BlankDAO and Smart Irrelevant Questions I
Before buying Blank Tokens, investors usually ask about their utility. Mostly because it is commonly believed in blockchain community that tokens are valuable due to their utility, and the more utility tokens have the more valuable they are. But, utility is the source of value only in blockchain era. Value has had different sources throughout history and might have new ones in the future.
Let’s rewind back to 8 years ago where there was no talk of blockchain. Altcoins were booming and starting to compete with Bitcoin. Value assessment for altcoins was never done according to their utilities though. Being used as gas in a network did not matter at all. So how did they assess the value of tokens then?
In fact, there was no talk of tokens back then. There was Bitcoin and a bunch of altcoins. What mattered back then was limited supply and earlier mass adoption. The only way for Altcoins to compete for a small part of Bitcoin’s market was to feature technical superiorities. Some were ASIC resistant. Others had lower transaction fees. Another group had better privacy, etc.
A transition from Bitcoin and altcoins to a new generation of blockchains, smart contracts, DApps, and tokens changed value assessment to great extents. Utility started to matter only in this new age. Ether, for instance, was believed to be valuable due to its utility as gas for running DApps on Ethereum’s global computer.
In other words, if Ether is assessed in the eyes of previous generations it is empty of any value due to its gradual tokens minting model and its consequent unlimited supply. The point is that you cannot assess the value of tokens from different eras based on the criteria from other eras.
This is not exclusive to the transition of Bitcoin and altcoins to Ethereum and blockchains. The value source for Bitcoin was famously a controversial topic mainly due to its value assessments based on traditional viewpoints.
‘Mining’, for instance, was a successful marketing expression because many believed that ‘work’ is the root of value in all assets. This conceptual organization of ‘proof of work’ and ‘block mining’ helped people whose minds still worked in traditional ways accept the value of Bitcoins. That is such a powerful illusion that there are still Bitcoin maximalists who think energy waste is the root of Bitcoin’s value.
The concept of money and the root of its value has been a historical debate through time. Lots of revolutionary changes have influenced people’s take on money in history. If you had told your ancestors how paper bills and other modern instances of money will have value, they would have considered you insane.
So, let’s get back to our main recurring question. What is the utility of Blank Tokens?
Like Bitcoin’s clever ‘mining’ concept, we could easily discuss Blank Tokens’ utility by considering it as collateral for issuing stablecoins in BlankDAO ecosystem. When the ecosystem evolves and DApps start to kick in, the use for the stablecoin increases and the demand for Blank Tokens as collateral rises accordingly.
That being said, asking about Blank Tokens’ utility is, in fact, a smart but irrelevant question that made more sense in the previous generation of Ethereum and blockchains. BlankDAO introduces the next generation of the decentralized world and has an organizational viewpoint. New generations have new value assessment methods. Accordingly, a better question would be: “where is the value of Blank Tokens rooted in?”
To answer that question, first we need to clarify the value assessment method in this new generation of DAOs and organizational viewpoint towards the decentralized world. As is the case for all aspects of BlankDAO, the answer remains ‘Blank’ so that everyone gets a say and a door is opened towards a great discussion.
Please do not hesitate to share what you think in the comments section below and let everyone else know about it. We’ll gradually put the comments in this article and evolve it step by step.
