Decision tree on Token Design
This questionnaire is based on research paper “To Token or not to Token: Tools for Understanding Blockchain Tokens” written by Luis Oliveira, Liudmila Zavolokina, Ingrid Bauer and Gerhard Schwabe of the University of Zurich.
This decision tree was conducted in the context of an academic research project at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) where 16 blockchain projects with tokens in their business model were thoroughly and qualitatively analysed. The output of this research lead to the conclusion that the token economy tends to be more complex than it looks on first sight. Not only are there increasing token types with innovative business models, but also there are increasing efforts to compose token “use cases” in order to increase their inherent worth. A token with composed utility is in theory a token with higher worth. Because of this, the decision tree delivers a good solution as it is a tool which allows for the mapping / juxtaposition of concurrent use cases. This also helps understand the complexity of the token economy through the use of archetypes which are patterns observed in real-world tokens. It also opens the door to further archetypes which future research could uncover.
Luis Oliveira