Bitcoin Forum

This is regarding the topic started by btyco but I think there is a thing to discuss other than just a reply.

Trusting an ICO these days like throw away your money for thin air. most of(90%) ICO Projects are scams useless, checking Fb/LinkedIn profiles is one of good point to identify whether the team is legit or fake. But the problem is, can't run a scam Ico by legit team.?I saw many ICO's with legit, active, educated, technology related team still scam ICO investors. I think these are the main reasons for that

01 scam ICO's are getting normal these days, no action was taken for past scammers

02 Can't guarantee an exact profit from an ICO so can't take a legal action if they list token an exchange.so normally scam Ico project with legit team list thier tokens on decentralized exchanges or exchange with cheep listing cost. But value will be dump without project development.

03 team can delay the development and take more time stating much reason. After a couple of months project become a scam project and no one will care about it. even remember the project

04 ICO investors are from worldwide so can't gather easily and take an action against the team.

05 market trends can rune some good ICO project too, so people think price dump of the useless ICO as a market trend but eventually the project will be a scam after a couple of months.

06 No exact legal regulations and laws for ICO's

I think the legit team also can run a scam/useless ICO easily so make sure to research deeply about an ICO before invest on it.perfect team is not a good measurement to choose an ICO.

Scam ICOs is one of the reasons why regulations is necessary. 

Posting pictures or videos of the team doesn't stop them from exiting with the funds raised.
I think a renowned, credible person in the team, and an expert in that field can help, as he/she has a reputation to lose. But it can be a faked identity also.
The safest option now is avoiding ICOs.

5 years ago it was popular to create PTC sites with motivated traffic. From all living then, which have lived up to today remained only NEOBUX. So the ICO, is now repeating the history of such sites. Each schoolboy having a small amount of money can create a trash coin that will not carry a strong value for the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Try to carefully read all the information about the ICO before investing.

Even ignoring scam ICOs, people simply underestimate how many companies and startups fail.

For every Google, Amazon and Bitcoin there's thousands of companies and projects out there that either underperform or fail miserably. Problem being, to be successful a lot of things need to be right, but to fail it often suffices when just a single factor falls short (eg. great execution is worth nothing if the idea is bad and vice versa; having a great product is worth nothing without a userbase etc). Doesn't matter whether the company is actually legit and whether the people behind the project are publicly known. Companies fail, and that's that.

The thing is, with classical VC investments there's usually 1) a stringent screening process and 2) a wide variety of startups being invested in, as to spread the risk. Most startups will lose you money, but the few that succeed are expected to make up for the losses.

ICO investments usually involves throwing money at pipe dreams sold by a flashy WordPress template with next to no research. Accordingly the ratio between losers and eventual winners is not exactly profitable.



Regulation can't cure stupid.

I agree. To be fair, nothing can cure stupid. The information campaign against ICOs seem to be working to some degree, but there's really no way to eliminate scammers and their victims. ICO regulations should help somewhat towards that end by making it more likely for scammers to face consequences.

Reputation is capital, a good team (with integrity and expertise)  will not peddle scam ICO projects .For me, it is the most important factor I consider before investing. Regulations are needed, since it implies that the team will be ready to face the wrought of the law for any unwholesome practice

It is true that a verified team can still run a scam, just look at the bitconnect team. However, there is a lower chance that it is a scam as scammers do want to be in the public eye. There are many parts to verify before investing, team verification is first, then project viability (whitepaper, profitability, existing competitors, etc).