Back to: 第八期：通证与通证经济 The eighth class: Token and Token economy
01 Token’s past and present
Token在没跟区块链搭上关系前，其实早以应用在网络通讯中，原意为“令牌、信令”。
Before it was used in the blockchain, Token already existed in network communication. The original meaning was “token, signaling”.
在以太网成为局域网的普遍协议之前，IBM曾经推过一个局域网协议，叫做Token Ring Network，令牌环网。网络中的每一个节点轮流传递一个令牌，只有拿到令牌的节点才能通讯。这种令牌可以理解成一种暗号，而暗号被授权一定的操作权限，只有暗号对得上，你才有权利行使这部分的操作权限。
Before Ethernet became a universal protocol for LANs, IBM had pushed a LAN protocol called Token Ring Network. Each node in the network passes a token in turn, and only the node that gets the token can communicate. This token can be understood as a cypher, and the cypher is authorized for certain operation authority. Only when the cypher is correct, you have the right to exercise this part of the operation authority.