Bitcoin Forum

Are you relying on ICObench for ICO investments?

We went out to buy ratings on ICObench to prove how crooked the system is and why a proper investment project due diligence is necessary.

Read the whole story: https://medium.com/alethena/this-is-how-easy-it-is-to-buy-ico-ratings-an-investigation-13d07e987394

This market is just corrupt and so greedy - we need to establish a more sustainable mindset here!

This is why I don't listen to any review so instead of depending to these reviews website, I'm still doing research with my due diligence.

I'm open with reviews and suggestions of others but I'm not totally relying on it. We've seen countless times on how it's easy to buy ratings as an example of it with John McAfee.

He's a well known shill of any project that he wants to give good review as long as they're going to pay him good amount too.

Not all in ICO rating can be trusted, it is just good as additional resources of knowing the project.

Great to hear that there are still people out there who care enough to do their own due diligence.
But I suspect a large majority of ICO investors doesn't do this because they lack the technical skills, business/legal knowledge or simply the time that's needed to do it.

Unbelievable! That is why we need proper due diligence rather than marketing platforms!

Yeah I'm with you on this investors should always an individual research and not just rely on so called expert reviews. Menlo I think is one of the most relevant platform right now to counter these kind of manipulation. They have made a system to lessen the fraud and scams on ICO space.

Crazy story and describe, how corrupt the whole cryproworld is.
So more regulations are welcome in my opinion.
And i have invested some EUR in the Alethena-ICO, good luck :).

Wow....no wonder hashcard was able to get 4point on their rating and people end up getting scammed...DYOR can never be overemphasized.

Well, i don't believe any rating site, have never done so and never will
I believe my instincts because i know only that makes things convenient for me.

So, thus, everyone should make their own researches and stop believing those who get money to hype projects
in this dip markets, our funds are worth every patience

Make your researches, study roadmaps and make your trade decisions.

Thanks a lot for supporting us - we truly want to change this malfunctioning ecosystem and I encourage all of you to do / try it also!

That's true if the ico rating not pure 100%. Some company play with it. There're company which rising their rating to make people invest on their project. Also they can drop another ico's rating to make sure people not invest in that ico. So i dont believe ico rating 100%. I use that just for strenghten my own prediction on some ico.

Its easy to have good rating nowadays because at the end of the day its business, so better not to rely on any Rating or Reviews because its useless. If you really interested on the project better to do your own research or study which is more reliable and no regrets after because you know you did your best to prove that project is worth your money.

6.75 BTC for a premium spot is a strong price. I was suspecting the were doing that. That's why I always check several of these ranking sites to be sure. But you can never be 100 % sure, just increase the odds.

The ICO ratings sites are completely worthless as tools for making investment decisions. On numerous occassions I have seen them giving high ratings to projects that were completely fraudulent and that even the most cursory due diligence would have uncovered. They simply reprint whatever information the ICO project gives them and do not do any fact checking at all.

So I don't use this website. In my opinion, most of the rating of this website is like shit.
Because most of the time they're not objective enough, the ratings are fraudulent.

Almost all ICOs know use these services, ICO rating sites that mass list ICOs have these services, and yes they should never be trusted with legitimate information.

They're still useful in a way where you can see all or most of the upcoming/on-going ICOs, so then you can do your own research.

I agree with you and I also think that all rating sites, as well as people who advertise different projects, do it for money, they have their avid interest. I use these sites only to learn about new projects and then I myself start to understand and learn about the project! Do NOT trust them, disassemble the project yourself and read more!

Very good point. Nobody is contesting the fact that if (as an ICO) you have the money these rating pages can be effective *for marketing*. Put differently, spend that money and you will be found.
I firmly believe the market will institutionalise in the coming 12 months. Institutions are mostly not allowed to simply take into account their own best judgment but are obliged to get a third party opinion. So once we have arrived at the stage where serious reliable information is really in demand I don't think ICObench and the like will provide much benefit.

I don not buy on Ico rating, I usually take my time to do my own research about a project before I invest in it because most Ico rating do not really worth it and some of them end up being over rated because they might have paid for the rating that they got. It is always good to do a proper research about a project before investing in it.

that's why many ico projects are listed on ico rating sites like icobench, and others. Because they are paying for the rating made, so it's not what it really is. Yes there may be some really good, but not good enough too many in number. I am more able to trust ico rating that really gives the rating as it happens and also voluntarily, because I think it is more honest.

do not be 100% based on a site.
you should read and research your own and the last additional rating site after we finish predicting an ico

That's why personal project completion is more my favorite than relying on a project rating from a rating site. Indeed sometimes I see ico project rating, but I do not fully trust. I just look at it as a comparison, and examine my own project in detail.

This is one of the reasons why I don't rely on endorsements and review by listing sites because all of them do it for their selfish interest in mind and because everyone has a price, they can be bought and lead people into making ridiculous decisions. Even sites that have been beneficial to the community, they allocate space for advert and put disclaimer but in all its about you as an individual wanting to part with money and that interest is primary over any other party.

This not so surprising for me to be honest.
I never trust those scores, I just use this services to search for new projects and then i do my own research.

