What is exactly tokens of a project? How it has a value? Is it like shares? I am a newbie for bounty hunting and these things confusing me each time I read whitepapers of projects.

they can be a variation of things
for example they could be just marks of support. without any obligation but a potential future volunatry one.
they could be shares.
and they could be uttility token like it was the case for ethereum
regards