Could TOA do an ICO? Should you?
We started a thought experiment at TOA wondering what a conference would look like that has been tokenized from the start. Could it better incentivise contributors (speakers, volunteers, partners) to participate at an event? Does a token based ICO even make sense for a conference business? Or would an equity based ICO get our community better rallied behind our cause?
Many founders are currently wondering whether an ICO makes sense for their product and if so, how they would best structure it (equity vs token, foundation set up, etc.)
We decided to start a podcast series to explore these questions TOA-style: in an open and collaborative way.
TOA & THE CHAIN
Blockchain technology has been a featured topic on TOA stages since 2013, with some of the most prominent experts sharing their knowledge with our community over the years. Amongst these: Gavin Wood (Co-Founder Ethereum & Parity), Kathleen Breitman (Founder, Tezos), Dominik Schiener (Co-Founder, IOTA Foundation), Fabian Vogelsteller (DApp lead, Ethereum), Trent McConaghy (Founder, BigchainDB), Mike Hearn (Former Full-time Bitcoin Core Developer) and Nicolas Carey (Co-Founder, Blockchain.com).
Measured by the number of talks per theme, blockchain and crypto were the most ubiquitous themes at both TOA16 and TOA17.
Naturally, we have followed recent developments surrounding ICOs and the tokenization of platforms with great interest and started wondering whether an ICO would make sense for a conference or festival.
This might sound counter-intuitive. After all we are not even a pure online product. You may think that we drank too much of that Kool Aid and are jumping on the hype train without merit.
But hear me out!
There are 2 reasons why we want to dig deeper and see if an ICO would fit to TOA and its community.
- TOA is a community driven Platform
From the start our mission has been to provide a platform for interdisciplinary knowledge exchange and collaboration. Our journey to build this platform has been community driven from Day 1. We crowdsourced not just our first logo but the entire concept of TOA via open town hall meetings and in 2012 became Europe’s first crowdfunded event.
Our goal since has been to build a platform that acts as infrastructure for others to build upon. Our 200+ satellite events and dozens of interactive formats run by third parties on site are a testament to that.
Could a token provide a better incentivisation structure for our community to get actively involved at our events?
2. TOA wants to build a dedicated platform for the Blockchain / Crypto World
In the last few years we have witnessed the thirst of many of our attendees to explore the themes surrounding the blockchain and crypto worlds further.
In order to better serve this growing interest of our community, we would like to build a dedicated conference around these themes within the next 12 months. What better city than Berlin to build Europe’s leading blockchain conference!
Now the question is: how would a new conference look like if it was tokenized from the start?
Join the Exploration!
We want to explore these questions with the world’s leading experts but also with you, our community. Just like we did when we started TOA in 2012, we want to make the exploration an open one. We will create a podcast series, featuring our most insightful conversations with leading experts for you to learn more about the nature and opportunities surrounding the token economy.
Feel free to share your questions on ICOs in general and above all please share any ideas you may have on how to improve the experience of a tokenized platform such as TOA or its new blockchain format.
We see this as an exciting thought experiment in order to improve knowledge exchange and collaboration within our community and add more value to the European tech and startup ecosystem.
Whether we will eventually do an ICO is still uncertain. But we want to explore that path the way TOA has always done such things: openly.
To follow our upcoming expert discussions and engage in the exploration, please follow us here:
TOA.LIFE (Medium) / SoundCloud / YouTube
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
Feel free to also drop me a mail in case you’d like to share something one-on-one.
Niko
(Founder of TOA)
