让加密代币变得有用且公平

Jake Chervinsky 和 ​​Rebecca Rettig 表示，创始人应该优先考虑让代币变得有用和公平，而不是解析 Howey 测试。

Making Crypto Tokens Useful and Fair

让加密代币变得有用且公平

Instead of parsing the Howey Test, founders should prioritize making tokens useful and fair, say Jake Chervinsky and Rebecca Rettig.

Jake Chervinsky 和 ​​Rebecca Rettig 表示，创始人应该优先考虑让代币变得有用和公平，而不是解析 Howey 测试。

Let’s be honest: when it comes to launching new tokens, the landscape is pretty rough. We’ve seen the same sad storyline play out repeatedly this year. Projects hype a token with limited or no fundamental utility, distribute a small number to the public at a high valuation, and then watch as the market price crashes toward zero.

老实说：在推出新代币时，情况相当艰难。今年我们已经看到同样的悲伤故事不断上演。项目炒作一种基本效用有限或没有基本效用的代币，以高估值向公众发行少量代币，然后眼睁睁地看着市场价格跌向零。

Many blame “regulatory uncertainty” for this problematic pattern, arguing that only memecoins can survive the hostility of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and that there’s no way for crypto founders to launch exciting projects – and tokens that may be necessary or supportive of that project — without violating the federal securities laws.

许多人将这种有问题的模式归咎于“监管不确定性”，认为只有 memecoin 才能经受住美国证券交易委员会 (SEC) 的敌意，加密货币创始人无法推出令人兴奋的项目 - 以及可能是必要或支持性的代币该项目的——不违反联邦证券法。

We don’t agree.

我们不同意。

We spend a lot of time talking to founders about how to develop a regulatory compliance strategy and prepare for SEC scrutiny when launching new tokens. You might expect two lawyers to address that issue by diving deep into the Howey Test, explaining why a court opinion about apartments in the 1970s means a token isn’t a security, or devising a complex corporate structure that requires a diagram to understand.

我们花了很多时间与创始人讨论如何制定监管合规策略并为推出新代币时接受 SEC 审查做好准备。您可能期望两位律师通过深入研究 Howey 测试来解决这个问题，解释为什么法院关于 20 世纪 70 年代公寓的意见意味着代币不是证券，或者设计一个需要图表才能理解的复杂公司结构。

So now what is the focus? Something much more important: be a good actor and build tools people want.

那么现在的焦点是什么？更重要的是：成为一个好演员并构建人们想要的工具。

We recommend founders start by stepping back from the details of the law and answering two questions: how do you make the token useful, and how do you make it fair?

我们建议创始人首先从法律细节上退一步，回答两个问题：如何使代币变得有用，以及如何使其公平？

Make the token useful

让令牌有用

What does it mean for a token to be useful? The best heuristic is whether people want to hold it for some reason other than as an investment. For example, some tokens grant access to blockchain-based products or services, similar to how baseball tickets grant access to a game. Other tokens coordinate human decision-making, as with governance tokens, or incentivize human work, as with base layer infrastructure tokens. And even other tokens memorialize contributions to a system, whether it be data or something else valuable (but that isn’t an investment).

令牌有用意味着什么？最好的启发是人们是否出于投资以外的其他原因想要持有它。例如，某些代币授予对基于区块链的产品或服务的访问权限，类似于棒球门票授予对比赛的访问权限的方式。其他代币可以协调人类决策（如治理代币），或激励人类工作（如基础层基础设施代币）。甚至其他代币也会纪念对系统的贡献，无论是数据还是其他有价值的东西（但这不是投资）。

There are many useful tokens in crypto, but the archetype is the original: bitcoin. Bitcoin is useful as decentralized money enabling peer-to-peer payments for the world. It is also useful for providing decentralized security for the Bitcoin blockchain — without bitcoin the asset, Bitcoin the network could not exist. That utility is coded directly into the design of the Bitcoin protocol, which incentivizes people to contribute valuable work in the form of mining.

