David Pakman, managing partner at crypto venture capital firm CoinFund, said the industry still hasn't solved one of its biggest tokenomics challenges: creating native tokens whose value is closely tied to the long-term success of the underlying network or product.
Pakman argues many crypto tokens continue to trade primarily on online narratives rather than the economic performance of the networks behind them, creating uncertainty for contributors weighing immediate compensation against long-term exposure to a project's native token.
"It's this battle between economic incentive in the task you're doing to help build out a network and short-termism versus long-termism view on when you want that return paid to you," Pakman said Tuesday during an appearance on The Block's The Starting Block podcast. "If you're taking a longer-term perspective and you're helping build a network, and you think the future value of the network will be very high relative to today's current price, well then you'd love to be paid in some native token."
Pakman, who also serves as CoinFund's Head of Venture Investing, suggested projects could instead pay contributors in stablecoins, allowing nascent networks to attract participants less willing to bet on the long-term value of a native token.
