. Imagine a network with high issuance and low staking participation. The income statement for stakers might look great. B... See more

Governance rights face similar challenges with both fungible and non-fungible tokens: ownership naturally tends to have a power-law distribution so the question becomes: what do you do about whales? This recent essay by Vitalik paints a clear picture for why this will become an increasingly problematic issue for DAOs, both in terms of incentive mis... See more

Selling native tokens against stable coins, however, is easier said than done. The dilemma that DAOs face is that the markets may fail to smoothly absorb the supply of native tokens due to the lack of liquidity leading to a sharp drop in its price.