#代币经济学与设计 Looking at the ten questions and answers on the eve of Lighter's token launch, what comes to mind is the trajectory of projects over the past decade—from passionate beginnings to cooling off. Vladimir’s responses on tokenomics remind me of the grand visions in 2017 that ultimately failed due to poorly designed incentive mechanisms.

What prompts the most reflection is the points system and the witch hunt. They cut points from accounts involved in wash trading, which is fine in itself; the problem is—this exposes the illusion of early growth. I’ve seen too many projects pile up fake prosperity during subsidy phases, only for active user metrics to plummet sharply once real money starts flowing. Lighter claims that transaction fees exceeded expectations after the fee cap was introduced; this data is interesting, but I need a longer timeline to determine whether this reflects genuine demand or just another cycle.

The design of unified collateral and multi-asset staking is also a repeat of history. Giants like Compound and Aave have already explored this path, and they’ve encountered many pitfalls—liquidation mechanisms, risk models, ADL mechanisms—any misstep in these areas could trigger a black swan event. Vladimir’s phrase "step-by-step progress" sounds cautious, but in the face of market cycles, caution sometimes means falling behind.

What truly attracts me is his thinking on business model innovation—zero-fee models, prioritizing retail users. This reminds me of the innovations in 2014 that truly changed the industry, which weren’t about technological breakthroughs but about redefining value distribution. If this logic can be truly closed-looped in tokenomics—retail-first driving volume, volume attracting institutions, and institutional entry stabilizing the system—that would be a cyclical breakthrough worth watching.

However, I must say, a 50% community token allocation is no longer novel today. The issue has never been the allocation ratio itself but the subsequent governance and value accumulation. Too many projects decline after token launch because they underestimate the ongoing innovation costs needed to sustain ecosystem vitality.

When TGE actually lands and we observe the liquidity and token holding structure in the first week, that will be the real beginning of this project’s story.