Real-world Assets (RWA) Tokenization: Definition & Examples 

Karolina

16 Aug 2023
Real-world Assets (RWA) Tokenization: Definition & Examples 

Real-World Assets Tokenization

The very nature of ownership is being revolutionized by the transformative procedure of tokenization. This process involves symbolizing the ownership of a real-world asset with a digital token on a blockchain, similar to the transition from paper stocks to electronic stocks. However, it extends beyond just shares and can include almost any tangible or intangible asset.

There are several steps involved in the process:

1. Verification - Professionals verify the authenticity, ownership, and value of an asset before it can be tokenized, ensuring that only legitimate items enter the blockchain.

2. Digital Representation - After verification, the asset is represented as a digital token which serves as cryptographic proof of ownership, rather than a digital version of the asset itself.

3. Issuance - These tokens are then issued on a blockchain platform, where each token corresponds to a specific portion of the asset's value.

The Rise of Tokenized Assets

The combination of blockchain technology with traditional finance has led to a significant shift in asset ownership landscape. Digital assets have expanded beyond cryptocurrencies into tangible real-world assets resulting in a new era for tokenized assets.

Tokenized assets offer several promises:

  • Diverse Portfolio - Investors can diversify their portfolios beyond traditional stocks and bonds, enabling investments in art, real estate, or precious metals via digital tokens.
  • Global Accessibility - Tokenized assets are not restricted by geographical boundaries; an individual in Asia can invest in European real estate without physically visiting Europe.
  • Innovative Financial Products - New financial products and services can emerge with tokenized assets, such as tokenized debt instruments or mutual funds comprising a combination of various tokenized assets.

The emergence of tokenized assets reflects blockchain technology's adaptability and versatility. As tokenization permeates different industries, it democratizes wealth creation and offers new investment opportunities. In this evolving landscape, the lines between physical and digital assets continue to merge, establishing the groundwork for decentralized finance's future.

Tokenization Revolution in Real Estate

Real-world Assets (RWA) Tokenization: Real Estate
Real-world Assets (RWA) Tokenization: Real Estate

Historically, real estate has been known as a profitable but highly illiquid asset. However, the introduction of real-world assets tokenization is revolutionizing this market, which has been characterized by high entrance barriers and cumbersome bureaucracy. The tokenization process is making the real estate sector more democratic, efficient, and accessible for everyone.

Tokenization divides property ownership into several tokens, allowing individuals to invest in portions of properties. This reduces the financial barrier and enables more people to engage in real estate investments. Tokenizing real estate assets allows investors worldwide to access markets previously unavailable due to geographical or financial restrictions.

The token representation of real estate properties simplifies the process involved in selling these assets – much like trading cryptocurrencies – ultimately enhancing liquidity in a traditionally static market. All token transactions are recorded on a blockchain, providing a tamper-proof and transparent record. This process aids in reducing fraud and disputes in property transactions.

With tokenization in the real estate industry, the way people invest, own, and transact is about to change dramatically, resulting in more streamlined and inclusive property investments.

Read our article about Blockchain in Real Estate Market!

Art and Collectibles Tokenization

Real-world Assets (RWA) Tokenization: Art

The exclusive art and collectibles market is experiencing democratization through tokenization.

1. Broadening Market Participation - Tokenization makes it possible for art enthusiasts to own "shares" in masterpieces without spending millions on investments – even a few hundred dollars could get you a stake in prestigious artworks.

2. Provenance Tracking - Authenticity proof and tracking an item's history have been significant challenges in the art world. However, the immutable records of blockchain ensure that every transaction or ownership transfer gets recorded, confirming genuine artworks and minimizing forgeries.

3. Liquidity Enhancement - Traditionally, selling artwork could be time-consuming and require intermediaries like auction houses. Tokenized art enables direct and prompt trading on digital platforms.

4. Access to Global Market - Moreover, Artists can access a global investor base, and art enthusiasts from around the world can invest without any geographical limitations.