Good example was Titanium which now is under SEC investigation,they had the highest ratings in biggest rating sites.

Thats great review made by you! I think up until now those who were asking about the reviews of these sites are true or not will get rightful answer to them. ICO review sites are paid one and thus it makes no sense when we see every ICO getting almost 4+ review points out of 5. Thats all guys this is where we should come to know that these sites are just here to make money and nothing else. So its better to get the review done all by yourself, study it all the time over the forum and know everything by yourself. Thats the only way to do it.  ;)

This is why I do not trust many ico ratings websites. Because there are so many rumors about ratings and they do not give me much confidence

absolutely not, rating sites is not an indicator that a project will be successful and a high rating does not guarantee that the ico is promising or scam. do not immediately believe when an ico gets a high rating, we need to take the time to research it further.

Believing on review sites right now is a knock in the head I think. I don't think people would just believe 5.0 scored review without reviewing what the ICO is. Review sites are just a matter of reference if a project would be successful or not. Of course, researching well before investing is very important and those review sites serves as a list of what to invest with. Anyway, all of this behavior should be changed to make a more healthy competition for everyone. Anyways, have anyone looked into this ICO www.menlo.one? I know its kinda bit unrelated but their structure may fit for these kinds of problem.

I do not trust the value provided by ICO Bench on ICO, The value given is potentially manipulated, the value provided by the ICO bench does not guarantee ICO success, I prefer to observe ICO as I read the white paper, Road Map and find out about their team.

Good to know you have made extensive research like this. I think crypto currency project are very likely to use such services and deceive all the investors around them. Get the money into their hands and they always fly away without knowing to their investors that is us!
These reviews are what we look after and then try to get the most legit ICO's but see this now. This is getting worst day by day, as we are already facing the illegal ICO surges around us and now here is ICO promoters with scam ratings. Thats really bad one to know.

I wouldn't believe icobench measurements, because the evaluation website has been control most of the time it looks like, this website has most high score project at below their issue price, which makes me worried.

This is really ridiculous. That's why I recommend to research on the project before choosing an ICO. Even contacting with bounty managers are good enough to know more about any project. So researching by ownself is the main thing to choose the best ICO project.

It's really interesting to see how "everyone" collects information and makes its own analysis before the investment. Nevertheless, I'm wondering how people track their investments after the ICO - there is currently no provider of transparent and legit information about projects!

What a great article! I fully support Alethena's endeavours to make the crypto market more transparent!

Disclaimer: I already supported the project before this article and invested a small ETH amount!

Not all ICO with high ratings are good and guarantees a good product or system. I've seen many ICO rated 4.7 -5.0 failed after launching (i mean failed means ICO price dropped around 90% on first exchange launch) and it's not good.

Don't trust anything you see, be a smart investors yourself before investing into anything or before trusting any project, site, portal or person. Nothing beats self knowledge and self research.

Unfortunately that doesn't really come up as a surprise to me. I'm sure that is usual on almost all rating systems. I guess that's why crossing information is very important, but unfortunately not even that is a guarantee because those problems are probably common on multiple sites.

Anyway, I'm sure people usually do their own research if they are serious on making an investment, and don't rely on other's opinion.

all these aggregators of ICO are corrupt, it was understandable from the moment they were created, you need to think with your head no one will give you good information for free

At first but enlightened somehow as time moves by. I know some ratings can be bought and ratings are sometimes rigged. Impossible that a certain ICO is 4.5 at one site but 1.5 at other site. Kind of large margin and how the heck it was happened.

Now when choosing project, Im using my own set of criteria. I will used my experienced gained as tool when choosing good project rather than to rely on others review.

Their ICO bench does not specify anything, I'm sure they're receiving something to make the rating better, because there are so many scam ICO's that are losing out and getting high rating from ICO Bench

It is not new as I have read an article on this a while ago and the huge amount collected by ICO bench for rating. The thing is that all this rating and review website sucks and all they care about is the amount they get to make and care less about investors trying to use their website for reference or something. Moreover, projects that ended up being scam can easily be deleted from its database anyway. This is why it is highly necessary to only believe in your own due diligence before making any investment decision.

Not, I`m not getting scammed so easily, this is good to have some ratings system, it is the easier way actually, but I am trying always to inspect a project by myself and make my own decisions about it based on the research I`ve made.

I really do not trust ICOBench, most of the time when looking for and evaluate the potential ICO, ICObench is a website I frequently refer. But if the purchase of a credit rating is real, then ICObench will no longer have credibility. Every ICO is listed, and the rate on it is all advertising, no real research.

Thanks for the article.But I've never trusted ratings alone.These ratings are not backed by anything.If you are going to invest then looking at the rating do not need to immediately give your money.We need to analyze the whole project

It also matters on how a certain ICO rated on ICObench, it sometimes investors will into it as their basis to see if that have potentials for profit or not. But it won't work at all times as market trend changes all the times. It only our luck if we put our money in a certain ICO that their devs are continuously supporting it, then it surely there is a good future for us.

I don't trust ICO bench and ratings, they are there just for their money. There have various packages which indicates how you want your story to be told. The best decision on ICO should come from your self other than ratings of ICO which are all almost corrupt.

