Not exactly related, but I've seen people suggesting a new path for opens source funding that would be around tokens instead of cash. One might be able to pledge tokens towards a feature or fix instead of cash.

Even the suggestion of this absent an implementation hints at a future for tokens as a commodity. But it is interesting to think of it as some kind of new asset class, between commodity and currency.

I mean, we already think of tokens in the form of currency in crypto (e.g. NFT). There may be more than just similarity in the name choice when it comes to AI tokens. One could even think of things like "exchange rates", etc.