Bitcoin Forum

I am trying to find out some information about launching a new ICO and would appreciate it if those who have launched one could answer these questions.

1.  I have read articles that say you should not show your whole ICO here or anywhere until you launch it because someone might clone the ICO and launch same day as you to trick people into investing in the clone thinking it is the real one.  Is this true?

2.  If this is true then how the heck do you promote a ICO or pre sale? 

3.  And WHEN do you start promoting a ICO or a pre sale?

4.  I also know the benefit of working with those who have launched a successful ICO.  But getting ahold of these people is hard.  Especially when the rules say one cannot PM anybody.

5. Finally, so I know I have a great ICO and I know everyone says the same thing but based on the premise that I really do have a great ICO and I already have the technology working perfectly but I have not created the proper website, or white paper or smart contract so I was thinking of launching a pre sale to raise the money to be able to hire the right attorney, and talent to create the website, white paper and smart contract.  And of course in a pre-sale, everyone who comes in for that will get a lot more tokens for their crypto currency then those who come into the ICO.  So how effective are pre-sales and what does everyone want to see on a pre-sale to let them have confidence in the project.

I know there are a lot of questions but I was told that the Bitcoin Forum is truly the best source for information. I hope to hear from somebody on this.  Kind Regards  garyn.

It is advised to take precautions before showcasing the whole model of the ICO. It is important to patent the technology and take certain legal steps to protect it from being duplicated.

As ICO is a new developing technology, it is advised not to showcase the whole project before taking mendatoty security steps. Or else there is a chance that someone might steal your hard work.

This makes no sense. You just need to take a few precautions.
Before announcing your ICO, buy a .com domain, register its name/account on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit and  Medium. You should also consider making an ANN on bitcointalk.
You need also to inform everyone on all those channels about all your social media. Tell many times that people must always check if they are on the official website and official social media website.

If you do this, nobody will be able to create a fake Twitter with your ICO name to cheat people.


I believe you should start as soon as you feel comfortable with, and launching on all those channels simultaneously.

I've heard some ICO developers buy all the website domains that look like theirs. Thanks for posting this. I'd like to know more about it too.

First, you need to invest in creating your own website. Don't use any free domain or free hosting for this because this kind of thing will lead your ICO to a complete Failure.
Second, create social media accounts, in order to advertise your ICO. Don't forget to create a thread here in Bitcointalk.
third, Hire a reliable campaign manager to manage your ICO, you can find them in the marketplace -> services

It is best that you do not set to make it public when you are still not patent on it, to ensure that there can be no possible duplication on your project that is happening.

Launching a new ICO is as tricky as hell. One should be cautious and do the marketing at the same time. Though it seems paradoxical at first, the real trick lies in doing it.

Launching a new ICO is quite time-consuming. Hosting a successful ICO from scratch is going to be rather expensive. Time is an illusion and the future value of tokens is not supported by anything but demand.

First of all, if you wanna invest, you should think like a businessman to get the most benefit out of it. Secondly, you should see the nature of exchange coins and tokens. Also, if you can observe another investor, that would be the best for you to get a grip.

It is also important to have a project behind the ICO. ICO simply to launch a new coin will be just another one in the crowd. Even with a good project it is difficult to have success at this moment.

Thank you everyone for the great answers.  I really do appreciate it.  I want to let you all know that I am a successful entrepreneur and have created and grown many successful businesses in the more conventional way but I am new to the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency world.  I know how to start and protect and build a business in the conventional ways and have be doing it for decades but a newbie in this world of yours.  I am confident and comfortable in the more conventional business world and talking about a product and building it is common practice but it seems in the ICO world you do not say anything until the launch.  Or am I wrong?

What we are doing is world changing and i know everyone says that but this is.  And I feel if I would to say what it is, someone would use the idea and concept to create a ICO just to raise money.  We have domain names, we have Social Media and have for awhile.  We have our process patent. 

There is nothing in the ICO world that deals with this industry or a product like this.  It is an actually product that works and will help people.  It is not a derivative of some BlockChain Technology but a product that can help people that I believe the Blockchain technology will greatly improve its chances of becoming know world wide.

So as I said above I am concerned that if I announce what it is and the industry it is in, I feel someone would make up something in that same industry and try to launch a ICO just for the money.  Then when we come out with ours we be considered copying them and also just to make money.  But that is not our goal.  Our team has been working on this since 2009.  We have been using it on a limited basis but need the funds to bring it worldwide and to continue bringing it worldwide.  We are in for the long haul and convinced that the Blockchain and cryptocurrency industries are the way to launch our product.

So I ask, should I talk about the product and the industry but just not show the model.  Or do I just keep quite until the launch or pre sale.

Well, there are so many things you really have to consider to read purely before you even start making attempt to launch your ICO with most of it being publicity. This is the fastest growing cryptocurrency forum in the world and being the forum that satoshi himself came up with back in the days, I guess, it makes it even a lot interesting.

The ability to find investors to invest in your product means you will have to create some awareness for it, and this is a very good space to start doing that which is why you see projects having ANN threads where they can discuss more about the project to investors or using the cryptocurrency section of Reddit to announce as well.

Bounties also can be effective on this forum which would really help to pitch out your product, team and idea pretty fast without having to spend too much.

We know there are many projects with the same idea or goal, but there are still many developers who make ico with the same idea. Even though the project failed and never even reached the ico price, but the developer still continued the ico and after they launched the platform, they failed the same as the previous project.

I am confused, have they never learned from the mistakes of competitors or projects before? or they only aim to raise as much funds?

Thank you Kevin77 for this great information.  It really helped.  I understand publicity is key.  I have been reading a lot and trying to contact some of the more successful people in both blockchain and cryptocurrency.  People who seem experts are ICO.  But most I only have their LinkedIn and they are not responding.  I am also looking at and considering using StartupToken or TokenFoundry.  One of the things that interest me most about TokenFoundry is that they will completely vet me, my partners, my company and the ICO.  I like that a lot.  Hopefully investors would like that too. I think it would give credibility to my ICO.

I also know I need to get a buzz going which is why I wrote this post at first.  To find out how I can start talking about it but protect it. So are you saying that I should use this forum and Reddit and not worry about people who want to copy it?  I just have to step out someplace and trust that my message and ICO will get not be copied.

Bounties? Before I even launch the ICO? 

What about doing a pre sale offering so I can get some funding to properly launch the ICO?  I know that if I use  TokenFoundry i cannot have any pre sales.

Thanks again for the info.

That is something that I believe every team should have at least try as much as possible to get familiar with before even starting an ICO. How will they even thrive when little things like this are lacking and an ICO team does not know what to do to get things rolling? The most important thing is to patent their idea, but at least idea these days are recycled anyway, so one way or the other is to differentiate how you stand out from the general space, have a product, have a website, and then you can decide to pitch your idea to potential investors who see the future in what you want them to invest in which this forum is always a good start to announce that.

mainly promoted in social networks, it is also possible to have a well-known portal review your project.

nik9990, are you talking about portals such as TokenFoundry and StartupToken.  I really like the idea of been vetted by such a company.  I believe that will give the investors another layer of confidence when investing in us.

As the founder of a project you to have invest in your idea first by creating a credible website, then create social media accounts for engagement and marketing of the program and also create announcement thread here