I think this site is good only when you want to find new projects for analysis. But i don't rely on their rating and do my own research.

I just knew there is manipulation and on this and this the reason why there are so many ico rating coming up, the market is flooded they are the new version of hyip monitor monitors and have taken up their place in the market, so do your own research and do not rely on this ico rating site they are part of the dirty game.

I do not use icobench to look for good ICO references because the ratings are not real. many ICOs have good ratings but scams like hashcards.

This is another reasons why reading reviews about ICO is not as reliable as what they have stated. Some of the ICO payed for their positive review to encourage investors to invest on them. ICO bench though is not that reliable when it comes to their review based on my experience before.

OMG! This is totally unacceptable. Few months back, I applied on an ICO seeing the review of them on ICOtech. Completing all the tasks on time, I had not get the token. It was just fake. But now I am realizing that it was not a real project. However, we all should boycott ICOtech to make the crypto industry free from falseness.

I believe in ratings, but not from the big sites like ICO bench, but from the trustworthy and tested communities of professionals of their job in telegram. I am a part in some of those groups and take my daily info from them.

Not at all. The best example is UCHIT. Many ICO rating sites have given it a high ratings (Around 3.5-4.5 out of 5). But now the project looks like a scam one. According to them, the soft cap has been reached but only 3 transactions have happened to their MEW address. Do not buy any ratings given by those sites. Those values can be manipulated easily.

Even a review site as big as Icobench can still buy ICO ratings, which is a terrible thing. What web reviews can ordinary investors still trust? Or just the number of code updates from gtihub?

I am happy people are finally talking how bad the industry is in terms of ICO marketing/tracker services. No metrics/data on what they can actually achieve and lots of shady practices going on behind the scenes.

Many of these "premium" trackers ask for ridiculous fees to be listed, when most of their traffic is botted or referral traffic which is useless!

I've been trying to raise awareness of these problems! https://forum.rados.io/t/ico-trackers-data/1181

Come join in if you want :)

That's why you should do your own research before start investing on some project.
Almost all ICO rated website is paid by the project itself before listing.

Well, these services exist in other industry as well, not just in cryptocurrencies. It is somewhat similar with those youtube shillers like suppoman. The only difference is that these people selling their services are knowledgeable.

And we can't trust that site. It looks like the article has already destroyed the credibility of ico bench and i'm very glad to see that about how it gives a very good awareness before try to invest in anything like that. People must try to pay a lot of attention for this one because this is a really important news.

Nope I don't rely on this thing but they help investors to give good analysis on their ratings, better to dig a research about the project- you can read whitepaper and check their backround. If they got GitHub to share on public then this is a reliable sources.

For a long time I suspected this to be the case and I'm not really surprised, this happens in all kind of rating agencies, whenever an organization gains the power to rate a market corruption will happen and the ratings become useless, this is one more reason, as if we need more, why the decentralization of bitcoin is one of its greatest strengths and why decentralization is one of our greatest strengths as well, each one of us needs to do our due diligence on any project in which we are interested and if we find something suspicious we need to share it with the community.

Well ... talking about marketing ... just another marketing campaign

You can not trust anyone, not even in the ICO that did the research and the article that clearly looks like advertising campaign.

We really need some regulations in the ICO sector.

For me ICObench is not the main reason I invest ICO. I have to really know what the project is. What purpose? Who's the team? What mission and vision? If the project gets a good rating but I do not know clearly the project I will not invest on the project. Many projects end up scam that gets high ratings.

Yes ICOBench totally corrupted they not only selling the ICO rating, they also sell the expert rating for 2 btc Proof Here (https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/ico-bench-is-asking-for-payment-for-expert-status-93a2870ed3f2). This is really disappointed, ICOBench is the biggest ico review site but from that proof i assumed almost all high rating  review are fake. Now a review not came from honest review about the project but just because of money.

A lot of them are and why not? He was getting paid to the tune of like 100$k per coin he shilled for lol

Why am I not surprised? It's no wonder why some tokens they recommended turned out to be bad projects. ICObench was my main go-to site to get ratings and reviews, but it turns out that they can also be bribed.

Hopefully, Menlo.one will not be a dissapointment when it launches this July. In an interview with their CEO, he claims to have a solution for possible scams, false reviews, and most other issues we encounter with ICOs. The solution is to make a decentralized ICO marketplace.  Link to their white paper: https://www.menlo.one/

The ico rate sites can't be trusted. The only site that can be trusted is the site that has been taking the decision to give the rate for any ico based on the discussion in the community on the telegram group itself.
It's crazy amount to pay the fake rate. This can be used by scammer and any other thief.

Personally I do not think more regulations are needed what we need is to use more our common sense as investors, people read a good review in a website and they are willing to invest thousands of dollars, to me that does not make sense, if you want to invest in an ico the only thing that should count are the fundamentals of the coin and nothing more, but people do not invest like that and they lose their money as a result.

Trusting those rating sites are bullshit. I look for rating at community like bitcoin talk and Reddit. Where the real scenario is always broken down with proofs. Then, I do my own research to make a conclusion.

Most of those ico review sites are scams. I don't really on them for my ico picks. Due diligence is important to be success with icos. I hope we all do that...