加密货币中有许多有用的代币，但原型是原始的：比特币。比特币作为去中心化货币非常有用，可以为世界提供点对点支付。它对于为比特币区块链提供去中心化安全也很有用——没有比特币这种资产，比特币网络就不可能存在。该实用程序直接编码到比特币协议的设计中，从而激励人们以挖矿的形式贡献有价值的工作。

Similarly, decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) tokens have proven particularly useful. DePIN projects use public blockchains to create decentralized networks of hardware operators who contribute resources such as data storage or wireless connectivity. The success of a DePIN project depends on incentivizing operators around the world to participate in the network, and tokens are uniquely suited to achieve that goal. Unlike traditional payment rails — which are slow, expensive, offchain, and gated by geographic borders — tokens can bring operators on-chain efficiently and effectively no matter where they are in the world.

同样，去中心化物理基础设施网络（DePIN）代币已被证明特别有用。 DePIN 项目使用公共区块链创建硬件运营商的去中心化网络，这些运营商贡献数据存储或无线连接等资源。 DePIN 项目的成功取决于激励世界各地的运营商参与网络，而代币非常适合实现这一目标。与传统的支付方式不同（缓慢、昂贵、离线且受地理边界限制），代币可以让运营商高效、有效地进入链上，无论他们身在世界何处。

Make the token fair

让代币公平

A major goal of crypto is to build transparent systems that are secure, accessible, and equitable for everyone. Yet, many tokens have been tarnished by “low float, high FDV” mechanics and other issues that give insiders an unfair advantage over the public. Few things will slow the momentum behind a new token faster than treating retail holders worse than insiders or institutions.

加密货币的一个主要目标是构建对每个人都安全、可访问且公平的透明系统。然而，许多代币因“低流通量、高 FDV”机制和其他问题而受到玷污，这些问题使内部人士相对于公众具有不公平的优势。没有什么比对待散户持有者比内部人士或机构更糟糕更能减缓新代币背后的势头了。

What does it mean for a token to be fair? The best measure is the front page test: will you be proud if your project becomes a huge success and all of the behind-the-scenes details are shared on the front page of a major newspaper? If not, you have some work to do.

代币公平意味着什么？最好的衡量标准是头版测试：如果您的项目取得巨大成功并且所有幕后细节都在主要报纸的头版上分享，您会感到自豪吗？如果没有，您还有一些工作要做。

One of the biggest pitfalls for new tokens is “decentralization theater” — when token creators pretend to build permissionless or community-governed projects in order to foster affinity with the public, but actually maintain control over the project in secret or, equally as bad, gives a disproportionate amount of the tokens to insiders (and not only investors).

新代币的最大陷阱之一是“去中心化剧场”——当代币创建者假装构建未经许可或社区治理的项目以培养与公众的亲和力时，但实际上却秘密地保持对项目的控制，或者同样糟糕的是，向内部人士（而不仅仅是投资者）提供不成比例的代币。

Engaging in decentralization theater is not only unfair to token holders who may be deceived about the nature of the asset that they own, but also could be characterized as fraud by regulators or private plaintiffs. Honesty about every single aspect of a project is paramount. One of the most crucial regulatory advancements that could be achieved is an industry standard for disclosures about projects and their related tokens, and we encourage projects to think about how to be painfully transparent with the community.

参与去中心化的行为不仅对代币持有者不公平，他们可能会在自己拥有的资产的性质上受到欺骗，而且还可能被监管机构或私人原告定性为欺诈。对项目每个方面的诚实至关重要。可以实现的最重要的监管进步之一是项目及其相关代币披露的行业标准，我们鼓励项目考虑如何对社区保持痛苦的透明。

The “cost of doing business” in this industry is an expectation that regulators will take notice of successful projects and ask questions sooner or later. Founders should be preparing for those conversations on day one by building in good faith and working hard to do what’s right. Focusing on fairness and transparency may not be easy, but will pay extraordinary dividends in the long run.

该行业的“经营成本”是指监管机构迟早会注意到成功项目并提出问题的预期。创始人应该在第一天就为这些对话做好准备，真诚地建设并努力做正确的事情。关注公平和透明度可能并不容易，但从长远来看会带来非凡的回报。

These considerations will benefit the industry overall from a

这些考虑因素将使整个行业受益