Currency
At the heart of Smallworld is structured, programmable data — but like any decentralized network, it needs a way to sustain itself. The native currency provides that foundation.
Its simplest role is to pay for transaction inclusion, ensuring the network remains permissionless, secure, and economically sound.
But beyond that, the currency becomes a powerful mechanism for programmable value exchange — enabling collaboration, commerce, and automation across the global data layer.
Unlike traditional blockchains, where the network exists for the token, Smallworld exists for the information — and the token is simply a native way to move value through it.
Native value in a global information system
What makes Smallworld different isn’t just that it has a currency — it’s how tightly integrated that currency is with the network’s structured data.
Because every piece of data in Smallworld is programmable and owned, currency transactions can be directly tied to changes in that data.
You can:
- Trade digital assets like software, datasets, or creative works
- Build decentralized markets for real-world assets: stocks, gold, commodities
- Automate licensing and royalty payments based on data usage
- Bundle data updates and payments into a single, atomic transaction
This creates a programmable economy where data is the contract, and payment happens automatically when conditions are met.
Cutting out middlemen, opening new markets
Smallworld is a shared, interoperable network — which means trade can happen without platforms, without silos, and without intermediaries.
Use cases include:
- Publishing and access-controlled content
- Subscriptions and streaming rights
- Micropayments for insights, analysis, or compute
- Licensing systems for patents, trademarks, or IP
- Direct-to-consumer sales of apps, music, or knowledge
Markets become open by default — not because platforms allow it, but because the system is built to support it.
Atomic linking of value and action
Smallworld supports atomic transactions — where data and value move together, or not at all.
This enables:
- Licensing that only executes when rights transfer successfully
- Asset swaps where data and funds are verified on-chain in one operation
- Exchanges with no off-chain infrastructure or trust assumptions
There’s no need for oracles, bridges, or external coordination.
The blockchain is the execution layer — the data and the money live in the same place.
Incentivized computation and collaborative tasks
Because Smallworld combines identity, data, and payments, it can power a new class of open computation networks.
Examples:
- A company publishes a dataset and rewards contributors who clean, verify, or enrich it
- A decentralized AI model is trained by many actors, each paid per validated result
- A scientific workflow is split across labs and funded via tokenized bounties
If a contribution can be proven on-chain, it can be rewarded automatically.
Currency as connective tissue
The integrated currency ties together the full architecture of Smallworld:
- Data — What is stored, structured, and governed
- Identity — Who acts, signs, and owns
- Logic — What conditions trigger action
- Value — What changes hands, and why
When value is just another part of the data model, it becomes possible to design systems where transactions, rights, and automation all converge.
More than a token
In Smallworld, the currency isn’t the reason the network exists.
It’s what makes the network sustainable — and programmable.
It enables a world where:
- Information is composable
- Rights are enforceable
- Identity is portable
- Value flows natively with logic
Currency in Smallworld is more than payments. It’s how the network coordinate work, exchange knowledge, and move value — all through a shared, programmable infrastructure.