Vitalik Buterin's New Perspective: How Non-Tokenized DAOs Are Reshaping the Future of Creator Tokens

Bitcoin’s price today, according to Gate market data, is $76,704, with a market capitalization of $1.76T, accounting for over half of the entire cryptocurrency market. In this ecosystem dominated by financial assets, Vitalik Buterin has proposed a seemingly “counterintuitive” view: using non-tokenized DAOs to rescue controversial creator tokens.

The Ethereum co-founder recently analyzed failed cases of content incentives in the crypto industry over the past decade, from Steemit to BitClout. The core issue is not insufficient incentives but the lack of effective content quality screening mechanisms.

Changing Times Highlight the Value of Content Curation

Over the past twenty years, the internet content ecosystem has undergone a fundamental reversal. Early on, the main problem was content scarcity, but now, driven by AI technology, the cost of generating massive amounts of content has become extremely low. Vitalik points out: “In the 2020s, content is abundant, and artificial intelligence can generate a metaverse containing all content for just $10.” The current core challenge has shifted from content production to content discovery.

In contrast, Vitalik believes that the traditional platform Substack is currently the most successful creator incentive model. He analyzed top creators in technology, culture, and global politics, finding that these authors gain recognition through content quality.

The secret to Substack’s success lies not in complex token economics but in its manual screening mechanism. The platform carefully selects its initial creator group and even offers income guarantees to invited authors, creating a specific academic atmosphere.

Failure Patterns and Structural Dilemmas

Creator token projects in the crypto space show very different failure modes. Vitalik studied the best-performing projects on Zora and BitClout, discovering that these systems mainly reward individuals who already have high social status.

“The top ten are all people with already high social standing, who tend to be impressive, but not primarily because of their content,” Vitalik explains. These platforms have become celebrity hype games, where speculators buy tokens of already famous creators rather than discovering future stars.

Existing creator token projects generally suffer from a structural issue of “high social influence users dominating the leaderboard,” rather than truly reflecting content quality. This design essentially creates a self-reinforcing speculative cycle: rising token prices attract more buyers, pushing prices higher, disconnected from actual content quality.

The Solution: Non-tokenized DAO + Prediction Markets

To address these issues, Vitalik proposes an innovative solution: establishing non-tokenized creator DAOs combined with prediction market functions for creators. He draws on the member structure of Protocol Guild, adopting a fixed number of members who vote anonymously on whether to accept or remove participants. When the number of members exceeds 200, the DAO automatically splits into multiple independent entities.

This 200-person threshold is based on Dunbar’s number in sociology: humans can maintain stable social relationships with about 150 people, and 200 is a balance point considering scale effects and governance efficiency. Vitalik emphasizes that DAOs should not pursue universality but embrace specialization. Each Creator DAO should focus on specific content types, such as long-form writing, music, or educational videos. The anonymous voting mechanism eliminates social pressure and existing power structures, allowing members to judge purely based on content quality and potential.

Fundamental Shift in the Role of Tokens

In the new model proposed by Vitalik, the role of creator tokens undergoes a fundamental change. Anyone can create a creator token, but the only way for the token to gain value is if the creator is accepted as a member by the Creator DAO. This design shifts speculation from a “hype game” to a “talent discovery service.” Recognized creators will use DAO earnings to burn their tokens, providing profit opportunities for early speculators.

Vitalik states: “Token speculators are not participating in a recursive attention game solely supported by themselves.” This mechanism turns speculation into quality prediction. To profit, speculators must accurately predict the potential of creators. More importantly, this model aligns the interests of speculators with the discovery of high-quality creators. They must deeply analyze whether a creator’s style fits the DAO’s focus and whether the creator has the potential to gain support from existing members.

Disruption and Reorganization of Governance Models

Vitalik’s Creator DAO model’s most radical innovation is redefining the “ultimate arbiter.” On traditional platforms like BitClout or Zora, the ultimate arbiter is the market—whoever’s price is higher succeeds. In the new model, the ultimate arbiter is high-quality content creators. Whether individual speculators can continue to participate and profit depends on their ability to accurately predict the actions of the Creator DAO.

This system assumes a key premise: that high-quality creator groups can accurately identify new high-quality creators. Vitalik believes this holds true in most creative fields. After eliminating political and social factors through anonymous voting, this peer-review mechanism can operate effectively. Musicians understand music best, writers understand writing best—this logic has been working in academia for centuries.

Market Application and Value Rebuilding

The current cryptocurrency market is at a critical juncture. Gate market data shows Bitcoin’s 24-hour change at -2.72%, and Ethereum’s at -7.58%. In this market environment, the new model proposed by Vitalik could bring new opportunities to the creator economy.

Non-tokenized DAOs avoid governance being hijacked by financial speculation and instead focus on content quality and community building. Creator tokens serve as prediction market tools, allowing speculators to profit by accurately predicting which creators will be accepted by high-quality DAOs.

This model reconnects the financial tools of the crypto world with the intrinsic value of content creation. Tokens are no longer just digital assets with price fluctuations but tools for discovering and validating creator potential. The future of creator token projects may depend on how they adopt this new model, shifting focus from mere price speculation to value discovery and content quality screening.

The crypto world is undergoing a profound shift from “more content” to “better content.” The combination of Vitalik’s proposed non-tokenized DAO and creator tokens aims to end the separation of financial speculation from content creation. Creator economy has often struggled in the crypto space, but now the blueprint has been redrawn. While Bitcoin’s price curve on the Gate exchange remains volatile, some creator tokens’ price curves may begin to tell a new story about content quality, peer recognition, and sustainable incentives.