Paper Type
Short
Paper Number
PACIS2026-1849
Description
Digital platforms often use cash-like incentives to encourage user contributions, but such rewards can make contributor supply fragile and highly sensitive to reward value. To build a more stable contribution base, some platforms grant tokens economically tied to platform value. Yet it remains unclear whether this tokenized ownership stabilizes contributions even under an exogenous legitimacy shock. We leverage two novel datasets from the mainnet and the Q&A platform to examine this question. Using a Difference-in-Differences design, we find that total weekly rewards do not change significantly, but the composition of reward-earning activity shifts. Substantive contributions—including Q&A quantity and quality and referrals—decline, while attendance check-ins increase, despite being lower-value activities that still incur reward costs. Together, these findings advance understanding of how token-based distributed ownership shapes contributor responses under legitimacy shocks, with implications for platform resilience, incentive design, and risk-sensitive regulation.
Recommended Citation
Shin, Kayoung; Matta, Moksh; and Kwon, Hyeokkoo Eric, "Stabilize or Destabilize? Token–Based Ownership under Legitimacy Shocks" (2026). PACIS 2026 Proceedings. 5.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2026/blockfintech/blockfintech/5
Stabilize or Destabilize? Token–Based Ownership under Legitimacy Shocks
Digital platforms often use cash-like incentives to encourage user contributions, but such rewards can make contributor supply fragile and highly sensitive to reward value. To build a more stable contribution base, some platforms grant tokens economically tied to platform value. Yet it remains unclear whether this tokenized ownership stabilizes contributions even under an exogenous legitimacy shock. We leverage two novel datasets from the mainnet and the Q&A platform to examine this question. Using a Difference-in-Differences design, we find that total weekly rewards do not change significantly, but the composition of reward-earning activity shifts. Substantive contributions—including Q&A quantity and quality and referrals—decline, while attendance check-ins increase, despite being lower-value activities that still incur reward costs. Together, these findings advance understanding of how token-based distributed ownership shapes contributor responses under legitimacy shocks, with implications for platform resilience, incentive design, and risk-sensitive regulation.
Comments
06-Fintech