Bitcoin Forum

I just had a chat with my friend who is very much into altcoin trading and told me about this ICO being
offered by newly launched altcoin..

Some of these are scam coin who just want to make easy money..

But some of these are legit ..

How would you know if the altcoin that's offering Ico is indeed legit?

If you see yet another coin with fanciful graphics but no new features or innovation, same old coin specs, no actual road map, no white papers. Promoting ICO as Donation based. Large premine for "ico". High chance it's fake

if developer is unknown, run away
if developer is known for scamming, run away
if ANN says premine, run away
if ANN says weird things, run away
if ANN looks bad, run away
if ANN has shiny graphics but nothing else, run away
if ANN has very bad english, run away
if ANN seems too good to be true, run away
if ANN seems too bad to be true, run away
frankly only 1% are left
of this 1% you can wipe out 99% again, so you're left with very little choices

over time your eyes are trained
just be careful and use common sense
sorry for this introduction but you will see what I mean my friend.

I have seen these signs on almost announcement on new altcoin,some have done better o have turn legit but majority of them are really here to scam people it has become an hyip of the crypto currency..

ICO is legit if coin developers shows off their real identity in public, if  not think thrice before investing.

With your post there is really slim chance that you can find a legit altcoin that offer legit Ico ,so it should be as professional as should be and no empty promises..

The true value of a cryptocurrency is in its people, not its tech. The only way to properly evaluate a coin, is to properly evaluate its people.

~~

I vet the ICO's on http://icocountdown.com

You can check the ones that are bad here: https://medium.com/@icocountdown/

My general rule is if it's not on the site it has some red flags.

Enjoy :)

Which coins that have generally been accepted not to be a scam, were started by an ICO?
As far as I am aware, the old school coins were never started by an ICO.

Ether is going strong at the moment, but the jury is still out imo.  Any good examples of ICO coins that have been around for years?

Very interesting  resources,are these Ico altcoin pay you to list their coin to your ICO countdown and what are your criteria to make it to your must list..

You post if it is not on the site it has some res flags..

Unless the block reward is independent from the coin creator, it's a cash grab scam.  Proof of stake is a permissioned ledger and not an actual decentralized network as well.  Once you've figured out that nobody in altcoins has actually improved upon the consensus mechanism of PoW, you'll figure out there's no reason for any of these coins to exist - with the possible exception of ring signatures or zk-snarks for anonymity.  It all depends on if Bitcoin adds it's own anonymity solutions or not.

But Satoshi Nakamoto the first crypto currency developer did not show who he is for a very long time I guess very few dev that offer Ico will have the nerve to show off their face,they usually let their alt account do this for themselves..

I am new here, would like to know more about ICO, i searched google but that did not give me any good results. Can anyone point to an full information about coin launch.

Is there any other sites that gives first hand information on ICO.   

earthcoin was a scam and I still made a decent profit on it

One way to avoid scams is to know the team behind the ICO. Make sure to ask around who these people are in the cryptosphere. But even if you think they are good developers sometimes they still make stupid mistakes. One good example of this is the slock.it team. They are the ones who created the DAO.

Do you mean 'legal' legit or 'not a scam' legit? None of these are legal per SEC regulation. But there may be an honest project out there not being ran by idiots or children. Good luck finding it in the present environment.

Just looking at the huge number of alt coins on yobit you can see that most of them are standing at 1 Satoshi with 0 volume. There is a huge sell wall for these coins with no buyers. Stay away from them.

If people try to convince you to buy a coin in the chat box of the exchange. Stay away from them.

If there almost no historical trading done in the coin or very low volume. Stay away.

You can lose a lot of money very quickly in alt coins.

Best to go for a coin that was around for month and shows stable pricing.

I agree but my opinions is quite different. As per statistics its shows only 3% whales capture 97% market cap and remaining 3% acquire 97%.

Same as in crypto market as 3% are genuine , legal and really innovative but 97% are dumb, scam or even called ponzi. Just running coins with higher admin stake for earning money by increasing value of coin.

There is no absolute way of knowing which ICO is "legit"... ehem, Ethereum/DAO, cough, cough.

Be nimble and don't be emotional.

ICO = Scam

People who say *some* are legit are full of shit.

Besides many are not even a currency..
They are "Schemes" associated with a block chain for the purpose of tacking on ICO "tokens"
...to be traded on Bittrex or Poloniex etc.

You guys are just trying to make it work when it won't
Your wasting your time.. it's futile !

The only people who will ever care about these scammy ICO's tokens are you guys here.
And you guys here are scammy greedy short sighted little profiteer kidiots who know nothing about anything.

Which scam should some kid "invest" his lunch money in ?
It matters ?

If you have to ask your already broke and just don't know it yet.
The wolves have had the game rigged for years and they have fancy sheep clothes.
They know their profit game and you are walking right into the trap like fools.

Notice how the outcome never changes ?
Somehow some way no matter what.. each and every single "coin" or service etc gets "exploited"
They have a toolkit full of win.
They can Gox you or countless other methods.. no matter what they control the rules AND the money !
They can't loose.. they just scam, steal, hack or change the rules to make sure they ALWAYS win.

Wanna play the game ?
The Altcoin game has a loooong track record not sure how you all seem to forget this.
What ? You think a leopard loses it's spots or something ?

Have at 'er ICO scam aficionado's ..let me know how it works out for you  :D
(you won't.. in a year your account will be long gone.. silent)

Developers must have a 1+ year track record of completed blockchain core projects, can be incognito. The code talks.

wow this is huge can you elaborate about your post,so there is no need for roadmap only completed blockchain projects is that the only criteria you have for a legit ICO..

