How Ethereum's Tokens Can Continue to Evolve | James Waugh (Fire_Eyes) at ETHConf

Sun, Aug 2, 2026, 12:00 AM

In this talk, James Waugh from Fire_Eyes challenges the ecosystem to rethink how tokens on Ethereum evolve, arguing that the space has been coasting on 5 year old technology while valuations sky rocketed. He opens with a visual metaphor of two Ethereum universes: one small with a few stars, and one massive with gravity and abundance. His talk is about how to get from the first to the second by making tokens on Ethereum better. Despite Solana now having 10x more tokens than Ethereum by count, Ethereum still dominates by value because Solana's tokens are essentially worthless. Yet all tokens have been going straight down over the past year and something needs to change. James walks through the ten year history of token design, from early DAO and Digix contracts where depositing 10% of the ETH gave you 10% of the tokens and 10% of governance power over the treasury, through the governance token era of 2019-2020 with Compound governor contracts powering Uniswap and Yearn, to today's tokens like Ondo and Worldcoin that have very disconnected relationships between the token and the protocol. He identifies the shift when VCs replaced permissionless retail contribution with private allocations before tokens even hit distribution, and notes that from 2021 onwards almost no technical innovation has happened in tokens, we're still using 5 year old Compound governor contracts on billion dollar tokens. He proposes three paths forward: for existing large tokens, institutional memory improvements, formalized contribution structures like ENS's service provider program, and parallel governance experimentation on smaller treasury slices; for existing small tokens, aggressive experimentation like Across's "Bridge Across" proposal which lets holders convert tokens 1:1 into C corp equity, or Liquity and Infinex which have real product but tiny market caps disconnected from usage; for net new tokens, experimenting with circulating supply (starting the founder at 100% and airdropping outward over time) and lower starting valuations like Uniswap's clearing auctions starting at $5M rather than $5B. He closes by challenging founders to break from investor driven token design and treat Ethereum's interplanetary coordination potential as the real opportunity. 00:00 Introduction 00:11 Two Ethereum Universes: Making It Beautiful 01:12 Tokens on Ethereum vs Solana by Count 02:23 Why Ethereum Dominates by Value Despite Fewer Tokens 02:47 Ten Years of Tokens: The Big Picture 03:05 The Original DAO and Digix Model 03:30 The Governance Token Era: Uniswap, Yearn, ENS 04:06 How Tokens Became Disconnected From Protocols 04:23 VCs Replacing Retail Contribution 04:57 Rising Valuations, Declining Accountability 05:39 Five Years of Technical Innovation Then Nothing 06:28 Tokens Can Do Anything, But Mostly Bought Houses 07:47 Regulatory Arbitrage and Extractive Design 08:26 Three Paths to Token Evolution 09:00 Path 1: Existing Large Tokens 09:27 Institutional Memory in Big DAOs 09:58 ENS Service Provider Program as a Model 10:15 Parallel Governance Experimentation 10:52 Path 2: Existing Small Tokens 11:17 The Across Bridge Across Proposal 12:07 Liquity and Infinex: Product Without Token Love 12:52 Rethinking Buy and Burn Metas 13:17 Path 3: New Tokens and Circulating Supply 14:12 Ten Year Circulating Supply Experiments 14:48 Uniswap's Clearing Auctions Starting Low 15:36 Why the EF Cannot Lead on Token Innovation 15:54 Investor Driven Design as the Real Bottleneck 16:40 The Interplanetary Coordination Opportunity 17:19 Closing Call to Experiment _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _