# The Token is The Problem and The Opportunity *This is essay 2 of 4 in a series titled: Distributing Genius* By [Crypto Writing](https://paragraph.com/@wonderfool) ยท 2025-02-25 --- _Essay 1:_ [_Higher is Not a Headless Brand_](https://paragraph.xyz/@spacetobe.xyz/higher-is-not-a-headless-brand) * * * It is important to note that the _higher_ scene began **before** the HIGHER token was launched. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/3dc7e96c266f7c8727fb18142db676f2.jpg) In it's beginning, higher was simply a Warpcast channel, where people could meme higher without price talk. But then, along comes [Martin](https://warpcast.com/martin) - deploying a token and airdropping it to everyone in the channel. Importantly, distribution to the scene was whole. Meaning that everybody in the scene now had a form of financial exposure to the burgeoning scene. Some sold, and, to this day, some believe that referencing the token at all is a bad idea. ### **_However, whilst some may think that we can ignore the token, I disagree._** Not only do I disagree but I believe that **HIGHER** (the token) is the perfect site for conversation, collaboration, and experimentation in relation to the cultural practice of **_exploring new ways of seeing and feeling higher irrespective of market action_**. What is required is that we earnestly decouple our _view of the token_ from it's price, and begin to see the token's **mere existence** as an opportunity. To understand further what I mean, we can ask the question: What happens when a scene gives birth to a token? ------------------------------------------------- ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/337b6580e0d5df51c2bf43fd1d16c440.png) Simply put, immediately, a whole range of new dynamics are introduced. Foundationally, things are much the same: scene health continues to rely on conversation, collaboration, and experimentation. However, now that a token has been introduced, there is a _financial primitive_ that can take up scene mindshare in conversation, collaboration, and experimentation through it's association. The obvious value of the token is that those who historically would not have experienced any financial upside for their participation in a scene can now access financial exposure to a market approximation of the scenes value. However, this is only possible because a new kind of scene participant activity is also introduced: > **financial _speculation_ (on the _whole scene_.)** Just like the Cubist scene would have included participants who's sole motivation was to speculate on the future value of artworks, the existence of a token invites participants into the higher scene who do not wish to be part of the scene's culture, but instead who's sole motivation is to speculate on it's value. This is of tremendous potential value to any scene if properly harnessed, but also increases the possibility of contributors using market action to determine how much they themselves value the scene. Thankfully, in the case of _higher,_ participants are explicitly asked to decouple their perception of reality from price action. So instead of being a problem, market action becomes a site of opportunity. In order to engage this opportunity, one has to acknowledge that there exist participants who are solely part of the scene to trade the token, and some of these individuals may be actively adversarial. Without a clear acknowledgement of this it is difficult to establish how to engineer positive sum solutions. If we are unable to trust the intentions of our scene collaborators, conversation and collaboration are hampered. In other words, the existence of financial incentives without processes for creating **alignment** between different parties leads to a **lack of coordination**. This in turn can disrupt collaboration, leading to reduced creative output, and ultimately **a decay** of the scene's culture. At this point, the scene can either completely abandon the token, or embrace the token as an opportunity for creating alignment and coordination. For the Culture --------------- > The problem is the opportunity. The problem with a token, in essence, is that it can warp the culture of a scene. As opposed to continuing to communicate, collaborate, and experiment in service to whatever the scenes particular way of seeing is, contributors become distracted by the market for the token. If a scene's _actual_ culture is not strong enough on it's own, it will be consumed by this financialization. The scene will falter to produce the kinds of genius it's original culture was capable of hosting and the true value of the scene is lost. The token is not valuable on it's own, it relies on the scene's cultural output. **The opportunity is therefore to use the token to bolster the scene's cultural output.** In simple terms, value should be captured from speculative market action, and invested in the culture. One way to do this is to pair the token with another, provide liquidity on a DEX, and generate fees that can be used to pay people to do things. In most cases, there is no utility to tokens beyond this. However, if the fees generated do go on to fund cultural activity and lead to the creation of value for the world, there is an argument to be made that new cultural utility could arise, in which case all trading on the token pair could be said to be _for the culture_. Whatever utilities arise, **the true value of the scene is what it's people create for each other and the world, not it's token.** In the long-term, a token is only as valuable as it's ability to generate value, **_for the culture_**. For Higher ---------- With the main cultural practice of _higher_ being **_to_** **_explore new ways of seeing and feeling higher irrespective of market action_**, this is how value captured from market action should be "put to work". As cultural activity continues, we cannot be sure of what will arise. All we know is that so far, higher has attracted and helped to shape some incredible talent, distributing genius and empowering them to realize their aspirations. In my estimation, more of that would be a good thing. Hopefully by now, you can see that **the token is both a problem and an opportunity**, and that to ignore it completely would be to ignore an opportunity to create more scene health and the distribution of more genius. ### In Summary: 1. **Higher's cultural practice of _seeing higher_ _regardless of price_ precedes the token launch.** 2. **The introduction of a _scene token_ introduced the ability to _speculate on the entire scene_.** 3. **The token can be both a _Problem_ and an _Opportunity for the culture_.** [Click to read the next part](https://paragraph.xyz/@spacetobe.xyz/higher-forever). --- *Originally published on [Crypto Writing](https://paragraph.com/@wonderfool/the-token-is-the-problem-and-the-opportunity)*