CESC2017 – Sinclair Davidson – What is a Token?

Posted on 6:00 pm, October 30, 2017 by Sinclair Davidson

This entry was posted in Cryptoeconomics. Bookmark the permalink.

19 Responses to CESC2017 – Sinclair Davidson – What is a Token?

  1. JC
    #2537790, posted on October 30, 2017 at 6:21 pm

    Cool look Sinc. Closely shaved head, though not zero. T-shirt and sport coats. Very southern California cool.

  2. Infidel Tiger 2.0 (Premium Content Subscribers Only)
    #2537796, posted on October 30, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    Looks like a cool young fella pitching a start up.

  3. bemused
    #2537800, posted on October 30, 2017 at 6:31 pm

    What is a token?

    adjective
    1.
    done for the sake of appearances or as a symbolic gesture.

    Malcolm Turnbull – PM

  4. RobK
    #2537801, posted on October 30, 2017 at 6:32 pm

    I thought that was an excellent delivery. Well done.

  5. Baldrick
    #2537820, posted on October 30, 2017 at 6:50 pm

    I can hear the Kittehs saying under their breath, “Damn that wedding ring!”

  6. Shine a Light
    #2537845, posted on October 30, 2017 at 7:18 pm

    In the film industry, the token guys on the riğht are James Wood and Morgan Freeman.

  7. Jumpnmcar
    #2537864, posted on October 30, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    Judging by the q and a, the audience were as clueless as me with the subject.
    I think we’ll need a PragerU type vid to help.

  8. Empire GTHO Phase III
    #2537894, posted on October 30, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    Satorial crimes aside, great delivery.

    All the best for the new initiative.

  9. Elle
    #2537942, posted on October 30, 2017 at 8:42 pm

    Who’s a gorgeous trimmed-down hunk of Keynesian anti-dote.

  10. candy
    #2537946, posted on October 30, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    Cool look Sinc. Closely shaved head, though not zero. T-shirt and sport coats. Very southern California cool.

    A collared buttoned up shirt would be more appropriate. The jacket is nice and suits him.

  11. C.L.
    #2538086, posted on October 30, 2017 at 9:53 pm

    What is a Token?

    Julie Bishop?

  12. Jumpnmcar
    #2538095, posted on October 30, 2017 at 9:56 pm

    Anything on the content people ?
    Id like to know what the fuck he’s talking about, it seems important.
    Forgive me please, I’m just a regular low IQ person.

  13. Andrew M.
    #2538230, posted on October 30, 2017 at 10:52 pm

    Jumpnmcar, good question.

    Sounds like Sinc breezes over quite a few topics in this presentation, any part of which would have a whole story behind it if one delved into it. Even if I could explain all of it (which I can’t) I wouldn’t want to spend the time it would take. Any specific part you are most interested in? Maybe Since can drop a hint.

    The most interesting part was the suggestion that cryptocurrencies are not money.
    That seemed to be due to the analysis of how money gets used, and suggesting that the way a cryptocurrency uses blockchain to gain consensus that a very particular event occurred means that a cryptocurrency is far too asset-specific to be treated the same as money.
    A blockchain-derived token (e.g. bitcoin) is more like an agreement that one party owes another party one specific thing as repayment for an earlier specific thing i.e. it is more like debt than money because of the specificity and the rules surrounding it. Or something like that.

  14. Bad Samaritan
    #2538478, posted on October 31, 2017 at 7:06 am

    Andrew M (10.52pm) Have a look at this….or maybe you’ve already read it?

  16. Roger W
    #2538620, posted on October 31, 2017 at 10:19 am

    Jumpnmcar, I’m with you. Most of what he said seemed to make sense but every now and then he would drop in this word “blockchain”, which was meaningless. At no stage was there any attempt to explain what a blockchain is, in simple everyday words. At least, that is how this particular idiot sees it. Have tried elsewhere and there always seems to be this assumption that the reader knows what a blockchain is. Some simple concrete examples might help?

  17. Sinclair Davidson
    #2538705, posted on October 31, 2017 at 11:52 am

    Thanks for the feedback and comments.

    The underlying paper (second in a series) is still being written. Bottom line – a lot of complicated ideas and I just wanted to emphasise one of those at the conferences (only had 20 minutes plus questions to talk). So the argument is that crytocurrency is not really currency at all, but can be used as currency, it is a hybrid financial instrument and should be treated as such.

    People in this space tend to be instinctive Austrian school economists (even when they don’t have a formal training in economics) What our comparative advantage is that we have realised that Hayekian monetary theory is not enough to work in this space. You also need some Williamson. That is what we are adding and that is what the audience had never heard before (not all of them – a couple of Williamson’s former PhD students spoke to me afterwards and were in full agreement with my argument).

    As for the excellent clothing – I dress for the audience. For that conference tee-shirts and sports jackets were almost over-dressed. For the Cyprus audience I’m wearing a collar and tie.

    Yes – I made no effort to explain what the Blockchain is – some of the people in that audience were instrumental in its development, others were blockchain entrepreneurs, etc. But in the next few weeks I will put up a working explanation of the blockchain for laypeople who have no interest in the gory details of hashing and the like.

  18. Helen
    #2538899, posted on October 31, 2017 at 3:57 pm

    Okay, you are forgiven, you were trying to be a Zebra and not stand out form the crowd!

Comments are closed.