Draft Asset Tokenization Book – Example 3 (Ch. 4)

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Real-World Example 3: Tokenizing Membership and Clubs with Ravencoin – The LinksDAO Model

Introduction: The Vision of LinksDAO

LinksDAO emerged as a trailblazing project with an ambitious goal: to reimagine the traditional golf and leisure club experience by merging blockchain technology with real-world membership benefits. Built on Ethereum, LinksDAO sold over 9,000 NFT memberships, raising approximately $11 million USD. These NFTs represented digital memberships, offering holders benefits like voting rights, access to exclusive events, and potential privileges at future golf courses.

While Ethereum provided the foundation for LinksDAO’s innovative model, it also introduced significant challenges and limitations. These challenges hindered the full potential of what could have been a revolutionary blend of digital and physical membership experiences. Ravencoin, with its purpose-built asset tokenization features, offers a superior platform to solve these issues, providing greater security, scalability, and long-term value for token holders. This example will reimagine how LinksDAO could have been implemented on Ravencoin, highlighting the transformative opportunities the platform provides.

Summary of the LinksDAO Model

During the NFT bull market of 2021, LinksDAO capitalized on the surge in interest, leveraging Ethereum NFTs as the foundation of its membership model. By using NFTs instead of traditional securities, the project cleverly sidestepped regulatory concerns. The model included two distinct NFT membership tiers: Leisure and Global, each offering varying levels of privileges.

The funds raised through NFT sales were directed to a separate legal entity tasked with acquiring and managing a physical golf course. This separation ensured that NFT holders avoided direct involvement in profit-sharing or revenue from the course, which would have triggered securities regulations. Instead, the NFTs granted holders voting rights to influence the course’s acquisition and operations.

The NFT Value Proposition

At its core, LinksDAO’s selling point was unique: members weren’t just purchasing a digital asset – they were buying a vision. The NFT’s provided:

1. Voting Power: Holders could vote on major decisions, such as which golf course to acquire.
2. Access: The NFTs offered exclusive rights to join the physical club once established, with Global NFTs providing family memberships and Leisure NFTs offering single memberships.
3. Perks: Members gained access to benefits like discounts on Callaway Golf products, Topgolf experiences, and private golf clubs through partnerships with WorldAvantage. There were also exclusive events, branded merchandise, and tournaments to keep members engaged while the golf course acquisition process unfolded.

Despite these perks, the value proposition came with limitations. Members essentially paid for a promise – a future opportunity to join a golf club and influence its direction – but they had no direct claim to the business’s revenue or profits.

The Spey Bay Acquisition

The LinksDAO team worked tirelessly to keep members engaged while pursuing their mission. Their efforts culminated in the acquisition of Spey Bay, a historic links-style golf course in Scotland, which became the project’s first property. True to their DAO principles, the acquisition decision was put to a member vote, aligning the process with the community’s input.

While this was an impressive milestone, it also exposed a critical flaw: LinksDAO was operating on the wrong blockchain. The Ethereum foundation limited what could have been an even greater leap forward in the combination of digital and physical memberships.

Missed Opportunities on Ethereum

After acquiring Spey Bay, LinksDAO offered lifetime memberships with discounted or zero dues for a reasonable fee. However, adoption appeared limited, especially among U.S.-based NFT holders, who represented the majority of the community. Personally, I did not join, and here’s why: Ethereum’s limitations prevented the full potential of this concept from being realized.

A Vision Reimagined on Ravencoin

What if LinksDAO had launched on Ravencoin instead? This example will explore how Ravencoin could have addressed Ethereum’s shortcomings, unlocking greater value for members and creating a more secure, transparent, and community-driven model. By leveraging Ravencoin’s native asset tokenization features, LinksDAO could have created a more sustainable, scalable system that realized its vision of revolutionizing golf and leisure memberships.

Ethereum’s Challenges in the LinksDAO Model

While Ethereum’s smart contracts offered flexibility to LinksDAO’s membership model, they also introduced critical limitations that stifled value creation and long-term potential. Let’s examine these challenges and how they could be solved with Ravencoin:

1. Security Risks with Wallet Connections
2. Accessing LinksDAO benefits and voting mechanisms on Ethereum requires users to connect their wallets and sign smart contract transactions.
3. Most users don’t fully understand the contracts they are signing, exposing them to phishing scams and malicious websites. These vulnerabilities have led to wallet-draining exploits across numerous Ethereum-based projects.

Would you want to participate in a membership, no matter how great the benefits, if it exposed you to significant financial loss? For many potential users, the confusion and risk associated with Ethereum’s wallet interactions were simply too high, effectively blocking out a large population base and diminishing the overall value of the NFT memberships.

• Limited Value Accrual for Parent Membership Tokens
• Ethereum lacks native hierarchical asset enforcement. Membership tokens tied to specific golf courses (e.g., SPEYBEY) cannot enforce rules requiring holders to first own a parent token (e.g., GLOBALMEMBER).
• Without enforced exclusivity, the overarching membership tokens lose inherent value, reducing the potential for long-term appreciation.