Sound good and I do not do that, before reading this thread I trust icobench web to analyze an ICO. and today I doubt they are looking for profits and money has changed professionalism.
start analyzing yourself or searching for another trusted web.

I agree with you that for investor, they have to know by themself how to choose best ICO. Some ICO rating too are good as comparison beetwen your researc and expert research. And after that in tue future you can easily choose best potential ICO.

If buying a rating on ICObench is real then I will not trust the ICO campaigns on it. ICObench is an ideal website for reference, as well as ICOrend and ICOreview. But after reading your post, I will probably reconsider about the rating on ICObench website.  I think researching myself and finding a potential ICO campaign is far more important than the website review.

I do not trust the value provided by ICO Bench on ICO, The value given is potentially manipulated, the value provided by the ICO bench does not guarantee ICO success, I prefer to observe ICO as I read the white paper, Road Map and find out about their team.

Have read articles about icobench asking for payments for high ratings. This is the reason why I stopped trusting this website. I have been using this eversince I started involving myself in crypto world but upon knowing this news, I shifted my source. It's sad how this once great site became crooked just because of money.

Well I am not so surprised at this because I don't really trust ico bench, I prefer icodrops because I think they are more reputable than ico bench. but for me I don't rely on rating sites for me decisions. I do my own research. 

Always better keep wider our resources, and not relying on paid services. Investment decisions shouldn't be that easy.

As I can consider myself as an expert in ICOs field and investment, so I can give you some advice. You need to choose it really careful and study all about ICO project which you want to invest in. For example, an experience of a team, a value of the project, uniqueness and then read some comments about it. If you need my recommendation, I can say you that you need to study about Kelvin Blockchain. https://medium.com/@kelvinchain/the-post-quantum-era-of-blockchain-todays-solutions-for-the-world-of-tomorrow-16bdd970f49a (https://medium.com/@kelvinchain/the-post-quantum-era-of-blockchain-todays-solutions-for-the-world-of-tomorrow-16bdd970f49a)

ICObench and some others ICO ranking web site in my thought, they are not so reliable.
cause ICOs could buy the rank, and even buy some people to reply for their project to look more reliable.
that doesn't work for me. I often choose ICO to invest my own way.

We can't believe any review because most are not legit Before invest do your own research don't depend on rating and others reviews. 

Most of those ico review sites are scams. I don't really on them for my ico picks. Due diligence is important to be success with icos. I hope we all do that...

I have head that a lot of companies buy rating from crypto currency reviews websites. That should absolutely be expected. The key to success in cryptos is to DYOR and not depend to much on others for direction.

That's right! For any so called investor to lean heavily on the advice of so called expert ratings, means they are fully ripe for the fall coming their way. A question begging for answer is, what made them experts? The decision to invest ought always to spring from an investor after their due diligence, everything beyond that is an opinion that should corroborate what the investor already knows or get him digging for more facts.

Thank you for this research. We've also been extremely critical of them, citing obvious conflicts of interest and unrealistic ratings given in exchange for advisory board positions. Our expose is called "ICObench Warmer," available here: https://www.tokenicide.com/opinion/icobench-warmer/ (https://www.tokenicide.com/opinion/icobench-warmer/).

What's most disturbing (or hilarious depending on how you look at it) is how desperate they have become. Last month one of their experts doxed a contributor to our site and another one threatened a lawsuit earlier today, which you can see in the comments to this post: https://www.tokenicide.com/review/ico-update-etherinc/ (https://www.tokenicide.com/review/ico-update-etherinc/).

I believe in ratings, but not from the big sites like ICO bench, but from the trustworthy and tested communities of professionals of their job in telegram. I am a part in some of those groups and take my daily info from them.

No, it's been known for ages that the website can easily be gamed, not really a surprise.

I've heard about this in the past, and it's really sad to see that these practices really happen. You've done a really nice investigation, and i guess that now the only option is to study the ICO's for ourselves, and not to put our trust into the so called expert reviews.

This is why I prefer to read the ann thread than a review in a website, at least in the ann thread you will read the opinion of many people, some have an interest to damage to ico and some to benefit the ico but there are also many people that are neutral and give their honest opinion about the project and that to me is worth a lot more than the review of some website that could have easily sold his positive review.

Great article - we were thinking of writing one ourselves along these lines with some of the experiences we have had.

Not a slight to ICOBench - everyone who works for them has maintained the party line of 'no pay to play - experts do everything in their free time for no money etc' despite viewing many profiles of our competitors with 5/5/5 ratings from experts with no comments! Obviously they need to make money - hence the marketing bonuses for payment. But I don't think they actively engage experts for phoney ratings - it's just inevitable that these 'experts' will be corruptible at some stage.

It is quite disheartening the extraordinary amount of scamming and impersonation that goes on in an industry that has come about to bring an end to that sort of stuff!

That being said, I do believe that many of the experts on ICO Bench are genuine and do try and put back into the community. It's just a shame there are those that are not quite so...

Always do your due diligence on every project!

You cant really trust ICO ratings nowadays, athough there was a time when  I had trusted ICO ratings and did mo good favors but most todays are only bought. It so sad that this crypto world has become so corrupt and greedy by time.

