Tezos (XTZ) creator Arthur Breitman says that crypto projects rewarding people tokens for basic activities like walking, playing or learning are unsustainable.

In a new interview with crypto strategist Scott Melker, Breitman says the “to earn model” is flawed and will ultimately fade away.

“I think that if you want to earn something, you have to be providing something. If you’re earning money playing poker, you’re providing players for the other side. But also it’s based on the illusion that some people think that they’re going win. Or if you’re creating new visual assets for a game, then you can earn something.

But the idea is that you’re going to do something that provides value to no one and still earn money is nonsense and it’s absolutely not sustainable. So I don’t think the future is to earn even though there may be money-making opportunities, there may be work opportunities that happen there. The killer use case is not to make money.”

Breitman says crypto projects based on a “to earn” model are held up by speculation. He does not name any specific projects.

“The thing is someone has to be paying for it on the other side. I think a lot of what powers the economy today is the earnings that come from printing tokens. And what gives value to the token being printed is people buying to speculate.

So that’s basically people earn from the inflation and then will hold it because the speculation is going to go up. So that’s the dynamic. I think a few generations of this and people are going to get a bit jaded with those mechanisms and learn that they don’t really work.”

 

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.