Utility Tokens, Network Effects, and Pricing Power

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Shakhnov, Kirill; Zaccaria, Luana
• 署名单位: University of Surrey
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2023.4917
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 6625-6640
• 关键词: ICOs; Blockchain; network effects; Cryptocurrencies; FinTech

摘要

We examine digital product markets in which consumers are heterogeneous in their propensity to actively interact with other users and valuations increase with the share of active users (e.g., social network platforms). We propose a model in which entrepreneurs can issue digital claims (tokens) to promise exclusive access to benefits that specifically enhance the utility of active users. This allows entrepreneurs to extract consumer surplus through price discrimination. Because there is an incentive to renege on the exclusivity promise ex post and expand the network of active users, the credibility of this commitment resides in a costly technology (blockchain) that embeds automatic contracts in the tokens sold and limits entrepreneurial discretion. We show that the profitability of token-based sales increases with entrepreneurial ability and the intensity of network effects.