Even there was a lot of people have created a lot of article about that but it seems like a lot of people have already ignore the coinbench. it's piece of shit even i can assume that was having a lot of correlations with so many scammers to create such a fake rate to the scam ico. what a shady thing.

I do not trust this rating service , but I look at it. There are a lot of such and it is difficult to understand which of them is really correct.

I no longer trust any of the ratings, although I relied for example on icodrops. But all of them pursue their goals to promote a particular project, and you should always think with your head.

Believe in ICO projects with high rating on ICO listing site like ICObench is the worst idea ever :). Investors will lose their money very quickly if they choose all the best ICO projects on ICObench. LOL. It's really easy to get high rating on listing website like ICObench, you guys just need to pay them suitable amount of money to be the best on their website.

Over the time, again and again, I try making people aware about not to trust any of the ICO rating services, everyone is sitting here to earn money and they will go down to any level to do that.

Since the beginning of this year, you will see every ICO project getting a 4+ rating on ICOBench and similar platforms. People should get aware about this and must start doing there research before investing.

My simple question is, how investors fall into suggestions and comments and reviews from a completely stranger and there articles.

the site rating ICO certainly also paid from the work that they do. This I think is not effective because many assessments of the site rating are not like reality. many of the assessments of rating ICO contains fraud but also prevail and succeed. but of course, this provides enough vigilance also results for future later. better analyze yourself than to rely on the site rating ICO.

the website that provides investment project value is very common in my opinion. In the world of Cryptocurreny, what is more about buying ratings, I personally as an investor ICO does not refer to some rating platforms, because the platform only gives ratings not accurate predictions about the authenticity of the project rated . there is no guarantee of a successful project by only getting a good rating on a rating platform

I'm upset about the news. I'm used to trust ratings before I make a decision. I'll be more careful in the future.

It isn't new as I have perused an article on this a while back and the enormous sum gathered by ICO seat for rating. The thing is that such an excess of rating and audit site sucks and all they think about is the sum they get the chance to make and think less about financial specialists endeavoring to utilize their site for reference or something. Also, ventures that wound up being trick can without much of a stretch be erased from its database in any case. This is the reason it is exceedingly important to just trust in your own particular due perseverance before settling on any venture choice.

I hate all ICO review sites, and I hate ICObench. These Web sites usually offer new industry-related ICOs, but they do not have any unique features. I am all bad, 90% of ICOs reviewed are Scam projects. I'm terrified of all the worst things my website reviews bring.

I do not rely on any rating sites such this one (  ICObench ). Since i have known campaign which is listed at this site with high ratings compare the other. Show the team had pass their kyc. Unfortunately after raises a good funds. They become scam anf run away far from the bounty hunter. Why would icobench said the team is verified but in real is not

Buying will not give you enough confidence in your moves with money so I advise you to make your own rating which will help you to analyze the situation.

what a pity that now everything is bought and sold (of course this is dishonest ratings and can not be invested in the companies that they advertise .. there is generally no point in looking at the rating ICObench

I am looking at www.icoguide.com rates, they are real and not paid. The rate is not the only criteria to be relied while investing, but the mentioned platform is quite good.

I don't rely on reviews of others, especially public companies, where everything is bought for money, to collect the necessary amount and then can just disappear. No need to listen to anyone need to think, just for information it is necessary to consider and opinion of these organizations, but do not believe them blindly.

It is still better to at least view an ICO reviews other rhsn nothing at all. Yes I do take a peep at them but still that won't determine the outcome if an ICO . if a team later go rogue then the project is dead. If people still refuse to buy into the ICO then project us dead as well.

I don't invest in ICOs that are running. I prefer to invest in altcoins that have been included in marketing, in my opinion it is less risky than investing when the ICO runs.

ICO ratings should be only one element of a research with not too much weight as it can be manipulated as it is nicely showed
in this article. To make an investment decision it is the best if you make your own research.

You shouldn't trust with blind ambition to any review. This market is as greedy as any other markets. And I think we can't do anything with it.

From my point of view buying of ratings will not be so bad idea. The majority of them is made by experts who are interested in them and the risk is very low.

besides, we dont know who are those behind the screen making up those review. their judgement is not even half correct. instead of relying on rating site. do your own research and make you own judgement.

Guys we have to forget all this ico rating sites for me they are all paid to do what they do so why should we risk good money base on their ratings

This is why you must make your own research before you listen to some advisors or any other news. It's sad to see that IcoBench is doing something like this but money speaks I guess but the sad part is actually the investors who are beliving what IcoBench says regarding to ratings.

I think that this is so clear, if you invest your money for something, then you are likely to lose everything. Especially on the crypto market, where everyone earns his own way. You need to think only with your own head, and if you do not get it, then it's better not to do it at all.

This is exactly why ICOBench is completely shit. What is the point of going to a third party review service if all the reviews are paid shill ones? That's why I prefer sites that rate them directly, giving specific reasons for each point given, rather than just allocating an arbitrary score based on no details whatsoever. This is just one of the reasons why ICObench is being smacked by other rating sites like ICOdrops etc, I literally don't even check ICObench anymore as it's become so bad.

