Blockstack Won't Need to Sell Bitcoin or Ether to Survive Crypto Winter

Ali said the startup has an extended runway because Blockstack held roughly 70 percent of its capital in fiat.

Plus, the 30 percent of its funds that Blockstack holds in bitcoin and ether aren't intended to cover operating costs.

"Crypto would be the last thing we'd use," Ali said, adding that a lock-up procedure was also applied to Blockstack's native token so that token holders could only access their crypto a full year after the original purchase.

Compared to projects such as the Aion Foundation and Civil, which have partially compensated participants with tokens or the promise of future tokens, Blockstack has been conservative about rolling out community incentives.

In the meantime, it's leaving the task of evaluating contributions to partners like Democracy Earth, a blockchain governance startup that helps rank and evaluate Blockstack applications and runs elections where token holders can vote on which applications receive portions of a monthly bitcoin grant from Blockstack, worth $100,000 in total.

In the long run, Stanley added, Blockstack aims to increase the role community members play in token distribution, so that the startup isn't a centralized source of rewards.

Unlike many token projects, Blockstack is not relying on its native cryptocurrency to fuel its business model or attract new community members.

Hunter doesn't own any Blockstack tokens yet, although he might someday.

At the moment, he's more focused on collaborating with the Blockstack app developers behind Stealthy and Blockusign to add privacy features and the ability to sign contracts.

Ali said Blockstack itself may raise more traditional venture capital in the future so that the team can focus on building a valuable ecosystem before prioritizing monetization or liquidity.