I made a long list of how I review an ICO project before investing in them (or taking them on as a client).

- Who is the founder, what is his/her background? (Have they built and sold a company before, or a new entrepreneur?)

- Why did they start this company?

- Does it seem like a novel idea?

- Do they have a professional website?

- Do they have a professional whitepaper? Does it have proper structure and language use, does it explain the problem, solution, team info, allocation of funds, development roadmap, etc.?

- Where is the team in their development? Is there something you can interact with now, or how long until the beta is ready for users to test?

- How much money are they looking to raise?

- How do you send them the money? Is there Escrow or direct to a company wallet?

- Why is the coin necessary? What is it used for? Can it be traded for other coins? When will it be listed on an exchange and become tradeable?

- Do they have social media accounts? (FB, Twitter, Steemit, Medium, Slack, Bitcoin Talk Forums, etc.)

- Have they posted their committed code to GitHub?

- Is the code solid? (You might need to find a technical person to help you evaluate that).

- How is their customer service and tech support doing on those media accounts?

- Are there any industry experts backing them financially or as advisors?

- Have they raised private investment capital before their ICO? (does a professional, career investor back them?)

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I have invested tremendous effort and capital over the past 18 months researching and experiencing different aspects of the Industry.

I have been hired by clients to provide services such as Blockchain industry analysis, consulting, advising, public speaking, whitepaper editing/developing (I'm working on securing an English to Chinese translator), Pre-ICO / ICO fundraising (in China), and getting listed on Chinese exchanges.

@Westified:

- China is considering ENDING ICOs in China
- USA's SEC wants people to register if they will be handling securities
- Singapore is following the USA
- Russia is considering banning ICOS and controlling the market
- Australia wants to legalize Bitcoin as a form of payment/currency
- Japan wants to legalize Bitcoin as a form of payment/currency
- Vietnam wants to legalize Bitcoin as a form of payment/currency
- India doesn't like cryptocurrencies

There are a few other countries that are involved too, but I don't remember their status.

Sean

@op: thanks for the article, it's quite enlightening, and I agree that the Chinese government is quite open towards the industry, as they have also been looking into how to utilize the Blockchain to improve government functions (they are specifically discussing taxation and legal records right now).

@altseeker: I don't think China cares so much about getting taxes out of it, I think they truly care more about stopping poorly educated people from being greedy and ending up losing their money to scammers (let's be honest, most Chinese projects are scams, or if not scams, unlikely to succeed long-term). The Chinese government wants to also stop the flow of capital out of the country (ICOs are a great way to do that).

Hey guys,

I'm an American living in China for over 9 years (fully fluent and literate in Mandarin), and I'm deeply involved in the industry here.

I've got to say that the Chinese ICO regulation won't do anything to change the market except make the Chinese hungrier to invest in Western ICOs (which is my specialty).

The market will shift so that the ICO platforms in China will die, the Exchanges in China may take on fewer new coins, but the real important thing is that if the Western companies want to get Chinese investors, they'll have to design a Chinese landing page for them to directly invest through (and then my company can promote through our circles in China)!

ICO Regulation won't change the industry much for us small folk.