Icobench is definitely the most unreliable ICO rating web portal on the crypto market. I would never recommend investing as for that them.

oh my god..... I only believe on ICObench... Thank you so much for this information. Finally I uninstall ICObench application....

Alethena - the author of the icobench article - just released their second rating, or let's say due diligence. In my opinion this is the way to go in the future! Clear, transparent and adding a lot of value add for me as an investor. Wondering what the next one will be.
https://www.alethena.com/heymate

Yes, so many reviews sites are being bought in money. Icobend is a lot of notoriety for not good evaluation and very emotional. I suppose this assessment is just as symbolic, should not depend on it to make an investment decision

I have been following the project for the last few months and it seems they felt the crypto winter pretty hard. Now they need to deliver - I personally hope it is not a symbolic case!

I thought that this is open for all information. You can find price list of services on the ICOBench site. Listing and rating policy of ICOBench is quite transparent.

I think everyone who are at least once read the positive reviews about totally scam projects will agreed with you. I'm saw more than 40 positive marks from ICObench "experts" about explicit scam.

ICO rating sites are worse than worthless. At best you will get the same information as is available on the web site of the company doing the ICO at worst you will get an analysis based on money paid by the company doing the ICO. The reason this is worse than worthless is it creates the illusion that someone has actually verified the information when in truth it has not been checked. I have on numerous occasion found companies that where outright frauds that would be exposed on the most cursory due diligence but getting ratings from multiple "ICO Rating" sites.

I have heard from several people that the rating on this website you can buy, but to trust or not this information is up to you. I think such sites earn it on the listing. Therefore, not all ICO, added there would be a fair rating.

I never used ico site and i don't trust them either as i don't know if they give objective review regarding the project or not. The only time i open an ico rating site is when i want to look at the list of upcoming icos and they usually list them all. If you want to invest then it's definitely better to do the research yourself rather than regretting it later.

I hate injustice, especially with the corruption component. It turns out that to successfully attract investment, some startups specifically bought ratings to improve cash collections. That's just terrible. After this publication, I will not look at the community's evaluation of the project.

ye, the whole market is really greedy, and it's easy to buy anything with money. However i think there are still projects which worth the attention, it's just much harder to find one.

Have you read this article? It's my favourite one!  ;D

https://medium.com/alethena/this-is-how-easy-it-is-to-buy-ico-ratings-an-investigation-13d07e987394

I know that the rating on ICOBench is sometime not fair because ICO project can pay for experts on ICOBench to give high rating for their ICO project. That's why you shouldn't trust ICO rating sites and do not invest lie on its rating.

Its been well known that people do that for a long term/ Can't really blame the website though to be honest, thats what happens when your website gets big.

You cannot trust ICO ratings because all of them are sponsored by a certain company to have a good rating and good luck feedbacks. The only thing you can rely on is your own study and investigation to make sure you invest in a right ICO.

Can't say I'm shocked honestly, did you do this with any other ico websites?

hah iconench is a crap and not a good ico rating site and all ratings and listings are bought, i thought that everyone already know it...
ICOdrops is now the best one with a fair and true ratings but even this resource people should use only for information and compare it with other resources, DYOR are not just a characters, it is that what can save your money and life, just think about it and do not trust anyone in this wild crypto world.

It's an obvious fact that the cryptocurrency space is faced with so many twisted and corrupt practices. Its not a surprise to know that ICO rating could be purchased. Its wise to carry out personal due diligence before investing in any project.

   It`s more than wise, it can save your wallet a lot. How doesn`t check informations on several
places will face with problems eventually.
   This is not the first time we read about corruption on major crypto-currencies sites. I think they
are probably making money on a side by selling their services "under the table. This rise a lot of
questions, and it`s why we need to question everything we see or read. Don`t trust in anything,
check and recheck, give it a time and believe only after you tested it for a very long time.

Icobench integrity and credibility have been put to test a couple of times and they have failed most times. This should be a head-up for every investor out there. More than half of this ico rating sites are crap. Your investment decisions shouldn't be solely determined by them, due diligence is key.

No review site was ever made to bring something tangible or help the community in anyway and they are just simply money making ventures. What most projects do now is to buy ratings from so called experts so as to be able to make their project look a lot legit and for that reason it is way absurd to think one can get something tangible from this rating websites without doing proper due diligence on one's own.

Are you high ? Do you even have a single idea what ICOBench is all about before you even decided to spew this rubbish all in the name of increasing your post count ?

ICOBench is a rating website for ICOs and it is a place where investors and experts can come to deliberate on a project, the team, product and so many other things, which for now is nothing really to look forward to since a lot of the reviews and ratings are bought. This is what is being talked about since it seems you really need schooling.

I rely on that when I join the bounty. For investment I use icodrops. It is convenient

We all know whatever will it takes theres a corruption because it involves money here amd we can't control that which in fact prayer for batte is the only way.

The ratings have become as corrupt as the politics and various other directions in life.

This is indeed a problem because now everything can be done with money. here are many things that really make us surprised. including this article that rating can be purchased. ico also sometimes just a stupid projeck

I do not think that Icobench is an organization whose forecasts deserve attention. They are often irrelevant.

