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Originally Posted by jose69bengala
can someone explain to me what are tokens ? i searched about dapps being built on ethereum and they all have theirs tokens. Why is there tokens if there is already a currency called ether on this platform ?
As a potential invester i would like to know the diference and where is the value between ehter and tokens.
Also do you know any plataforms like ethereum ?
In a way they are like shares, but dapp developers are cautious that they aren't shares or securities because that brings about a whole set of rules and regulations to abide to.
but basically, if someone wants to create a platform on ethereum, they want to receive some money for it. to do so, they create a token.
the tokens for various platforms do different things, but they are mostly a type of usage fee. the main issue with it is once the platform is fully developed and open source, a lot of platforms will have no need for a specific token and ether itself should suffice. alternatively, if the usage fee equates to say 5% well then it creates a race to zero, because someone can port the system and charge a lower fee, and so on.
some dapp examples:
Augur - a decentralized prediction market. they released 11,000,000 tokens called REP. Augur allows anyone to create a market, ie. Who will win March Madness? and anyone can predict/bet on that. Of course, to be decentralized it needs an oracle to say what the actual outcome was. It's not like a sportsbook where the company decides who won. It is the rep holders, or a portion thereof, that decides who won. For their services, they get paid a % of the small fees collected by the prediction market.
Melonport - a decentralized asset management platform. This basically allows anyone to be a crypto fund manager of any size. right now to start a fund you need multi millions. With Melon you can create a fund and if people want to invest with you they can. To use the various modules (price trackers, charting systems, etc.) that people develop for Melonport, there will be a fee in Melon.
Golem - a worldwide computer - do you need processing power to do functions? pay someone in golem to use their processing power.