this type of thing usually means you are the product

I don't see how this follows. The cost of nails has fallen by 95% over the last century. It's because the cost of manufacturing has fallen. Not because they are selling the information of nail consumers.

Tokens are not normal software, because they have marginal cost, and I think people who are used to software economics really struggle with this. With token generation there really can be manufacturing cost efficiencies where one producer is just straight up better at serving product at a lower marginal cost.

	▲	robocat 33 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> The cost of nails has fallen by 95% over the last century No it hasn't! A century ago, some nails cost 2.5% of disposable income, and now the same nails cost 2.3% - only a little cheaper. The cost of nails has remained remarkably consistent for a century. The problem is that you have ignored the depreciation of money. Let's assume California prices and income and pick a bigger retail package of nails as you might use for building a house. The numbers used to calculate percentages: in 1926 a 50lb keg of 4" nails was $2.75 and median after tax income might be $108 per month. In 2026 a 50lb carton of 4" nails is $106 and income might be $4,516. Albeit I assume nails are now more readily available and the quality of nails is likely better; and perhaps I should have compared galvinised nail prices.