We develop a model to compare the governance of traditional shareholder-owned platforms to that of platforms that issue tokens. A traditional shareholder governance structure leads a platform to extract rents from its users. A platform that issues tokens for its services can mitigate this rent extraction, as rent extraction lowers the platform owners’ token seigniorage revenues. However, this mitigation from issuing “service tokens” is effective only if the platform can commit itself not to dilute the “service token” subsequently. Issuing “hybrid tokens” that bundle claims on the platform’s services and its profits enhances efficiency even absent ex-ante commitment power. Finally, giving users the right to vote on platform policies, by contrast, redistributes surplus but does not necessarily enhance efficiency.

中文翻译：

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基于代币的平台治理


我们开发了一个模型来比较传统股东拥有的平台与发行代币的平台的治理。传统的股东治理结构导致平台从其用户那里榨取租金。为其服务发行代币的平台可以减轻这种租金提取，因为租金提取会降低平台所有者的代币铸币税收入。但是，只有当平台能够承诺随后不稀释“服务令牌”时，这种颁发“服务令牌”的缓解措施才有效。发行“混合代币”，将平台服务及其利润的索赔捆绑在一起，即使没有事前承诺权，也能提高效率。最后，相比之下，赋予用户对平台策略进行投票的权利会重新分配盈余，但不一定会提高效率。