Tokenization is transforming art ownership and trading, making it more transparent, accessible, and liquid.

Intellectual Property and Patent Tokenization

Real-world Assets (RWA) Tokenization: IP

Intellectual property (IP), an essential but frequently intangible asset, is finding new opportunities through tokenization.

In the past, monetizing patents or copyrights might have been challenging. Tokenization provides creators and IP holders with new revenue streams by allowing them to sell fractional ownership of their IPs. Tokenized IP simplifies licensing processes; smart contracts on the blockchain automate royalty payments each time a tokenized IP is used, ensuring fair compensation for creators.

Inventors and creators can access a worldwide market, widening their IPs' exposure and increasing potential revenues. Transferring IP rights has typically been a bureaucratic process. With tokenized IPs, trades and transfers can be fast and direct. A blockchain offers a transparent, tamper-proof record of IP ownership, which helps resolve disputes and ensure clarity.

Tokenization of IPs and patents has the potential to revolutionize how we evaluate, trade, and protect intellectual assets while offering more streamlined processes and broader access to IP markets.

Navigating Regulatory Challenges for Real-World Assets Tokenization

As interest in tokenized assets continues to soar, the technology finds itself at an intersection between innovation and regulation. This brings about various complexities that must be addressed.

  • The early stage of tokenization has left many jurisdictions without comprehensive regulatory frameworks in place, causing hesitance from institutional investors seeking clarity and assurance.
  • Regulators are concerned about possible misuse of tokenization, such as misrepresenting or fraudulently claiming assets; their priority is investor protection.
  • Tokenizing assets like real estate and art can create complications in cross-border transactions due to differing regulatory environments.
  • It is critical that tokenized systems conform to established financial and legal requirements, including Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.

Even with these obstacles present, there is a clear effort to integrate tokenized assets into the conventional financial landscape. Regulatory authorities worldwide are actively participating in discussions, creating committees, and collaborating with fintech companies to develop necessary guidelines. Their proactive approach signals both acknowledgment of the industry's potential and a desire to promote growth while maintaining security.

The Emerging Landscape of Asset Ownership - Conclusion

We are on the verge of a financial revolution as tokenization shifts our understanding and management of real-world assets. It's possible that future generations will consider our current asset ownership concepts antiquated. Fractional ownership of paintings, iconic structures, or innovative patents could become as ordinary as owning company shares today.

Additionally, the evolution of regulatory frameworks and technological advancements will further bridge physical and digital assets. This fusion will enable greater opportunities for wealth generation, investment, and worldwide collaboration.

In summary, as the distinction between tangible and intangible, physical and digital diminishes, a future where assets are more accessible, markets are more democratic, and the world is more interconnected than ever before awaits us.

Most viewed


Never miss a story

Stay updated about Nextrope news as it happens.

You are subscribed

Aethir Tokenomics – Case Study

Kajetan Olas

22 Nov 2024
Aethir Tokenomics – Case Study

Authors of the contents are not affiliated to the reviewed project in any way and none of the information presented should be taken as financial advice.

In this article we analyze tokenomics of Aethir - a project providing on-demand cloud compute resources for the AI, Gaming, and virtualized compute sectors.
Aethir aims to aggregate enterprise-grade GPUs from multiple providers into a DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network). Its competitive edge comes from utlizing the GPUs for very specific use-cases, such as low-latency rendering for online games.
Due to decentralized nature of its infrastructure Aethir can meet the demands of online-gaming in any region. This is especially important for some gamer-abundant regions in Asia with underdeveloped cloud infrastructure that causes high latency ("lags").
We will analyze Aethir's tokenomics, give our opinion on what was done well, and provide specific recommendations on how to improve it.

