Do you know any big ICOs going on in the US?

I was reading this Forbes article:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/perianneboring/2016/06/28/the-blockchain-brain-drain-how-the-states-are-driving-block[remove this]chain-companies-abroad/#4ab643ce83fc

and it talks about what many of us know. It is difficult for blockchain-based startups to grow in the United States compared to other countries due to regulations. On the other hand, the US has a dominant position in the more mainstream tech industry with Silicon Valley among other cities focusing on growing tech. As someone who believes in both American tech/innovation and the inevitable blockchain revolution, I am interested in investigating further ICOs based in the US. There is just too much talented tech labor, available funding, and, frankly, interest for the US to not eventually embrace blockchain startups in a mainstream way. In fact, given the current saturation of the market, I expect that this process may already be starting.

Given that I believe blockchain growth in the US is likely to explode in the medium-term future, I think now is a great time to invest while prices are depressed. As has been mentioned, the US offers a more difficult regulatory environment than other countries at the moment. This is a double-edged sword. It makes it difficult for some startups to get off the ground, but on the other hand, it does offer a kind of vetting process. Why would a cash-grabbing scam set up shop in the US as opposed to anywhere else where it would be easier? I think that if a company chooses its HQ to be in the US, it signals a long-term vision. And that obviously they see themselves as legitimate. These companies are more likely to deliver profits to their early investors.

tl;dr  The ICO market is saturated right now, which depresses prices, even though future growth will be quite large for those that survive ICO. Being located in the United States is an easy signal to look for that indicates legitimacy. Thus, now is a great opportunity to invest in ICOs taking place in America.

So my question to the community is:  what upcoming/ongoing American ICOs do you know about and are you most likely to participate in?

To share with your friends who are non-believers 

https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/4-key-misconceptions-about-cryptocurrency/

As always the question is whether you are investing or speculating. This is probably NOT a good time to speculate on ICOs. The market is really flooded right now keeping the prices low. If you have down research on the company and believe in the project, then there is no reason not to invest. If the project is successful, it is reasonable to expect the coins to appreciate over time and getting in early is the best way to increase your ROI.

For instance, Qchain and BitDegree both have chances to be very successful, sustainable businesses and I expect that over a long time horizon, their tokens will appreciate substantially. Qchain just started their ICO. You can read more or check out the ICO at https://qchain.co/. BitDegree's ICO begins December 1. Check them out at https://www.bitdegree.org/en/token#token-distribution

Awesome share thanks! Nick is a big libertarian, I wonder how many btt people have similar views.

I think the video hits on the exciting elements of blockchain technology from a societal standpoint. It really does enable tremendous decentralization of economic services. Shifting the power from institutions to individuals should be something we can all agree on.

How important is it to you to monitor the momentum on an ICO? Do you want to be the first one when it starts to get any bonuses or do you wait to see how quickly tokens are selling before you decide to buy in? Or do you think this is an irrelevant concern and just invest in whatever projects you believe in regardless of what others do?

Of course I believe NEM is the future, I think it's fair to say that ETH is moreso the present. So I think it makes to develop on multiple blockchains to be prepared for multiple futures. It's a pretty easy way to hedge your investments that, frankly, it's surprising that technique hasn't been used more. I wonder if Qchain will be a trend setter in this strategy.

Sometimes those captchas are hard even for a human!

Like any asset that holds value, bitcoin can, has, and will be involved in bubbles, because it's value today is derived from the expected value of value in the future, which is uncertain and therefore responds to changes in beliefs. Sometimes those changes can be very large and happen very quickly.

So CAN bitcoin be a bubble? Of course. IS bitcoin a bubble? Of course not. It was always have some value going forward. Is it a bubble RIGHT NOW? I don't know, but I don't think so. It's volatility doesn't shock me. I expect that in the near future, bitcoin could very well be worth less than it is now and in the longer term future, I expect bitcoin to be worth more than it is now.

I think the AdTech space is one of the more legitimate uses of blockchain technology, so I am trying to focus my efforts on understanding the sector. What AdTech ICO's are you excited about and why?

For me, my favorites are BitClave, Qchain, and adHive. BitClave wants to be like a crypto-google. A search engine where instead of harvesting everybody's data, they enable users to monetize it for themselves. While I'm skeptical of anyone trying to overthrow the biggest company in the world, the idea is interesting, valiant, and could certainly become huge if can reach a critical mass of users.  You can find their website here:  https://www.bitclave.com/en/  Their ICO starts in a week.

Qchain, on the other hand, wants to focus on connecting advertisers and publishers to deliver different types of ads, but especially native ads, which are growing in popularity and profitability. Their website is https://qchain.co/  Something interesting and unique about Qchain is that they are building on Ethereum and NEM. This is hedged move will allow them to take advantage of the technologies of both blockchains. Today eth is bigger, but nem has some potential technological advantages and they want to be positioned to exploit those if nem comes through (1st mover advantage is always important). You can read more about how they leverage NEM's blockchain here:  https://medium.com/the-qchain-blog/nem-meets-native-how-qchains-tech-will-enrich-digital-advertising-cd8dbfba3c8f  Finally, another unique feature of Qchain I like is that they are based out of the US, which is not common for many blockchain startups. With so many scammy crypto-startups, they obviously are not looking for a quick buck or they would have chosen a country with looser regulations and lower taxes, so I think they are in it to develop their product for the long term. Their ICO has just started and they are still offering bonus tokens to those who place orders in the next few days, so act fast.

adHive is somewhat similar in that they are also developing on Ethereum a platform for delivering native ads. However, they are focused delivering ads to video blogs. Their website is https://adhive.tv/ because they are attempting to disrupt traditional television advertisements with their improved video ad experience. TV has been in trouble for a while now, mostly replaced by subscription based services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, so in some ways, adHive is maintaining the more traditional TV business model, just updating it for the 21st century. As someone who doesn't like subscription services, I'm excited to see this model work. Their model is more complicated here as it involves building their AI, so check out their white paper for more. Their ICO begins in early 2018.


