Legal scholar Lynn Stout challenges the principle of shareholder supremacy, arguing that a corporation is a separate entity and that shareholders only hold contractual rights rather than ownership. This view questions the goal of maximizing shareholder value, suggesting it can lead to short-termism. Applying this to the cryptocurrency space, debates over token holder rights may be misleading. If the protocol's goal is to build an participatory network rather than a profit-maximizing entity, then granting token holders fewer formal rights—viewing them as user investors similar to 19th-century infrastructure supporters—might promote development oriented towards practicality and long-term functionality rather than short-term gains.