Science Popularization Topic: How to Issue Coins Teacher, this is quite severe. What we are talking about is popularizing science, popularizing science, popularizing the historical evolution of token issuance. These days, Zama and Infinex's "new" gameplay is indeed an interesting bear market experiment, but there is nothing new in the world. They are all millennial foxes. Don't play Liaozhai with me anymore. DWF has an old article that outlines various token issuance models, which is very interesting. I have selected and adapted it. Let's dive in! ⬇️ From Bitcoin to Pumpfun, the issuance of encrypted assets has tried various forms in the past decade, some directions are infinitely close to traditional finance, while others are infinitely close to code and mathematics. Regardless of which one it is, undoubtedly, whoever controls the issuance of assets is at the upstream of the food chain in the cryptocurrency circle. Few people understand this point, that is, the most profitable thing in the cryptocurrency industry is issuing coins (at least for a period of time). Today, it was too easy to send a coin with just a few clicks, but it's too difficult to operate a coin well. On top of that, there are already costs involved: listing, auditing, promotion, market making... Looking back at Bitcoin, the most difficult has become the simplest. Is this also the cycle of value? Mining | Mining The earliest method of token issuance was "mining", which was first demonstrated by Bitcoin in 2009. It uses a proof of work consensus mechanism, where miners consume computing power to verify transactions and compete to propose new blocks on the blockchain. If successful, they will receive newly minted tokens as rewards. In terms of imagery, coins are not "issued" but "mined" out. However, the mining model has many drawbacks, such as centralized miners, high energy consumption, and environmental concerns, which have always plagued this model and are still debated to this day. In addition to BTC, LTC, ETC, and DOGE still have many PoW chains that are still persevering, supporting the traditional mining machine industry. Pre mining | Pre mining After mining, the pre mining mode is used to allocate tokens to teams, advisors, investors, etc. before TGE. At first, pre mining was criticized for being dishonest and too centralized, but later transparent allocation was improved. Pre mining projects can lock in development funds in advance, establish strategic reserves, and incentivize early contributors, which has its advantages. Pre mining is common in mature projects, with XRP, ADA, and EOS being typical representatives of this model, which is now commonly used for foundation reserves and early incentives. Under regulatory pressure, projects must shift towards transparent disclosure, and new projects are also attempting to transition to hybrid models, such as ICOs. Fixed Price Sales This model includes various ICOs, IEOs, IDOs... ICOs/IEOs have declined due to high regulatory risks, while IDOs are active in various Launchpads such as Buidlpad, Kaito, etc. Combining KYC and investing, this model is almost the mainstream way of issuance nowadays, and its true origin is ETH, the century long ICO. The ICO boom in 2017 brought about a fixed price sales model, where tokens can be sold to the public at a predetermined price. ICO played an important role in quickly raising funds between 2017-2018, but by 2018, due to the prevalence of fraud, ICO had been almost replaced by more transparent decentralized exchanges issuing IDOs and more compliant exchanges issuing IEOs. It is worth noting that Monad has restarted the ICO glory on Coinbase, and although the results are not very good, this model seems to be recovering. Dutch Auction The Dutch style auction pioneered by projects such as Algorand and Gnosis has introduced a new way of pricing tokens in the market. This method starts at a high price and gradually decreases until the reserve price, allowing users to buy at any price they think the token is worth. If demand exceeds supply before the end of time, the final token price may be higher than the reserve price. Compared to fixed price sales, Dutch auctions are more inclusive and help reduce price fluctuations after issuance. This method is most suitable for founding teams who are confident that the public market can make informed decisions about the valuation of the assets they sell. However, due to the low efficiency of pure Dutch filming, new improvements have been made to Hyperliquid and other models, integrating more into more complex models such as LBA and LBP. Fair Release | Fair Launch Fairness and efficiency have always revolved, and projects such as Yearn Finance have ushered in the era of fair issuance, with the goal of distributing tokens transparently and fairly, without any group having absolute control over the protocol. This is the evolution of fixed price sales and Dutch style auctions, as all parties need to acquire tokens through purchasing or participating in liquidity mining during TGE. The community gains the power to determine the direction of the agreement, ensuring that early supporters remain aligned with the growth of the agreement. This may be a double-edged sword, as it ensures decentralization but may also bias decision-making towards a few 'whales' who can buy token supplies to directly influence voting decisions. In fact, it has really emerged and is quite outrageous. Fair Launch 2.0 | Fair Launch 2.0 As users become disillusioned with low circulation and high FDV tokens, we see a shift in the issuance model towards' community first 'fair issuance. Fair issuance 2.0 can be defined as the integration of decentralized token creation and trading processes with innovative acceleration mechanisms. Pumpfun made its debut on the historical stage in January 2024, introducing a "one click" issuance platform where anyone can launch tokens. The entire process reduces the time and knowledge required for token creation, automates liquidity management, and makes it more transparent than before, marking a shift in power from centralized entities to decentralized ones. / Obviously, during the launch phase of Fairness 2.0, the issue of fairness has not been resolved. With the exposure of insider scandals such as LIBRA, we have come to realize a fundamental fact: it all depends on human intervention. Any issuance model may be monopolized or controlled by rights, funds, resources, or even technology. Going back to the beginning statement, it's just a tactic of dumping into the secondary market. There are also very small patterns interspersed among these patterns. Overall, asset issuance is becoming simpler and more transparent, but the inequality in cognition and resources has prevented these patterns from solving the initial problem of how to fairly distribute assets and sustain incentives. The old A8 is also an A8. Today, more and more people are starting to miss Bitcoin's somewhat inefficient and clumsy asset issuance method. At least, it doesn't have as many animals at play. Making money has quietly shifted from "issuing" to "doing", so we have seen various impressive market makers crazily rolling up money in the second half of this year. We have also seen many projects with good fundamentals, making wedding dresses for others and becoming the ATM of the wild market. Recognizing these can help you better understand the asset model of the cryptocurrency industry. Wish us good luck! / Author: Anymose | A Soft Core Science Popularization Writer This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice. Always remember DYOR!