Braintrust’s market cap is $315 million, its fully diluted market cap is $896 million, and in December, it announced a fresh $100 million token sale to Coatue, Tiger, and existing investors to fund grants to grow the ecosystem.  

Braintrust is a clear distillation of an incredibly important point: good tokenomics can enhance a strong value proposition, but can’t replace a strong value proposition. 

-Bid Staking. Clients and Talent can stake BTRST to stand out to the other party and prove that they’re serious; if an applicant no-shows an interview, for example, they lose their tokens. This is the web3 replacement for the advertising models that web2 marketplaces graduate to. -Career Benefits. This one is a little hand-wavey for now, but the... See more

Braintrust doesn’t pay customer acquisition costs in cash, but it does pay them in tokens. That increases circulating supply. As long as Connectors are willing to accept BTRST tokens for their referrals, the system works; but increase circulating supply too much, too fast, the tokens become worthless, and Connectors stop connecting. It’s a delicate... See more

Like the time when Braintrust’s token launched on Coinbase and traded up to above $40, and armies of bots “watched” the short videos in the Braintrust Academy library in order to pick up the BTRST tokens Braintrust offered to incentivize people to learn more about the network. When incentives are baked into everything and backed with a token, you... See more

Braintrust pays for everything the network needs through the money it’s raised, the 10% fee Clients pay, and BTRST tokens from the treasury.

There is no free lunch here. Things that are good for the network inflate the circulating supply, which may be bad for token holders. If you’re a token holder who operates in the network, that’s fine: you’re OK with dilution if it means a lower take on your economic activity. If you’re a purely financial investor, that’s not as great. The float of... See more

How Braintrust works:  Talent sets their desired rate and pays no fees. Clients pay a 10% fee on top of the Talent’s invoiced amount, which is used to sustain the network. To be fair, the 10% is coming from somewhere – if the Clients weren’t paying it, maybe they’d be willing to pay Talent 10% more – so the net result is more like a 10% take rate... See more

Because Braintrust relies on a protocol for things that humans might do in a normal marketplace, and because it can pay for work that other marketplaces would need to use cash for with tokens, it can keep fees lower (but will need to make it up by giving away ownership). Giving away ownership might actually create more long-term value, because... See more