This is one out of three books in the Token Economy Series. The general question that this book tries to answer is how tokenization will impact not only our monetary systems, but also our financial systems and the real economy. Can so-called cryptocurrencies and other tokenized assets replace money as we know it? In public debate, these questions usually lead to highly contentious discussions and the arguments very often depend on one’s definition of what actually constitutes money. Discussions about what “real” money is often seem to have an almost religious dimension, where arguments are based on ideology or semi-knowledge. Readers will get an introduction to the core concepts of tokenization, before delving into the question of what constitutes money and credit. Both chapters provide an important foundation from which various use cases for fungible and non-fungible tokens that represent different types of assets will be analyzed. Later chapters introduce the concepts of financial markets and discuss how asset tokens can be used as collateral in a growing ecosystem of tokenized financial applications – ranging from DeFi (Decentralized Finance) to CeFi (Centralized Finance). It is the third edition of the book Token Economy that has been a bestseller since its first edition in 2019. The first two editions were published as one book. This third edition has expanded in scope and depth and will be published as thee separate books. Tokens that are designed to incentivize an autonomous group of people to individually contribute to a collective goal, and are minted upon proof of a certain behavior, will be the subject of the third book titled: “DAOs & Purpose-Driven Tokens,” which will be published in June 2023. The technical and political aspects of blockchain networks and core Web3 infrastructure will be discussed in another book of the Token Economy Series titled “Web3 Infrastructure” that will be published in November 2023. Until then, the second edition will still be available for those who are interested to catch up on the contents that have not been updated yet.
