Then you are not the target audience. Every small business or community can be tokenized, just like every small business can have a website. Tokenization could encourage repeat visits, community virility and vested interest, not to mention investment.
* Distribute tokens to partners (product / gift manufacturers). Partners with vested interest in the success of a company could be much less likely to sever relations as it will hurt their investment.
* Distribute tokens to customers as a type of rebate. Like a loyalty program that encourages patronship.
* Use tokens to vote on what products should be sold. Many gift shops sell pipes and other drug related items. This decision would sink other family oriented shops. What would your customers like?
* Distribute tokens to the locals as an attempt to build virility and community around your shop.
* Distribute tokens to employees as a way to recognize accomplishments. Ever get a few bonus stock from your company for doing good work over the week? Me neither.
* Sell tokens to raise funds.
* Set budgets based on community votes.
The list is endless and these are rough ideas. Look for ways to align business interests and customer interests.
Most of these (e.g. rewards, distributing to locals/employees, sell to raise funds, etc.) rest on the idea that the token has value, which begs the question.
Many also have existing solutions that are well-understood (e.g. loyalty programs tied to phone numbers).
And, what happens when every business has its own tokens? Who wants to track/manage all of that? Seems like a recipe for token fatigue.
>Look for ways to align business interests and customer interests.
In general, seems like token advocates look for ways to wedge a token into an interaction. Not saying there are no use cases, but there's a lot of "solution looking for a problem" happening.
The token will have value based on there being value in the company or asset being tokenized. You can't start a coffee shop but can own some of the coffee shop down the street.
What are we here for if not to share in the risk and success of the endeavours we support?
>The token will have value based on there being value in the company or asset being tokenized.
The token doesn't de facto inherit the value of the business. That would only be true to the extent that the token represents a claim on assets or profits or other tangible benefit; in other words when the token acts like a security, in which case we have already solved that. There is also a co-op model that exists and conveys some of this benefit.
I don't know what a token adds to these scenarios, and in fact are not even legal in the US to act as securities unless the buyers are accredited (most people are not). Sure, until recently, the token has made it easier to skirt non-accredited investor status and other regulatory matters, but it doesn't make it legal or a better solution and, in any case, the SEC is moving in on that.
I appreciate the spirit of what you're saying, and want it to be true. It's just not currently the case.
Yes there are barriers and plenty of reasons why it wouldn't work. I agree it's not currently the case, thanks for thinking about the possibilities, not many do.
The tokens must be valuable but that will be shaped by the market forces. I'd love to buy some of the potential profit in my local coffee shop but I won't buy if it's backed by nothing.
> * Distribute tokens to partners (product / gift manufacturers). Partners with vested interest in the success of a company could be much less likely to sever relations as it will hurt their investment.
= stock or partial ownership.
> * Distribute tokens to customers as a type of rebate. Like a loyalty program that encourages patronship.
= rebates.
> * Use tokens to vote on what products should be sold. Many gift shops sell pipes and other drug related items. This decision would sink other family oriented shops. What would your customers like?
= surveys.
> * Distribute tokens to the locals as an attempt to build virility and community around your shop.
= flyers, ads, etc.
> * Distribute tokens to employees as a way to recognize accomplishments. Ever get a few bonus stock from your company for doing good work over the week? Me neither.
= bonuses/stock options
> * Sell tokens to raise funds.
= IPOs or kickstarters.
> * Set budgets based on community votes.
= surveys
Literally everything you've listed is a solved problem.
The only thing on here that might benefit from being a cryptocoin is the rebates idea: that's because rebates depend on some customers not cashing in their rebate. So if you make it harder to cash in your rebates by using a worse technology which is hard to use like cryptocoins, fewer users will cash in their rebates. However, this is a sleazy business practice, and if capitalism works as it should, sleazy companies offering rebates in the hope that people won't claim them should go out of business, so hopefully this would result in bad publicity and this business strategy would backfire.
Gift cards are very limited. The tech behind gift card usage is extremely insufficient. Things like checking balance is often not even possible with a public API layer.
Tokens are very limited. Things like checking the balance is often not even possible for a nontechnical user (i.e. the vast majority of users), who doesn't care about API layers. You can implement software to make this friendlier, but you can do that with gift cards too, and the gift card technologies are already mature.
Not only is this a solution in search of a problem, it's a solution which hasn't found a problem, and is being shoehorned onto problems it actually exacerbates. If you're running a business, the last thing you want is for your business' systems to be decentralized, because that means you don't have control over them. There's literally only downsides for the business.
This would also enable seamless gift card exchanges. Currently secondary markets exist for gift cards, but they take ~10% margin to account for the high fraud risk, holding time, etc.