Those are 3 up and coming (or in the case of Qchain, already here) AdTech ICO's that I like. Do you have any that you've got your eye on in that sector? I'd love to hear your ideas!

1) good use of blockchain tech as a solution to a problem previously unsolvable without blockchain
2) good use of tokens after ICO. otherwise, why even issue tokens...
3) good white paper. not BS copied and pasted from sources they don't appear to understand. includes understanding of their market and how they will achieve they technical goals
4) tangible demo. if they can't show you anything, it's an awful big leap of faith
5) any kind of 3rd party recognition is nice. news articles, "best of" lists, even legal representation (law firms won't counsel companies they expect to fail as it looks bad for them) especially in countries where the law poses a major problem- essentially a backing law firm says "we think these guys don't have fatal legal problems"
6) where are they from? I like the US since that is where most major tech companies are from, I wouldn't suddenly expect that to change just because of the blockchain. I hate to profile, but the sketchier the country their based in, the less I feel I can trust them.

It seems like there's a lot of agreement in ERC20 over waves.  I don't think I really saw any positive arguments for waves at all.  Does it have any advantages over ERC20?

Qchain is an ad tech company based in the US.  The have a solid wp and a demo you can check out:  https://medium.com/the-qchain-blog/bighorn-alpha-release-qchains-advertising-app-demo-is-here-29675ee43591

The main questions you should ask for any ICO is does the blockchain really make any sense for solving the proposed problem and do the tokens serve any utility?  For both of these questions, Qchains answer is yes.

BitDegree is an ed tech company. Similar to Qchain, their use of the blockchain and their token is logical. I just wish they were based in the US instead of Lithuania.  You can check out their MVP here: https://www.bitdegree.org/en/token#mvp

Great write-up, Departure! Really appreciate the the effort and sharing your research here.

For me, I like BitDegree and Qchain more than Bankera. They just seem like more realistic ventures at this point in time. While no doubt blockchain technology is disrupting how certain aspects of finance operate, I think it will take a while before a startup is able to reasonably compete with the big banks. I suppose that doesn't necessarily mean it can't be a successful company, though.

Qchain and BitDegree both seem like they are well-positioned. Good teams in the right industries, that correctly leverage the blockchain. I like that Qchain is based in America, while BitDegree is based in Lithuania.

It's a fun pipedream, but it'll never happen. Big governments love their monetary policy and currency manipulation. For those non-economists, monetary policy relies on manipulating the money supply to alter the value of the fiat currency. So every governing body that has control over a currency can (and almost always does) implement monetary policy. Thus, if there was only one currency, the entire world would have to agree on a singular monetary policy. Never going to happen! Hell, the euro is barely holding it together because different European countries want vastly different policies. Now imagine that on the worldwide scale  

Then if you want to say that the universal currency should be bitcoin, there'd be no monetary policy at all as the money supply is fixed in the long term. I guess the central bank could buy and then burn btc, but this is obviously very difficult compared to current monetary policy, perhaps prohibitively so. Also, you wouldn't be able to prevent other agents from doing the same, so yea it wouldn't really work.

I've been following Qchain for a while now and I, too, am impressed. For all of the crypto-crap going on in ICOs right now, I think Ad Tech is a potential bright spot because it is actually a proper application of blockchain technology. There have been others in Ad Tech but none of them are focused on native advertising except for Qchain. This is a major advantage. Also, they have a clearly outlined business plan that caters to real-world enterprise, unlike many competitors.

I also am following the BitDegree ICO, but it hasn't launched yet, so it's too early to call it underrated. Cool application of blockchain tech tho!

In the unreliable world of crypto, its seems that the most important feature so far has been the first-mover advantage.  So for the time being, I don't see anything else threatening bitcoin.

Yea there's a good one out there now in Qchain.  ICO just launched, still in the bonus 15% phase if you act quick (then down to 7.5% for a little longer).

Check em out at Qchain.co 

Their website has their white paper up and you can find their demo here:  https://medium.com/the-qchain-blog/bighorn-alpha-release-qchains-advertising-app-demo-is-here-29675ee43591

Again, ad tech is one of the best applications of blockchain technology and these guys have a solid WP and demo. Also, they're incorporated in the US, which feels less like a quick scammy cash-in than so many of the sketchy ICOs out there.  Suggests that they are actually trying to build a company.

I'm interested to see what other people's rules of thumb look like.  I would add that a working demo is a must.  How can you possibly consider investing in a product if you don't actually know if that product exists?  Quite baffling.  For example, several ad-tech companies ICO'ed with shoddy white papers and no demo and raised upwards of $50 million!  Crazy!  On the other hand, there's ones like Qchain that seem more solid and actually have a working demo and, though their ICO just started, are only seeking to raise a fraction of that amount.  It's just interesting to see when such obvious observable factors seem to be ignored by the market.

To referring to the Bachman quote, it's literally true.  No minimum wage means essentially no unemployment.  Everyone's employable at $0.01/hr!  So while it "solves" unemployment, the real question is if that is the outcome we want.

Personally, I've always felt that we should try to minimize the number of jobs, not maximize them, but what do I know...