Currency is just one of the attributes

Crypto economies

January 7, 2019February 19, 2019

Over the weekend, I was reading the cryptoeconomic circle post by Joel Monegro in which he gives a great break-down of the players in a crypto-network and their roles. As he writes himself “none of these ideas may strike you as new”, but the insight for me was:

“For example, it helped me see crypto networks as systems for exchanging labor for capital (vs. currency), the fundamental concepts of network capital, and what the different roles are for investors like us in the development of these new economies.”

That hits the mark for me. I’ve been always bothered by the focus on the currency – and subsequent valuation – aspect of crypto networks. I think the idea of creating local economies is much more interesting.

I kind of hinted towards that in my post about the valuation of crypto companies earlier, but I’m still working through understanding it myself. I really like the concept of a local economy where the value is created in different places and not necessarily by user adoption alone. The crypto network itself represents the value.

As much as marketplaces itself have local economies and create value beyond the centralized place of the market. Amazon’s economic impact goes far beyond its website and warehouses.