brypto

"Governance" and "utility" aren't real token categories. What matters is their built in and inalienable (inherent) properties. You can't pray your token into being seen as a "store of value".

But you *can* create a decentralized network-marketplace with an integrated token that can be issued for incentives + capture fees for programmatic buybacks. This is a network token.

are there any success stories of creating a token first and then building a protocol around it? or is it just one of those crypto fantasies

protocol eng @ recallnet.twitter, interested in verifiable computing, mod /zk; avichalp.me

ETH, right? I don’t think the token needs to launch first, though. Either order can work but I believe token a bit later is ideal if possible.

CTO @a16zcrypto, lover of https://github.com/a16z/awesome-farcaster

interesting that you say ETH. i always thought ETH is a by product of running a fully validated virtual machine in a distributed way. same for most other L1s i believe

i was curious about the case where someone launches a token first and then iterate over the protocol design to find utility for the token

ETH is that but another way to put it is that's a decentralized network-marketplace (DNM) for blockspace. Any time there's a DMN, there's an opportunity for a token.

It's possible for the protocol to change over time. ETH has, and ETH's economic loop was only closed years after launch with EIP-1559 (via the burn).