This lack of value accrual is a significant limitation. As you’ll see, Ravencoin’s native asset structure offers a built-in mechanism to solve this problem, unlocking untapped potential.

• Compliance and Transferability Challenges
• On Ethereum, managing dues and enforcing compliance through smart contracts is expensive, complex, and error-prone.
• Tokens cannot easily enforce rules, such as restricting transfers for members who fail to pay initiation fees or dues.
• High Transaction Fees and Poor Scalability
• Ethereum’s notoriously high gas fees make even simple actions like voting or transferring tokens prohibitively expensive for many users.
• While Ethereum’s shift to Proof of Stake has lowered some transaction costs, it has also increased centralization, contradicting the ethos of decentralization that is core to a DAO.

These high fees and scalability challenges further alienate potential members, reducing engagement and the overall success of the project.

Reimagining LinksDAO on Ravencoin

Let’s explore how LinksDAO could have been implemented on Ravencoin, and how doing so would unlock new levels of value and engagement.

1. Overarching Brand Token – $LINKS
2. Asset Name: $LINKS
3. Purpose: Represents the overarching brand identity and serves as the foundation for all subsequent tokens.
4. IPFS Document: Stores governing principles, high-level terms, and operational rules.
5. Dynamic Updates: Allows for reissuable IPFS documents, ensuring operational rules remain current without disrupting sub-assets.

Key Benefit: The brand-level token creates a clear separation between overarching governance and specific membership rules, ensuring transparency and scalability.

• Global and Leisure Membership Tokens
• Asset Name: $LINKS/GLOBALMEMBER and $LINKS/LEISUREMEMBER
• Purpose: Represent broad membership access and governance rights across all LinksDAO properties.
• Exclusivity Enforcement: Course-specific tokens (e.g., $LINKS/SPEYBAY) can only be transferred to wallets holding a GLOBAL or LEISURE membership token.

Value Accrual:

• The requirement to own a parent token ensures that GLOBAL and LEISURE tokens gain inherent value over time as demand for course-specific membership grows.

Key Benefit: This hierarchical enforcement prevents dilution and ensures core membership tokens retain exclusivity and long-term value.

• Course-Specific Membership Tokens
• Asset Name: $LINKS/SPEYBAY
• Type: Restricted Asset
• Purpose: Represents membership access and privileges specific to Spey Bay Golf Club.
• Transfer Restrictions: Can only be transferred to wallets holding a parent GLOBAL or LEIRSURE membership token.
• Compliance Enforcement: Tokens can be frozen if dues or fees remain unpaid.
• Membership Levels: Different tokens (e.g., $LINKS/SPEYBEYGOLD, $LINKS/SPEYBEYSILVER) can represent varying membership levels.

Value Accrual Over Time:

• Legacy tokens with locked-in fees gain value as initiation fees and dues rise over time.
• Membership scarcity increases exclusivity and desirability.

Key Benefit: Combines exclusivity, compliance, and long-term value retention.

• Founding Membership Token
• Asset Name: $LINKS/FOUNDERMEMBER
• Purpose: Limited-edition tokens offering founding memberships and access to all current and future clubs under LinksDAO.
• Transfer Rules: Requires ownership of a parent token (GLOBAL or LEISURE) and course-specific tokens (e.g., SPEYBAY).
• Privileges: Combines brand prestige with practical access benefits.

Value Accrual:

• Founding tokens appreciate in value as new courses are added and membership demand increases.

Key Benefit: Drives loyalty and enhances long-term engagement, especially for members interested in exclusive benefits like lifetime memberships.

• Voting Mechanisms
• Asset Name: $LINKS/USCOURSEVOTE2025
• Purpose: Temporarily issued voting tokens for governance decisions (e.g., acquiring a specific U.S. course).
• Process: Members send voting tokens to predefined addresses representing each voting option.
• No Smart Contracts: Voting  is conducted transparently and securely through on-chain token transfers.

Key Benefit: Eliminate smart contract risks while maintaining transparent and decentralized governance.

Why Ravencoin is the Superior Choice for LinksDAO

Feature	Ethereum	Ravencoin
Wallet Security	Smart contract risk	Native token verification
Parent-Child Tokens	Limited enforcement	Native asset awareness
Compliance	Complex smart contracts	Built-in restricted assets
Transaction Costs	High fees	Low fees
Scalability	Limited throughput	High throughput
Voting Mechanism	Smart contracts	Token transfers

Conclusion: A Better Future for LinksDAO

Ravencoin isn’t just a blockchain – it’s a purpose-built platform for secure, efficient, and value driven asset tokenization. By migrating to Ravencoin, LinksDAO could:

1. Enhance Security: Eliminate wallet risks and phishing vulnerabilities.
2. Drive Token Value: Enforce hierarchical asset structures, ensuring exclusivity and value appreciation.
3. Simplify Compliance: Natively enforce dues and restrictions, reducing complexity and cost.
4. Improve Governance: Enable transparent and cost-efficient voting mechanisms.

The future of LinksDAO, and similar innovative projects, lies in embracing platforms like Ravencoin that maximize security, transparency, and value creation for members.

*Not financial advice. Educational purposes only.