Equity prices are based on the present value of future cash flows because that’s what they confer rights to, ultimately. You can’t use Airbnb shares to get free stays or pay a lower fee as a host. You use Airbnb shares to own a percentage of the business, and to vote...  But BTRST tokens offer both ownership and utility. And for network... See more

Instead of increasing the fees you charge all of your users, Gurley recommends that marketplaces figure out other ways to make more from those users who want more from you. Back then, he brought up advertising as an example. If you can get some of the suppliers in the marketplace to pay for ads, you can effectively earn a higher take without... See more

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

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. 

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.  

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

Braintrust is a user-owned talent network that is growing fast and reaching real scale just eighteen months after launching the public beta of the protocol last June. $37 million in Gross Service Value (GSV) – what Clients pay Talent – has flowed through the network, with nearly twice that contracted for the coming months.

The long and short of it is that now, there’s a direct link between the token price and network volume. More volume creates more demand for the token. As the network grows, there will be more fees to buy more tokens from the open market.