The Economics of Peace Tokens

A market is developing for the Peace Token, which is limited to 47000 total units, and gaining popularity on the Steem blockchain as a gift, reward, novelty, prize, investment, or public statement of support for peace.

Source: PEACE token market

As you can see, there are a few buyers/sellers participating now, which is helping the market establish price discovery! Quite interesting to watch - fascinating, in fact, for those of us who follow such things. There are so many parallels (and striking differences) between this and the mainstream economy/currencies!

As new buyers and sellers get involved, the market will deepen, and additional forces will enter the mix. A total cap of 47000 units - and the slow-but-steady rollout process - may result in this token becoming a shining gem in a sea of redundant token attempts. I won't make any predictions or promises, of course, but I'm quite interested to follow along as things develop.

Early data

2000 (of the potential maximum 47000) PEACE have been minted. About 500 have sold on the open market, and about 100 have been distributed directly for free (such as through gifts, the ROPA program, etc).

A useful metric will be the ratio between tokens sold and tokens gifted. Currently, it's about 5:1, meaning about 5 tokens are sold for every token given away.

Keeping the ratio down is going to be important, because that gives me some control over where these tokens end up. Distribution is always a big question when starting a new currency. There's no "drops" or "offerings" with this currency, just a marketplace and direct gifts to get them out there. Ideally, it would be best to have the tokens in the hands of people who will hold on to them, which statistically isn't the investor type, meaning I should be gifting as many of the tokens as possible, ensuring lots of them end up with people who like and enjoy them, and will want to sport them in their digital wallet, effectively taking them off the market (giving them a long-term use), putting a floor on the price. Low ratio means better long term health.

Giving away more tokens will keep the ratio down. I think I'd like to aim for 4:1, and see how that goes for now. I'm going to continue my efforts to find peaceful blockchain acts, and support/encourage them with free tokens.

Selling less tokens is another way to keep the ratio down, but I don't want to take them out of the marketplace completely. The only free market solution to sell less tokens is to allow the price to increase. The majority thus far have sold at about 0.1 STEEM/PEACE (10 PEACE per STEEM). I currently have a few dozen for sale at 0.15 STEEM/PEACE (about 7 PEACE per STEEM).

Raising the offering price, and giving away more free tokens, are both ways to keep the sold:gifted ratio down. I'll calculate and post it each time I do an update on the Peace Tokens.

tokens sold : tokens gifted

5 : 1

(current target is 4 : 1)

If the ratio falls too low, I can always back off on my gifting, and/or drop the price, but that may not be necessary. Hopefully the currency mostly manages itself using free market forces of supply and demand.

Conclusion

A market is developing for this token. It's too early for price predictions or volume analysis, but early data show sales in the 0.1 STEEM price range. A short term target of 4:1 has been set for the sales:gifts metric, which I'll be following, as a means to ensure slow-but-steady distribution of the tokens to recipients who want to hold them for various reasons.

If you're interested to see how easy it was to make my own currency, I wrote about it here. I've already learned a lot, and I think we're actually spreading some peace and good cheer, so it has been a positive experience no matter what else happens.

Anyone who read this far, please let me know if you resteem this post, and I'll send you a Peace Token. Thank you for helping me spread peace! Comments, ideas, suggestions, and feedback welcome.

DRutter