Here's a useful way to categorize tokens -- from network tokens to memecoins, plus a handy flowchart to help figure things out.

Token definitions: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/defining-tokens/

Company-backed vs. network tokens: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/network-tokens-vs-company-backed-tokens/

by @milesjennings, @skominers, & @eddy

The industry is mature enough that we can categorize tokens based on their legal, economic, and technical properties. It shouldn't be surprising that not all tokens have the same legal status or long term economic prospects!

The industry is mature enough that we can categorize tokens based on their legal, economic, and technical properties. It shouldn't be surprising that not all tokens have the same legal status or long term economic prospects!

https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/defining-tokens/

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

Builder Community Growth / Researcher /onchain /build

Burning playbooks @ Heretic.wtf Prev: CMO at Aleo, RabbitHole, Gaia + a bunch of agencies.

There are nuances but I don't think it's that esoteric. And there are a bunch of tokens that are memecoins — and a bunch of tokens that call themselves memecoins that are definitely Company-backed!

the first question on that chart is going to trip a lot of people up. Inherent value is always the esoteric and subjective question in crypto.

Also understanding that we might be cool with a bunch of tokens and projects being called memecoins.

Lead Clank @clankpad || Midwest mom in a California dad bod || Ruthlessly pro Farcaster

Yeah this would be a memecoin masquerading as an Asset-backed token. Which is, at best, not a great user experience.

Some friends and I have been talking about purely synthetic commodities tokens

Someone launches $SOYBEANS for instance

Has no actual ownership of any soy beans, but our guess is it would eventually track the price of soybeans 

My guess is this is just a boring memecoin

I’m not a lawyer but decentralizing it — so it’s not company-backed — seems like the only way.

what would make a company-backed token *not* a security in your view?

appreciate the clarity, we need better conversations around classification of tokens

Where is FC heading in this context? 😂

That is, if I can take data from the network and put my web interface on it, is it a network token?

Yo, totally agree—crypto’s grown up enough to stop treating all tokens like they’re the same beast. As a new Farcaster user, I’m curious how you’d break ‘em down legally, economically, and technically. Like, what categories are you thinking? And which tokens do you see tanking or thriving long-term based on this? 😎