This is not the only criteria, but it easily gives 1/2 to 3/4 to the weight on the balance.
There are many talented developers. Programming blockchain technology is a novelty - it's not sufficient to be a talented programmer, programming it securely is a top achievement. When you know it, the number of teams that you invest in can be counted with fingers on one hand. Search for developers' credentials, their performance, someone on the team must have cryptographic scientific background or at least a solid understanding of applied cryptography. Really, it's a no-brainer, software needs developers, blockchain financial software needs the best of the best.

After you've eliminated everyone else from your selection, you can look at little things like nice pictures and sky propping profit charts.

Never mind what i said above.. the REAL TRUE way to check is super easy people.
All you have to do is make sure the Dev's are using their real name publicly..
Then here is the easy part.. just look for the last name "Madoff"
If they don't have that name then hey.. no problem.. you're in the clear !  ;D
Simple huh ?

Facts with Spoetnik.. you're welcome ;)

There is nothing like Legit in crypto. Either you make money or you lose. Even bitcoin has shit pumps but the question is how have you utilized the Swings.

you can say legit when you gain n say scam when you lose  ;D

always looking for legits  ;D

hard to know 100% as Im not a insider....but with some time you learn the ropes.

I disagree that they can be anonymous. Before maybe they can get away with it or maybe if the project has no premine, announced correctly so that everyone will have enough information on how to mine and the code is open source right from day 1 of development. But now if you are having an ICO and ask the people for their money then it is required that you give them your full name and credentials and where you live. The scams here have already proliferated so it is the responsibility of the developers and the community to watch out for each other.

You guys are high on crack.
You replies are silly nonsense.. excuses by those who simply want to justify pushing on.

Every single "way" mentioned has been a train wreck of scam & theft !

By my estimates we've been taken for a good easy Billion dollars in FIAT.
And a lot of that was with properly "launched" projects.

And a project NOT properly launched is called an ICO / IPO / ITO
ALL OF THEM are scammy by design.

A ponzi is a ponzi and a pyramid scheme is a pyramid scheme.
Regardless if you know the guys name or made money off it etc.

Then what do you have left ?

THE ACTUAL FUCKING POINT TO THIS SHIT

WHY ?

..why the hell are these made ?
And why do their stories evolve after ICO day ?
The excuses for ETH have morphed in time in response to "FUD" for example.
Same with Monero.. you criticize them on their project and the project changes.
Or they start using different terminology and pushing different angles / sub agenda's

Take Carbon Coin for example..
I seen 1 other guy call it a scam when it was blatant.. that means 99% of you were little scammy cowards.
Step up or you are the scammer too .
Anyway  ;) the point was us 2 guys had mentioned how it was a SCRYPT clone.
..with a poorly thought out gimmick tacked on that would never work.
So what did they do ?
They simply changed hashing ALGO's then used that as their defense.
Just like how Ethereum tacked on mining 2 years after the fact..

How's BlockNET doing after you gave the guy we know BY NAME 1 million in BTC ?
Well last i checked after 1 year he let hosting expire and then had been handing out
"coming soon" excuses.
He claimed on ICO launch to have had made 75% of the code BEFORE the ANN picture jpeg was posted
then he had in 1 year with 1 million in cash done NOTHING.

And all you people do is cry.. but *MY* project is legit.
When they are simply additional attempts at the same thing as long ago.. cloning.
The real agenda is to make them *seem* more believable.

We are not seeing higher quality projects, we are just seeing higher quality attempts at pushing coins out
..for profit.

You all forget pretty fast the entire history of Crypto
and the fact there is actually over 6,000 ANN topics here.
All we have is the same EXACT mass coin cloners and their manipulators hanging around
exploiting the gullible idiots for money.. via any means necessary.

And believe it or not so called "legit" people claim to be played by nefarious people here all the time.
Take David Latapie ..he will go down in history as a Monero shill etc who was "taken advantage of"
So you are at the mercy of gullible kids who think they know things..
Potentially played by their puppet masters.
Yeah.. sure.. they can Acquire a "FACE" to put forward on the project.. that does not mean fuck all though.

Work on being smarter people.
Be more paranoid and less gullible.. don't be low hanging crypto-fruit.

There can never be any rules to follow for a legit project.
But some are designed & engineered to be a heap of scammy bullshit form the start.
Such as ICO's  ::)

And you all can not even TRY to argue that because you can line up and say Premined coins are scammy
..because of your cocky smug lippy "principles"
Then 2 seconds later say a coin 100% premined (ICO) is fucking legit.. if we know the guys name etc.
Seriously.. what a retarded crock of shit  :D

You covered all the coins on bitcointalk haha  :D

Fresh from the Lithium XLTH scam. Should've seen/read this thread sooner! An article in steemit (https://steemit.com/scam/@moonjelly/how-to-create-an-ico-scam-in-5-simple-steps) practically described lithium and this thread pointed out more characteristics of a scam ico. Good topic. Hope more folks'll contribute re: how to spot a scam ICO.

These list almost complete the criteria, but you didn't include Escrow. A credible and well known Escrow is a must, so if team wants to run away with the fund you know the escrow will make this public and call for refund

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I would also add check the background of the team in general, not only the devs!

Honestly this is not that hard anymore. We’ve seen more ICOs that are successful or scams so we are more experienced as a community now. To put it in words, you should basically check and search everything about that ICO . People behind it , the project , goals etc . If you aren’t sure about trustworthiness of an ICO just stay away from it.

In my experience and my study say a coin that has active development over a decent period of time is more than likely a legit project and other thing that a coin that allows you to transact completely anonymously is going to have serious value.Other side for scam coins,coins that are premined heavily or offer no benefits at all are usually scams. Also stay away from coins with a very low market cap and low trading volume.