There is so much evidence that shows that ICO ratings websites and crypto "news" channels are scams.
If anyone still goes and trusts these sources even with the mountain of information out there then they are just lazy.
And if they choose a scam ico because of an ico ratings site, I have no sympathy for them.

Exchanges are also crooked in a similar way.
Even kucoin (which is actually low volume even though westerners love it) charges over $150,000 to get listed.
On top of that there are all kinds of "administrative" fees so companies are looking at almost a half a million dollars to get listed on decent exchanges.

this is why the decentralized exchanges and dao projects are so important.
It is exactly what the blockchain was designed for.
Instead of scammy corps manipulating things behind the scene, blockchain was meant to be open source, collaborative, and face to face.

I prefer to take part in the ICO with my own heart, because with that I understand the risks involved.
Bench ICO is good for monitoring us as investors and returning to each of us to choose ICO.

This just goes to show that the ico rating websites are just as scammy as the scam icos that are flooding the market right now. That is why I can never trust the ratings from any of these websites, they can be easily bought and the highest bidder gets the best ratings. I would rather take out the time to sit and research which coins are good for me to invest in,

Recently i was really surprised that approximately a half of projects in binance rating list (https://info.binance.com/en/rate/list) have a score from icobench... didn't expect that, i thought that binance team knows how is it going on icobench with projects listings and with their experts scores.

I myself am more confident with my research because websites like this are less accurate, the data is almost the same as other web sites, so it's better to learn by your own research than to rely on a website

It is not ethical if you buy ratings, because it do not give the right way of a ICO rating. When someone describe and rate a project on a fair way then we can trust them only.

As soon as I saw that website earlier this year, I knew that high rated ICOs were purchased or paid with a token. Also, I found that the ICO sites did not provide an objective assessment of each project

This is why i dont trust ratings of some website.
I always stick on my resources and research.
Market is very dangerous and if an ICO want to have additional success they will pay money to fake the ratings.

It has long been known and it is quite obvious that the ratings can be bought, it enjoys quite a lot of projects. Therefore, you should not blindly trust what other analysts write, you should have your own methods of analyzing and selecting projects. However, rating sites can be useful, I can only trust someone else’s analytics if at least 10 reviews from different experienced specialists are done on the project.

This rating site has long been selling its services associated with the rating. All experts write reviews for money. Better to trust the community sites that actually invest in ico.

This is how those sites earn money.
We can say they support scam ICOs and cheat community.

Personally I do not trust to ratings services, because nowadays people turned  such services into business, that was expected. My advice is to before investing just check the information by your own and trust to your own opinion only.

We probably loss our money if we follow in that site. Not exactly we've spreading FUDs but it is to give awareness for everyone especially for new comers and didn't have enough knowledge about these. Totally propaganda's happen around and that's the way they take money from investors.

I knew that website for ICOs review are fake, the team of ICO can make it easy just give some money to the site owner to get a good rating. No matter what your project is, advantages or etc.
They just need money for made fake/lie review. That for me, I suggest you guys more specifically to choose ICO, at least its not a scam project.

The main difficulty is to define which service is paid and which fair. I don't use ICObench as rating service a quite long time from the first news about paid reviews. After I saw paid articles on the icodrops but there is such articles were marked as 'paid'. And today I use https://analytics.hypernum.com  while team make own work fair and hard

That's why I always do my research and judge basing on the info from different sources & my own experience. It's really sad to see such corruption here, but there's nothing we can do.

I don't know, he is just like google ad. If some team have enough money to pay for his shill its like they gave 300k $ for commercials... What is more moral pay for and ad or pay a shiller?! And bunch of good projects are doing both, and scams usualy dont do either.

Those ratings are  not relevant for my decision which project i choose to invest or to promote.There are usefull for me when i need some second opinion on another point of view.

Dont be depend on the rating of some project you wantto promote or work on investing. Make your own strategy on you can improve your abilities to a successful investors. Take some research and study to be sure to the project you want to invest don't rely on what you have heard to soeone information.

ICO rating by promoter should not be a thing you rely on many when investing on projects even the scam once can the best rating with their funds, its very important you carry out some research to know if your funds will be safe and hope to get profits at the end. Don't rely on what you hear from promoter always study project careful before investing to avoid be scam.

That is very common these days, all are here to make money but some think about himself only and doesn't matter if any other one loses his hard earned money. Scammers are everywhere.

I'm sure that before anyone makes an ico investment, everyone is looking at ico rating sites. But the fact that the points on these sites are counterfeit is a big problem. We can see that the project received very high scores but its scam :)

They are good only to indicate with low score some scammy ICO. But high scores are unreliable for sure!

It is actually something everyone knows.

Websites like icobench are only good for see the summary of the project. Otherwise, higher rank means higher money paid.

I agree with you.We should not be greedy in this time it's because dishoneaty is not the good way to make us successful.Be focus in a right way so that all our effort is worth it to achieve.

I do not trust the rating sites. Their activity is aimed at making money - the best earnings are the sale of a place in the rating.

I have known for a long time that these experts have their own price ... and if you give it to them then even if you are a scammer get an excellent rating.

