Tokenomics

The Crypto Shift of Blockchains, ICOs, and Tokens

Sean Au, Thomas Power

• Verlag: Packt Publishing
• Jahr: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781789132601
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Computer Science
• Thema: Cryptography

Explore the differences between ICOs, cryptocurrencies, and tokens (offerings), enabling the reader to understand the ICO landscape, how millions were raised in minutes, and where the future of the tokenized economy is heading. Take a real-time journey, cutting through the myths, understanding token choices available to everyone.

Key Features

• Interviews with key figures in Tokenomics
• Unbiased evaluation and comparison of the different offerings
• Conceptual analysis of the market's reaction
• League table showing current exposure
• An account of the theoretical and current legal foundations of alt coins and tokens
• A complete introduction to the phases of an initial coin offering

Book Description

Tokenomics is the economy of this new world. This is a no-holds-barred, in-depth exploration of the way in which we can participate in the blockchain economy. The reader will learn the basics of bitcoin, blockchains, and tokenomics; what the very first ICO was; and how over a period of 5 years, various projects managed to raise the enormous sums of money they did. The book then provides insights from ICO experts and looks at what the future holds. By comparing the past, current, and future of this technology, the book will inform anyone, whatever motivates their interest.

The crypto shift of blockchains, ICOs, and tokens is much more than just buying bitcoins, creating tokens, or raising millions in a minute in an ICO. It is a new paradigm shift from centralized to decentralized, from closed to open, and from opaqueness to transparency. ICOs and the creation of tokens during the craze of 2017 needed a lot of preparation, an understanding of cryptocurrencies and of emerging legal frameworks, but this has spurred a new movement to tokenize the world.

The author gives an unbiased, authoritative picture of the current playing field, exploring the token opportunities and provides a unique insight into the developing world of this tokenized economy. This book will nourish hungry minds wanting to grow their knowledge in this fascinating area.

What you will learn

• The background of ICOs and how they came to be
• The difference between a coin and a token, a utility and a security, and all the other acronyms you're likely to ever encounter
• How these ICOs raised enormous sums of money
• Tokenomics: structuring the token with creativity
• Why it's important to play nicely with the regulators
• A sneak peak into the future of ICOs from leaders in the industry

Who this book is for

With the media hype about bitcoin, this book appeals to anyone, from those with a general interest in anything crypto, or those with some knowledge of the nuances between cryptocurrency, ICOs, IPOs and the Token economy.

Tokenomics

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Table of Contents

Tokenomics

Thomas and I

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Contributors

About the authors

About the reviewer

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Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

Download the color images

Conventions used

Get in touch

Reviews

1. Once Upon a Token

A network of markets

The Internet of information

The Internet of value

What is tokenomics?

Micro and macro

First occurrence of the word

The token economy

What does the current tokenized economy look like?

What is tokenization?

The tokenization of everything

Summary

2. A Bit of Coin Theory

Bitcoin – in the beginning

DigiCash

E-gold

B-money

Bit gold

Liberty Dollar

Why did Bitcoin succeed?

How was Bitcoin born?

Trust

Decentralization

Transparency

Consensus

Other ways to achieve consensus

What is Bitcoin?

What is a coin?

Mining Bitcoin

Is Bitcoin money?

Open source

Alternative coins (Altcoins)

Namecoin – the first altcoin

Litecoin – the silver to Bitcoin's gold

Pre-mining

Primecoin – finding new prime numbers

Other altcoins

Lessons learned

Blockchain – the immutable database

The definitions

ISO/TC 307 – Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies

What is a distributed ledger?

What does a blockchain look like?

Storing information on the blockchain

Op Return

Scaling

IOTA

Coloring bitcoins

Smart contracts: are they that smart?

Smart contracts in Bitcoin

Script

Ethereum

Smart contracts in Ethereum

What does an Ethereum smart contract look like?

The most unfortunate famous smart contract – the DAO

Fees in Ethereum smart contracts

The peak of ICOs

Participating in an ICO

The fastest ICO raises

Network congestion

The Useless Ethereum Token

Summary

3. The Potential of ICOs

What is an ICO?

The ICO acronym

What is a token?

The difference between coins and tokens

Different types of tokens

Cryptocurrency coins or payment tokens

Utility tokens

Security or asset tokens

Common ICO terminologies and acronyms

ERC20/EIP20

Changing the promise

The dot-com versus dot-coin bubble

Market capitalization

Circa 1994 and email

Celebrities

The numbers

Bitcoin versus the Nasdaq

The bust

Risk in ICOs

Infrastructure

Education

ICO road maps

Working with new technologies

Token saturation

Community saturation

Greater fool theory

A new era of ICO innovation

Innovation in the ICO mechanism

Going private

Well-known advisors

Creative discounting

Second round

Innovation in ICO ideas

Health tokens

Digital identity

Supply chain

Energy

Summary

4. Token Varieties

ICOs on the Bitcoin blockchain

Omni (OMNI) (formerly MasterCoin)

MaidSafe (SFE) on Omni

Tether on Omni

Counterparty (XCP)

Storj (SJCX)

Factom (FCT)

Ripple (XRP)

How did Ripplepay work?

