The concept of creator tokens has been a buzzworthy idea in the cryptocurrency space, but its implementation has largely fallen short. Most platforms have become speculative engines that reward attention rather than quality content. This has led to a situation where high-quality posts struggle to reach the right audience.
In 2026, Vitalik Buterin published a detailed thread arguing that the problem lies with the structural design of creator coins. He claims that they were built on recursive speculation rather than measurable signals, which ultimately made them unsustainable. However, he also points to Substack as an example of a successful platform that uses a subscription model without relying on tokenized pricing.
Buterin’s new proposal combines small, curated decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) with prediction markets to create a system that aligns token prices with creative merit. The DAO layer acts as a human-in-the-loop quality filter, ensuring that only high-quality talent receives economic backing. Prediction markets turn speculators into talent scouts, incentivizing them to bet on which creators a curated DAO will admit next.
The key differences between Substack’s centralized model and Vitalik’s decentralized proposal are:
– Curation: Decentralized (DAOs) vs Centralized (Substack)
– Monetization: Token burns (revenue-backed token mechanics) vs Subscription payments
– Speculation: Non-existent (prediction markets) vs Speculative pricing
– Signal Type: DAO validation (high-signal group) vs Subscription revenue (simple, high-quality signal)
By combining these elements, Vitalik’s proposal aims to solve the structural flaw that undermined earlier creator tokens. In a world where AI can generate infinite content at zero cost, the scarce resource is no longer content production but credible selection. The proposed model could reshape how digital reputation is priced, moving away from social betting instruments and towards forward-looking indicators of curated merit and collective economic output.
Source: https://www.ccn.com/education/crypto/why-creator-tokens-failed-crypto-vitalik-buterin-dao-prediction-markets