This session featured Jamari Peterson, a strategist and developer working with Snowball and Common.xyz, and Caleb Boyce, a BizOps and strategy professional with experience at Howard University, Dapper Labs, and other ventures. They discussed the concept of tokens in the blockchain ecosystem, distinguishing between fungible cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which serve different purposes such as art ownership, community access, and licensing.
Jamari and Caleb emphasized that creating valuable tokens requires identifying clear use cases and designing tokenomics to ensure sustainability and growth. They highlighted examples like CryptoKitties, which demonstrated NFTs’ gaming applications by allowing users to breed and enhance unique digital assets, and innovative projects using NFTs to license satellite data, ensuring authenticity and security.
Jamari shared insights from his project Snowball, an auto-compounder DAO on Avalanche that issues interest-bearing tokens connected to governance and revenue-sharing, illustrating how active participation adds value beyond mere token holding. They also touched on meme tokens like Dogecoin, whose value derives primarily from community interest rather than utility.
The discussion underscored the importance of token “sinks”—mechanisms that encourage token use within ecosystems, sustaining virtuous cycles of spending and earning. They noted NFTs often represent art or intellectual property shared ownership, citing projects like Parallel that integrate token ownership with gaming IP.
Finally, they framed tokens as foundational infrastructure for future financial technology, offering more utility, security, and scalability than traditional currencies. The session concluded by encouraging questions and highlighting the evolving innovation landscape in token creation and blockchain applications.