When was Ripple created?

Funding

XRP coin

The purpose of XRP

ICOs on custom blockchains

Nxt

Ethereum

Lisk (LSK)

Waves (WAVES)

Tezos (XTZ)

NEM (XEM)

Side note – proof of importance

ICOs on the Ethereum blockchain

Augur (REP)

ICONOMI (ICN)

EOS (EOS)

Bancor

ICOs on non-blockchain technologies

IOTA

Hashgraph

Summary

References

5. The Need for a Token

The purpose of a token

Thought experiment #1 – monetizing excess digital storage

Thought experiment #2 – monetizing excess processing power

Thought experiment #3 – payment cards

Thought experiment #4 – messaging platforms

Thought experiment #5 – decision-making platforms

Did these ICOs really need a blockchain?

SaaS analogy

Types of companies running ICOs

Existing companies running ICOs

GameCredits (GAME)

Kin from Kik (KIN)

Brave's BAT

Eastman Kodak Company – KODAKOne

New companies running ICOs

Humaniq

Other new companies

Critical considerations when creating a token

Step one – the purpose of the token

What does the token do?

Side note: multiple tokens

Step two – existing token or custom token?

Token tools

Step three – do you need a blockchain?

Side note: public or private blockchain?

Resources

Coinbase

ConsenSys

Public Trello board

Token questionnaire

Summary

6. Playing by the Rules

Security tokens and the SEC

What is an investment contract?

The Howey Test (US-based companies)

US citizens

AML/KYC

SEC statements

Global stance

Singapore (http://www.mas.gov.sg/)

Canada (https://www.securities-administrators.ca/)

China (http://www.pbc.gov.cn/)

Switzerland (https://www.finma.ch/)

Hong Kong (https://www.sfc.hk/)

Australia (https://asic.gov.au/)

South Korea (http://www.fsc.go.kr/)

Estonia (https://www.fi.ee/)

Europe (https://www.esma.europa.eu/)

United Kingdom (https://www.fca.org.uk/)

New Zealand (https://fma.govt.nz/)

The SEC comes knocking

The DAO

Harbour

Protostarr

PlexCoin

Munchee

Foundations

Crypto Valley

LLC, Ltd, GmbH

The evolution of white paper legality clauses

SAFT

Summary

7. The Token Sales Mechanics

Token supply and distribution

Distribution

EOS distribution

The presales strategy and bonuses

No bonuses

Case study – Civic

The Civic App

The Civic token

Cryptobeer

Kyber Networks

Bonuses

Ethereum

Waves

FirstBlood

Humaniq

TenX

Tezos

Synereo

NEM

Presales or pre-ICO and private sales

OmiseGo

Simple Tokens

Telegram

Vesting periods

Hard cap, soft cap, and no cap

Uncapped ICOs

Ethereum

Tezos

Capped ICOs

Soft cap

Hard cap

Hidden caps and presales: Aragon

Dynamic ceiling – Status

Reverse Dutch auction – Gnosis

Token mechanics considerations

Summary

References

8. White Paper, Website, and Team

The white paper

Other colored papers

Yellow paper

Grey paper

Green papers

Light paper

Mauve paper

First-generation white papers – lots of maths

Second-generation white papers – color

Third-generation white papers – project timelines

Fourth-generation white papers – the executive summary

White paper content considerations

Website

What is this and how does it work?

Token details

Blogs

Team

The hacker, hustler, and hipster

Advisors

Summary

9. Social Media and Influencers

The deeper meaning of being social

What is social media?

How has social media arisen?

Why is social media important?

Your brand, your voice, your face, and your profile

Organization

ORS®

Open

Random

Supportive

ORS® and social media

Case study: Thomas Power

Twitter

So what does the future hold?

Where is social media going?

Social media in ICOs

Factom

Influencers

People are more interested in who you are than what you do

What's the relationship between influencers and ICOs?

Influencers in the crypto community

YouTube influencers

Ian Balina

Influencer ICO platforms

Kylie Jenner

Summary

10. Marketing and the launch

The state of ICO marketing

Don't underestimate the workload

Key campaign elements and phases

Build-up to brand/site launch

Build-up to seed funding (private pre-sale)

Build-up to the public ICO

Post-ICO and ongoing community development and engagement

The message and tools

Quality of the brand and the presentation

Mind your grammar

Products with real users

Pay-per-click

Alternative social media

Telegram

Email marketing

The community

Partnerships

Public relations

Networking into investor groups – without this, the ICO dies

Bitcointalk

Bounty campaigns

Signature campaigns

Airdrops

The launch

ICO listings and ratings

Events

GDPR and marketing

Summary

11. Voices of the ICO World

ICO expert voice – Nick Ayton, founder 21Million TV, Chainstarter

ICO expert voice – Jonathan Fry, CEO TeamBlockchain, and member of the British Blockchain Assoc...