Bitcoin Forum

Recently we have seen many ICO turned out to be Ponzi schemes. In order to avoid them we need to investigate the ICO and checking their whitepaper is one of the key factors for investing. Now to read the full whitepaper it will obviously take a lot of time. I want to know how I can read the whitepaper properly to analyze the ICO.   

Well, you can find some good reviews or read onepager / lightpager - project summary.
 

First research all info on website and if you liked the idea/team/roadmap/etc then open WhitePaper and read it to find out more detailed info about ICO. Look for headers and read info under headers most important for you.

You need to know how to read. And you need to know what ponzi scheme means. Then is super simple.   I personally had not found many ICOs to be ponzi schemes. Because in most countries I know ponzi schemes are forbidden, so they would not crowdfund much money for their project that way.

Usually, from the announcement thread you will instantly read and know the concept of the project. Whitepaper is just the details of the project, the examples, and the disclaimers. Mostly the roadmaps are also seen in their announcement thread, all you need to do is just read and understand. They also usually have one page article in medium, you can read them also.

Yes, some scams can find some unreasonable places in the white paper. In addition to the white paper, the social media that pays attention to the project every day can also get a lot of useful information.

After you read a few of them, you start to notice some trends. It’s an immediate red flag if guaranteed returns or income forever are promised. There is no way to do either of these things and they are clear indicators of a Ponzi scheme.

A good white specifically addresses what the issue is, how the project will solve it, and what the token is actually used for. If it doesn’t define those things or if there is no information on the team, it’s probably not a great start for a project.