I do not rely on information taken from any source that is essentially advertised by the ICO. Invest in advertising 1 million dollars and get 20 million dollars fraudulent project. And such sites contribute to this. I can't blame them, but I don't recommend trusting the ICO ratings.

I do not deny that all this may be true, sometimes I myself noticed there a lot of things that are not clear there, but still this is a good site

Check out my latest story about another shady ICO marketing tool: token swaps

https://medium.com/alethena/on-token-swaps-as-an-ico-marketing-instrument-f4a312e6d5b3

There was a lot of talk about it. I am only sure that today rating sites are not a good opportunity to invest in all the projects that are offered. Of course there is a very high probability that everything is bought.

Most ICO sites are paid sites if you want exposure on your ICO project if you are the dev/owner.
I just use it to know which ICO is upcoming and don't rely on the review.

Damn,is this really true?Well thats why ever since i never trust those ratings caming from these sites ,and from the start i am thinking about this issue.because sometimes even scam projects is promoted by this damn corrupt company..

And i am still seeking for a ICO regulatory board,to stop this kind of system from this forum

I never rely on ratings. First, I study the project itself, then the team, previous projects of this team and the product they want to release, and then just subscribe to this campaign. Ratings are confusing and deceiving.

Not only the ICOBench has the payment for the getting rating, lots of other different services like this one has its price. and it is as clear as a day, because everyone needs the money to buy the bread and these services started to use like the means of earning the money, nowadays its a business.

No. I don't. Ever. It is the most terrible mistake an investor can make. These sites' owners are all the same that blogger bounty hunters, but they are just paid better. For some tokens they will write whatever you tell them to)

I would say ICObench is some scam website , look at their website! most of the ICOs that they ranked 5 or 4+ never have been anywhere!
I don't know how they rank projects , they gave to Fantom ICO 3.8 and it was one of the biggest ICOs of 2018 which affected on Ethereum network cause of amount of transactions into the ICO address in one day .

I have already seen this investigation, thank you for taking the trouble to disclose this information, we have to support each other as a community if we want to make this a safe environment for investors, unfortunately it is common that these types of sites accept bribes, so the most advisable thing is to do your own research.

Do you believe ratings? Me not. The creators of the site monetize their traffic. I'm not even sure that many analysts exist. This is a dakazan, it's just a means of advertising. Many times I saw how a project with a low rating sold coins well and went to the stock exchange.

A lot of projects that bought a rating on icobench I would not recommend to take from there the project whether it is with a good rating it does not mean that it is good , there were projects that there is about 5 evaluation and the project was a Scam , but on the contrary was a project with 3.8 and was very successful!

There are times actually that I would have to use those sites to help me decide over things like on what coin would probably be the best for investments and see how each coin may have the characteristic to survive. But I know how people are roaming accross sites asking for any group, community or ICO to use their service of promoting coin reviews. From their it is easy to sense how money was just the reason why the ads or reviews do not actually give what is a real review.  But do not be too concerned about it instead use it to know and analyze how their coin may work after ICO.

I don’t trust such sites at all because it’s clear that they pay off very easily and don’t trust them

I think new ICO listing sites with good standards and and can be trusted, have to come up, so that their will be more competition for the existing ones in the the crypto space.

I hope government regulation issued immediately because too many scam in this market. From rating until the project and ICOs. Better doing our own research before start join in ICOs and not because manipulated rating

I do not 100% trust the ico rating site because I know this is not true. maybe I see it as a reference to see the project, the rest, I see the whitepaper, roadmap, community, dev and others more relevant than sites like that

The best rating definition is your analysis, you study the project thoroughly to the smallest detail and make decisions regarding investments.

To be honest I rad all the story with interest till the end but then I realized that it was just marketing post ;D But you are cool, guys, really. Very cool "investigation".
Promoting your ICO by anti-advertising of ICO ratings is not the best idea(but good, anyway, I should mention). If the topic is true I am surprised with the prices - I thought it would be higher.

No ico rating site, could give 100% guarantee if the project is good or bad. Your due diligence is also needed besides its your hard earned money.

Not at all and i also understand how the business go with it. Besides, ICOBench and other ICO rating websites are just giving the investors the ideas about what are the hottest and possible ICOs that you might wanted to review first before you wanted to invest.

I use icobench rating as secondary basis to choose possible good ICOs project to earn money because as you said there is somethings not good in relying in the some website ratings, so its better to make your own research to know which ICOs are good than relying your whole decision in ICOBENCH WEBSITE  and other a like websites.

This is not a good decision to trust those review sites for your money. We should be responsible and decide base on our judgment not on those fake reviews. Although we can get their ideas and comments but we should not rely to them.

It is a pity that this happens and I still can’t believe that such a platform as icobench is involved in this, because it is a mirror for any investor, because before investing in any project it is necessary to study it and this service helps to do it, but there are quite a lot of services and it pleases

Yes, I do agree many people are commenting negatively about ICObench rating but most of the projects listed there reaching the hard cap, whether those reviews are very good or not. This makes me think negative about the paid reviews.

I usually read the reviews but then I myself will learn about the project, I do not believe what they judge if I'm not sure. Many times these reviews are not objective and are paid for PR purchases.