Mastering Crypto

A majority of blockchains have a straightforward rule.
One network. One token. A single-purpose asset.
It secures the network.
It pays transaction fees.
It is the hypothetical commodity that people make transactions.
But @MidnightNetwork is trying out a very different concept.
Midnight divides the system in two instead of a single token performing all of the tasks. Power in the network is one representation. The other is the capability of using it in reality.
This initially is unsoundly complex. However, the concept of it is quite practical.
The primary key of the system is named $NIGHT . This is what people possess, trade and govern themselves. It ensures the network is secure, enables one to vote and is the economic engine of the ecosystem.
And here is where Midnight does something weird.
NIGHT does not exist when users communicate with the network.
Rather, the automatic creation of a second resource (DUST) is generated when $NIGHT is held.
The network is actually powered by DUST. It is reused to make transactions as well as execute smart contracts. Each time a person communicates with Midnight, it burns DUST instead of the primary token.
Imagine that it is a power station.
NIGHT symbolizes possession of power plant.
The electricity it generates is called DUST.
You do not torch the power plant to power your house.
You spend the energy that it produces.
The same reasoning is used by Midnight to apply to blockchain economics.
Constant production of NIGHT generates DUST that is used by the users when they are interacting with the network. The longer the night one has, the higher the amount of dust capacity that one produces in the long run.
This division forms an alternative form of economy.
The majority of the blockchains make people to continuously use their tokens to pay transaction fees. It refers to investment and fuel being one and the same. The more one does, the more he or she has to purchase to continue functioning.
Midnight attempts to eliminate this pressure.
The capital stock remains undepleted and the working fuel replenishes itself.
This in theory would have resulted in a system where the developers and applications are able to forecast how much it would cost to run more easily. They do not have to be concerned with the changing gas prices but on the DUST produced by their NIGHT holdings.
Another interesting side effect is present.
Since DUST is created by NIGHT and utilized internally, it is not created to be a freely traded token. It is more of a network resource than it is a speculative asset.
In that design, speculation and real use are to be separated.
It is yet to be determined whether or not this model will be long-term effective. Experiments in token economics are not new to crypto history and most of them failed.
But Midnight is experimenting with one of the most widely accepted blockchain design assumptions.
Perhaps a token should not accomplish everything.
Perhaps networks are effective when the ownership is different and the use is different.
In case such a concept turns out to be effective, the Midnight weird two-layer economy may shape the way other blockchain implementations draw up their tokens.
#night

The first thing that people tend to monitor when a new network is launched is the token price. It moves fast. It's visible. It's easy to track.
Price hardly ever tells the whole story.
When @Fabric Foundation is in the process of developing something significantly bigger than a typical crypto protocol, the actual indicators of success are likely to appear in different forms. They will be a product of the action that occurs within the network.
Fabric is created to be a layer of infrastructure upon which robots and intelligent machines can carry identities, coordinate, and transfer value in the form of an on-chain system, which is powered by the $ROBO token.
That is, the speculation metrics will not be the most significant ones. They will be usage metrics.
The number of machines connected to the network would be one of the most obvious ones. In case robots are expected to act as economic actors, they must be given identities on the system first. An increasing registered machine identity would imply that Fabric is becoming a practical layer of coordination among physical devices and not an abstract protocol.
The number of tasks which were performed via the network would be another crucial measure. The concept behind the design of Fabric is machines having work done and being rewarded through an on-chain program associated with verifiable activity. The larger the number of tasks carried out, the greater the testimony to the reality that the network is in actual operation, and not a dormant infrastructure.
Something related intimately closely with that is machine-to-machine transaction traffic. Fabric comes up with the concept that robots might carry wallets and might be able to pay up for services like data, compute, charging or even physical assistance by other machines.
When such interactions start manifesting in a regular on-chain way, they would be a novice of its own. Machines paying the economic activity to other machines.
The other measure that might be significant is that of developer participation. Networks of infrastructure are more likely to expand using the tools and applications that people develop on the foundation of infrastructure networks. In the event of developers beginning to create robotic services, coordination systems, or data markets on Fabric, the network may become a full ecosystem instead of a single protocol.
There could also be token utility that indicates whether the network is working as it should. The $ROBO token will process payments, governance participation and coordination incentives on the system.
The economic layer would not have reached maturity yet, in case speculation is the major contributor to token activity. However in case token usage starts to correspond to real activity of the machine, then this would be a better indication that the system is operating.
And then there is the bigger measure that may be important as time changes. Real-world integration.
The vision of Fabric is based on the provision of connection between the digital infrastructure and real robotics systems. When warehouse robots, logistics networks, delivery systems, or industrial settings start communicating with the network, then it would mean that Fabric already goes beyond theory and can be seen as a real-life economic coordination.
At the beginning stages, these signs are likely to be slow. A few machines here. There are some automated transactions. Perhaps a few developers trying robotic services.
New infrastructure networks do not usually commence on a large scale. They tend to start with small quantifiable indications, which build up.
In case Fabric is successful, the measures which will determine its advancement might be different than what people anticipate. They will not be measuring speculation or volume of trading.
Something much more bizarre they will gauge.
The development of a network, in which machines themselves are emerging as players in an economy.
#ROBO