Evaluation Summary

Aethir Tokenomics Structure

The total supply of ATH tokens is capped at 42 billion ATH. This fixed cap provides a predictable supply environment, and the complete emissions schedule is listed here. As of November 2024 there are approximately 5.2 Billion ATH in circulation. In a year from now (November 2025), the circulating supply will almost triple, and will amount to approximately 15 Billion ATH. By November 2028, today's circulating supply will be diluted by around 86%.

From an investor standpoint the rational decision would be to stake their tokens and hope for rewards that will balance the inflation. Currently the estimated APR for 3-year staking is 195% and for 4-year staking APR is 261%. The rewards are paid out weekly. Furthermore, stakers can expect to get additional rewards from partnered AI projects.

Staking Incentives

Rewards are calculated based on the staking duration and staked amount. These factors are equally important and they linearly influence weekly rewards. This means that someone who stakes 100 ATH for 2 weeks will have the same weekly rewards as someone who stakes 200 ATH for 1 week. This mechanism greatly emphasizes long-term holding. That's because holding a token makes sense only if you go for long-term staking. E.g. a whale staking $200k with 1 week lockup. will have the same weekly rewards as person staking $1k with 4 year lockup. Furthermore the ATH staking rewards are fixed and divided among stakers. Therefore Increase of user base is likely to come with decrease in rewards.
We believe the main weak-point of Aethirs staking is the lack of equivalency between rewards paid out to the users and value generated for the protocol as a result of staking.

Token Distribution

The token distribution of $ATH is well designed and comes with long vesting time-frames. 18-month cliff and 36-moths subsequent linear vesting is applied to team's allocation. This is higher than industry standard and is a sign of long-term commitment.

  • Checkers and Compute Providers: 50%
  • Ecosystem: 15%
  • Team: 12.5%
  • Investors: 11.5%
  • Airdrop: 6%
  • Advisors: 5%

Aethir's airdrop is divided into 3 phases to ensure that only loyal users get rewarded. This mechanism is very-well thought and we rate it highly. It fosters high community engagement within the first months of the project and sets the ground for potentially giving more-control to the DAO.

Governance and Community-Led Development

Aethir’s governance model promotes community-led decision-making in a very practical way. Instead of rushing with creation of a DAO for PR and marketing purposes Aethir is trying to make it the right way. They support projects building on their infrastructure and regularly share updates with their community in the most professional manner.

We believe Aethir would benefit from implementing reputation boosted voting. An example of such system is described here. The core assumption is to abandon the simplistic: 1 token = 1 vote and go towards: Votes = tokens * reputation_based_multiplication_factor.

In the attached example, reputation_based_multiplication_factor rises exponentially with the number of standard deviations above norm, with regard to user's rating. For compute compute providers at Aethir, user's rating could be replaced by provider's uptime.

Perspectives for the future

While it's important to analyze aspects such as supply-side tokenomics, or governance, we must keep in mind that 95% of project's success depends on demand-side. In this regard the outlook for Aethir may be very bright. The project declares $36M annual reccuring revenue. Revenue like this is very rare in the web3 space. Many projects are not able to generate any revenue after succesfull ICO event, due to lack fo product-market-fit.

If you're looking to create a robust tokenomics model and go through institutional-grade testing please reach out to contact@nextrope.com. Our team is ready to help you with the token engineering process and ensure your project’s resilience in the long term.

Quadratic Voting in Web3

Kajetan Olas

04 Dec 2024
Quadratic Voting in Web3

Decentralized systems are reshaping how we interact, conduct transactions, and govern online communities. As Web3 continues to advance, the necessity for effective and fair voting mechanisms becomes apparent. Traditional voting systems, such as the one-token-one-vote model, often fall short in capturing the intensity of individual preferences, which can result in centralization. Quadratic Voting (QV) addresses this challenge by enabling individuals to express not only their choices but also the strength of their preferences.

In QV, voters are allocated a budget of credits that they can spend to cast votes on various issues. The cost of casting multiple votes on a single issue increases quadratically, meaning that each additional vote costs more than the last. This system allows for a more precise expression of preferences, as individuals can invest more heavily in issues they care deeply about while conserving credits on matters of lesser importance.

