Wielding Promethean Fire — The Importance of Token Engineering Public Goods
Image edited from Prometheus’ Fire by Zotto123
We are in an unprecedented time of socioeconomic revolution and innovation, where machine learning, algorithmic design and automation can be used to create powerful incentive networks. With great power comes great responsibility, and we cannot wield this power responsibly without a deeper understanding of how these complex systems operate.
Together, we must examine our collective hubris and figure out how to light the way forward without getting burned by this new “Promethean fire.” We propose that journey starts with the advent of ethical #TokenEngineering design.
The Problems of Building without Engineering
To·ken En·gi·neer·ing /ˈtōkən/ /enjəˈniriNG/
1. An emerging engineering discipline focused on holistic systems design and the theory, practice and tools used to design and verify tokenized ecosystems i.e. cyptoeconomic systems and their simulation using tools like cadCAD.
2. A discipline of responsibility; adhering to the highest principles of ethical conduct (from ethical engineering)
3. A community pushing forward the field of token engineering in theory and practice. (See more Modeling Crypto Protocols as Complex Systems, TE Process)
The term engineering is derived from the Latin ingenium, meaning “cleverness” and ingeniare, meaning “to contrive, devise”.
The engineering discipline has a strong ethical responsibility to society. When we design bridges, cell phones, or power grids, we employ engineering principles and practices to ensure the safety of those who use them. Why should our cyber-physical socio-economic infrastructure be any different?
Complex systems (like crypto economic networks) have the tendency to produce unintended consequences, despite the best intentions of well-meaning designers. For instance, only 30 countries in the world consume more electricity than the Bitcoin network, and about 50% of the network is controlled by two mining pools — is that what Satoshi expected, when writing the Bitcoin whitepaper? With this awareness, and new modelling and simulation tools like cadCAD, we can test our assumptions and understand the impacts of the decisions that go into designing and maintaining token ecosystems.
There should be careful attention paid to the design and parameterization of these systems, their incentive and governance mechanisms, system boundaries and cultural frameworks to provide not only freedom, but safety.
Right now, the tools and knowledge of this field are underdeveloped and inaccessible to most of the wider blockchain and crypto space. Projects and organizations are launching token economies based on untested assumptions, without employing the due process of modeling and design validation — engineering standards are hard to come by. Many projects are focused on building single mechanisms or “Decentralied Finance (DeFi) legos” without looking at holistic systems design, and where these mechanisms could break down when linked together. This leads to systemic risk and repeated errors.
In addition to a lack of technical considerations, many of these new economic systems lack cultural and governance frameworks to responsibly handle decision making to support the growth of these nascent token economies.
There is incredible innovation coming out of DeFi, but in order to realize the true potential of crypto-economic systems and improve algorithmic policy making towards computer-aided governance, we must advance the field of token engineering. To do so, we must covest* in the development of open source models, modular tools, standards and education, as well as cultural frameworks for these budding communities, protocols and platforms.
*Covestment is a term coined by Michael Linton to describe a distinct and powerful new opportunity for community and network financing.
Lighting the Way with a Knowledge Commons
“I like to think of Token Engineers as digital civil engineers of the economies of tomorrow. We are creating new spaces of thought and science. Not just the evolution of finance but the emergence of new digital societies that need similar forethought and design validation for their infrastructure as their physical analogs.”
— Jake Cassini, Token Engineering Commons Steward
Advancing Token Engineering is the mission of the TE Commons. It will support the creation of Token Engineering public goods via coordination and funding — a regenerative knowledge commons within the TEC economy. We are exploring DeFi from both scientific and ethical perspectives to enable communities to deploy resilient tokenized infrastructures to support their goals.
The TE Commons is a “win-win” economy primed to advance the field of Token Engineering by supporting proposals like these and the creation of:
Although we are supporting TE public goods, this endeavor can generate wealth**. However, because we have employed cultural initialization tools and are using token engineering design and regenerative mechanisms, the collective can benefit while the individual benefits.
**See “Ending Our Collective Psychosis Around Public Goods,” a talk by Griff Green at ETH Denver 2021
Sharing Sustainable Design Solutions & Resources
Acknowledging our shared responsibility to steward this new technology is the first step. While early tools are just emerging in this nascent discipline (cadCAD, TokenSpice, and Le Grand Jeu are a few examples), there is a huge need to expand the education, tooling and resources available to eager new generations of token engineers, who aren’t satisfied with the status quo.
We need explorable virtual libraries, unified standards, new economic primitives, reusable open source models and audited smart contracts to match. We need an army of data scientists to model and simulate the bleeding edge innovations in the DeFi space to identify design weaknesses. These computer-aided simulations can operate like flight simulators to support token engineers in making adjustments to their systems (token economies) as needed, even in real-time. With this, we can document optimum patterns to make sure objectives and systems meet specifications.
We need to scale education and create gamified learning platforms for Token Engineering education (like Crypto Zombies and Vyper.fun). We need a knowledge base of cultural frameworks and best practices — building on the initial “Soft Gov” work of the TEC — in integrating Ostrom’s principles into token ecosystems to support the success of their economies.
We must apply our collective energies to the task, pooling our resources and knowledge to be more responsible, intentional and conscious in our application of these powerful technologies.
Our Shared Challenge
The best way forward is to develop a culture that supports the development of engineering ethics and standards for Web3 ecosystems. A regenerative economy that funds public goods and fuels a knowledge commons — a rising tide to lift all of our socioeconomic boats. A community that accelerates Token Engineering practices, enabling a huge leap forward in the maturity and evolution of the blockchain technology space.
These scientific and cultural explorations are already underway but this pioneering work needs to be accelerated and shared.
This is only the beginning — will you join us?
🌱Join the Mission🌱
The Token Engineering Commons community, ecosystem friends, and partners are open to sharing and connecting work around this vision. We look forward to continuing to build bridges between networks, DAOs, commons, communities, institutions, academia and others around the world.
We warmly welcome you to join and share:
👋 Pop by our Discord or Telegram channels, introduce yourself and share what you are working on
☎ Say hi on our weekly community calls at 2pm EST / 8pm CET on our general voice channel on Discord — add it to your calendar
💸 Submit a proposal for funding for your TE project
📑 Read more about our working groups and join one
📣 Follow us on Twitter & Medium to stay up to date on the upcoming hatch
Special thanks to Jeff Emmett, Griff Green, Kris Jones for their contributions to this piece and Simon de la Rouviere, Michael Zargham, Trent McConaghy, Angela Kreitenweis, Sebnem Rusitschka, and Livia Deschermayer for their ideas and pioneering work in this field! 🙏
