Factoring economic biases out of tokenomics

Blockchain technology has enabled decentralized applications and peer-to-peer networks to be sustained by an incentive system based on tokens. At the same time, reputation is a paramount component for any limited-trust or no-trust system. However, in many systems, e.g., proof-of-stake-based systems, tokens are a proxy for reputation, therefore there might be confusion between wealth and reputation. In this paper, we focus on the social layer of dApps and present a two-token system that allows a clear-cut separation between wealth and reputation and fits the case of DAOs where user contribution is essential to maintain and sustain the platform, such as social apps where users are asked to vote about newcomers' acceptance or to moderate and filter the content proposed by others. The paper delves into the implementation of such tokenomics, describes how the standard ERC-20 token can be adjusted to become a trustworthy reputation meter, and how the model can be optimized to reduce transaction fees. The value of the proposed work lies in moving away from a wealth-affected reputation in favor of a contribution-based one. Using such a system, dApps can reward users more fairly.