[zekevermillion]

That is valid, but tokens also have value from managing real scarcity in the underlying protocol. For example, bitcoin as a p2p protocol can only transmit so much information reliably. Bitcoins fundamentally have some value in relation to that bandwidth. The value may be relatively small compared to the value as financialized bubble asset, but it is still there.

This is more apparent in a token like Huntercoin. HUC plays a role in a game that is played by following the Huntercoin protocol (ie, on the "blockchain" though I hate to use that term). One could trivially clone this project and build Froggercoin or whatever, but you would give up the real network effects from humans playing the Huntercoin game.

This could become a more interesting dynamic as people come up with bitcoin-like protocols that (a) do more interesting things aside from merely publish tx sets, and (b) are not protocols that could exist as federated services without a scarcity token.