Crypto networks are meant to be decentralized, community owned systems. But they’re turned out to be dominated by whales and to have more mercenaries who are just interested in getting free tokens to dump them, rather than having long-term believers who want to build the ecosystem. How can tokens be launched in a way that gets token holders aligned with long-term success? 

Today’s guests, Mike Dudas, founding partner of 6th Man Ventures, and Matt O’Connor, co-founder of Legion, believe there’s room for improvement. In this episode, they share how Legion aims to reshape the process, focusing on fair distribution, incentivizing organic user growth, and building loyal communities. They explore Legion’s approach to token sales, its compatibility with regulatory frameworks, and why it might be the key to bringing new people into crypto.

Show highlights:

• How Legion was born and what its main goal is
• The problems with how token launches currently work 
• Why projects don’t want to return to the ICO model
• Whether the criteria to earn a better reputation on Legion is gameable 
• How Legion actually works and what the role of KYC is
• What type of regulatory framework Legion is leveraging
• How MiCA’s rules for token offerings allowed for this type of project to emerge
• Whether the U.S. should follow Europe in establishing a crypto framework like MiCA
• What the business model of Legion is
• What the difference is between Legion and other similar platforms such as Cobie’s Echo
• Whether token sales is a better distribution mechanism than airdrops

Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com

Thank you to our sponsors!

• Polkadot
• Mantle
• Robinhood & Arbitrum

Guests:

• Mike Dudas, Founding partner of 6th Man Ventures
• Matt O’Connor, Co-Founder of Legion
• Matt’s open source publication: Tokenomics for Builders

Links

• Unchained: Legion Launches New Tool to Identify Best Contributors in Crypto Fundraises
• Legion Whitepaper

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:49 How Legion was born and its main goal
• 05:33 What’s wrong with current token launches?
• 11:13 Why projects avoid the ICO model
• 13:37 Can Legion’s reputation system be gamed?
• 26:18 How Legion works and the role of KYC
• 35:23 The regulatory framework behind Legion
• 39:06 How MiCA enabled this type of project
• 44:09 Should the U.S. adopt a framework like MiCA?
• 46:32 What is Legion’s business model?
• 50:28 How Legion differs from Cobie’s Echo
• 53:18 Are token sales better than airdrops for distribution?

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