Tokenomics, Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs), and stake pools present a new paradigm that challenges traditional organisational structures. Creating a platform that gives multiple independent parties a way to agree on the state of affairs around something of value and transact with confidence is powerful. Co-ordinating people to design and develop these platforms to achieve shared objectives is what is at the heart of using tools like Canvases, Cards, Maps and Calculators as a token engineer.
Novel entities characterised by shared governance, distributed incentives, and collective profit-sharing, managed through tokens and smart contracts mark the departure from the centralised models of the past. Yet, at their core, the fundamental requirement remains unchanged: the creation of value through products or services that resonate with people's needs and desires.
Traditional tools like the Business Model Canvas or the Lean Canvas have been widely adopted in the business world as collaborative frameworks, enabling structured dialogues around the critical components of designing and analysing organisations. These canvases facilitate building team cohesion and consensus on vision, strategy, and execution, proving invaluable in the alignment of objectives and the clarification of business models. The transition to newer canvases, such as those tailored for platform design and tokenomics, does not diminish the relevance of these tools. Rather, it emphasises the need for a foundational understanding of value creation before venturing into the complexities of token-based ecosystems.
Maps, Cards and Calculators are also pivotal in the design phase of developing token economics. These tools offer a tangible means to visualise, quantify, and iterate on the fundamental aspects of token design and distribution.
Cards, with their succinct and accessible format, foster collaborative brainstorming and ideation, enabling stakeholders to explore various token utility models, governance structures, and incentive mechanisms in a participatory and dynamic setting. They can demystify the complexity of tokenomics, making the abstract concrete and the intangible tangible.
Simultaneously, Calculators bring a layer of analytical rigor to the process, allowing for the simulation of token economies under different scenarios and assumptions. These tools provide a quantitative backbone to the qualitative insights garnered from the Cards, enabling teams to model token velocity, supply dynamics, and economic incentives with precision.
Following organisational design using canvases, the creative exploration with Cards and the empirical validation through Calculators, the abstraction of the value chain with a Wardley Map adds another dimension to the design process. Wardley Maps provide a high-level view of the landscape, mapping out the value chain in a way that highlights dependencies, identifies strategic opportunities, and anticipates market evolution. This tool enables engineers alongside teams to place their tokenomics within the broader context of their service or product ecosystem, understanding not just how components interact, but also where innovation is most needed and where commoditisation is taking place. By situating token-based initiatives on a Wardley Map, the complex interplay between technology, market forces, and user needs can be navigated with greater clarity. This strategic vantage point ensures that token designs are technically sound, economically viable, well positioned in the wider operating context and strategically aligned with the long-term objectives of the system being designed.
The interplay between Canvases, Cards, Maps and Calculators ensures a balanced and comprehensive approach to token design, combining creative exploration with empirical validation. This synergy enhances the robustness of token economic models, aligns them more closely with the organisations value creation goals, the broader ecosystem's needs and brings clarity to everyone involved in the platforms creation. By integrating these tools into the design phase, token models that are not only innovative but also grounded in real-world applicability and sustainability can be crafted.