Understanding Quadratic Voting

Quadratic Voting (QV) is a voting system designed to capture not only the choices of individuals but also the strength of their preferences. In most DAO voting mechanisms, each person typically has one vote per token, which limits the ability to express how strongly they feel about a particular matter. Furthermore, QV limits the power of whales and founding team who typically have large token allocations. These problems are adressed by making the cost of each additional vote increase quadratically.

In QV, each voter is given a budget of credits or tokens that they can spend to cast votes on various issues. The key principle is that the cost to cast n votes on a single issue is proportional to the square of n. This quadratic cost function ensures that while voters can express stronger preferences, doing so requires a disproportionately higher expenditure of their voting credits. This mechanism discourages voters from concentrating all their influence on a single issue unless they feel very strongly about it. In the context of DAOs, it means that large holders will have a hard-time pushing through with a proposal if they'll try to do it on their own.

Practical Example

Consider a voter who has been allocated 25 voting credits to spend on several proposals. The voter has varying degrees of interest in three proposals: Proposal A, Proposal B, and Proposal C.

  • Proposal A: High interest.
  • Proposal B: Moderate interest.
  • Proposal C: Low interest.

The voter might allocate their credits as follows:

Proposal A:

  • Votes cast: 3
  • Cost: 9 delegated tokens

Proposal B:

  • Votes cast: 2
  • Cost: 4 delegated tokens

Proposal C:

  • Votes cast: 1
  • Cost: 1 delegated token

Total delegated tokens: 14
Remaining tokens: 11

With the remaining tokens, the voter can choose to allocate additional votes to the proposals based on their preferences or save for future proposals. If they feel particularly strong about Proposal A, they might decide to cast one more vote:

Additional vote on Proposal A:

  • New total votes: 4
  • New cost: 16 delegated tokens
  • Additional cost: 16−9 = 7 delegated tokens

Updated total delegated tokens: 14+7 = 21

Updated remaining tokens: 25−21 = 425 - 21 = 4

This additional vote on Proposal A costs 7 credits, significantly more than the previous vote, illustrating how the quadratic cost discourages excessive influence on a single issue without strong conviction.

Benefits of Implementing Quadratic Voting

Key Characteristics of the Quadratic Cost Function

  • Marginal Cost Increases Linearly: The marginal cost of each additional vote increases linearly. The cost difference between casting n and n−1 votes is 2n−1.
  • Total Cost Increases Quadratically: The total cost to cast multiple votes rises steeply, discouraging voters from concentrating too many votes on a single issue without significant reason.
  • Promotes Egalitarian Voting: Small voters are encouraged to participate, because relatively they have a much higher impact.

Advantages Over Traditional Voting Systems

Quadratic Voting offers several benefits compared to traditional one-person-one-vote systems:

  • Captures Preference Intensity: By allowing voters to express how strongly they feel about an issue, QV leads to outcomes that better reflect the collective welfare.
  • Reduces Majority Domination: The quadratic cost makes it costly for majority groups to overpower minority interests on every issue.
  • Encourages Honest Voting: Voters are incentivized to allocate votes in proportion to their true preferences, reducing manipulation.

By understanding the foundation of Quadratic Voting, stakeholders in Web3 communities can appreciate how this system supports more representative governance.

Conclusion

Quadratic voting is a novel voting system that may be used within DAOs to foster decentralization. The key idea is to make the cost of voting on a certain issue increase quadratically. The leading player that makes use of this mechanism is Optimism. If you're pondering about the design of your DAO, we highly recommend taking a look at their research on quadratic funding.

If you're looking to create a robust governance model and go through institutional-grade testing please reach out to contact@nextrope.com. Our team is ready to help you with the token engineering process and ensure that your DAO will stand out as a beacon of innovation and resilience in the long term.