Scarcity–Utility Balance
Match an ownership asset’s supply to its genuine usefulness and meaning.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 97%
Evaluate an ownership concept through three connected questions: what can the owner actually do with it, what identity or emotional meaning does it carry, and how scarce should it be? The framework rejects the assumption that every event or object deserves tokenization. A famous championship game may support a collectible because the moment, participants, and provenance are exceptional; thousands of routine games do not acquire the same value merely by becoming NFTs. The intended output is a deliberately bounded collection whose supply corresponds to meaningful demand. The artifact itself should also express the reason it is valuable rather than relying on an explanation disconnected from what buyers receive.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain during a discussion of chess NFTs, sports memorabilia, and ownership technology.
Core principles
- 01New technology does not make every possible asset valuable.
- 02Utility, identity, and scarcity must reinforce one another.
- 03Meaningful moments support scarcity better than mass-produced artifacts.
- 04Supply should reflect the number of assets people can credibly value.
How to run it
- 1
Define the utility
State what ownership enables, such as access, licensing, participation, status, or preservation of a meaningful event.
Pro tip Describe the utility without mentioning the underlying technology.
Watch out A token existing on a blockchain is not itself useful.
- 2
Locate the meaning
Identify the person, event, provenance, identity, or community connection that makes the asset desirable.
Pro tip Favor moments fans already recognize as significant.
Watch out Do not separate the artifact’s presentation from the event that gives it value.
- 3
Set credible scarcity
Estimate how many instances can remain distinctive and issue only that amount.
Pro tip Use a memorabilia-auction mindset rather than a mass-market minting mindset.
Watch out Artificial scarcity cannot rescue an inherently unimportant asset.
- 4
Test the balance
Ask whether utility, meaning, and scarcity mutually strengthen the ownership proposition.
Pro tip Interview likely owners about why they would keep the asset after speculation fades.
Watch out Do not confuse speculative demand with durable utility.
In the wild
A chess platform issues a verified collectible for the decisive game in which a world champion secured the title. The artifact includes the players, complete move history, event provenance, and owner access to an expert analysis session. Only the historically significant game is issued rather than every match played on the platform.
→ The limited asset connects scarcity to a recognized moment and gives ownership a concrete benefit.
A platform automatically mints every casual match as a visually identical collectible. Buyers receive no rights, access, or distinctive presentation beyond player names and moves.
→ Supply overwhelms meaningful demand because the technology does not create significance.
Common mistakes
Tokenizing everything
Treating technical mintability as proof of market value produces large quantities of undifferentiated assets.
Ignoring artifact design
If the image or object does not convey why the underlying event matters, the value remains disconnected from the thing owned.
Mistaking speculation for utility
Short-term purchasing motivated by expected resale gains does not demonstrate a durable ownership use case.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for marketers and product teams designing NFTs, collectibles, memberships, or ownership-based experiences.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when the asset has no defensible utility, identity value, provenance, or emotional significance.
From the transcript
“Utility has limits, right? You can't just take it and just push it to the far extreme and make everything an NFT or make everything…”
“You have to say, oh, what are the things that make this technology really valuable? Right. And there's identity, there's ownership, those things make it…”
“If you're a brand and you're thinking about experiences and you're thinking about using forward-looking technologies, like understanding the scarcity and the utility and the…”
From the episode
Twittersode! How The Ownership Economy is going to change your marketing strategy