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Watch Out, the ICOs Are Coming
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The 3 typical characteristics, team, product and market seem to have taken a secondary position to the 3 new magical words: tokens, blockchain and decentralization.
Token utility linkage is not always there
The assumption that everything with a potential network effect is going to work with a decentralization starting point is not entirely true. The blockchain is not for everything.
The solution or product being developed needs to have a solid business model linkage that has a particular value when decentralization and/or tokenization of actions take place. The promise of a new model needs to be very compelling.
In the name of decentralization, the promises are big. You can’t just slap a token to anything, and expect magic to happen.
The token is not the business model. The value proposition or utility that is enabled by the token is the business model, and that linkage needs to be there early on. If the direction is not right, the chosen path will not lead to a good place.
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The 3 typical characteristics, team, product and market seem to have taken a secondary position to the 3 new magical words: tokens, blockchain and decentralization.
Token utility linkage is not always there
The assumption that everything with a potential network effect is going to work with a decentralization starting point is not entirely true. The blockchain is not for everything.
The solution or product being developed needs to have a solid business model linkage that has a particular value when decentralization and/or tokenization of actions take place. The promise of a new model needs to be very compelling.
In the name of decentralization, the promises are big. You can’t just slap a token to anything, and expect magic to happen.
The token is not the business model. The value proposition or utility that is enabled by the token is the business model, and that linkage needs to be there early on. If the direction is not right, the chosen path will not lead to a good place.
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Neither WeTrust nor Edgeless need their own token. Someone will create copies of their smart contracts which operate with ETH or BTC or which ever is the most liquid and popular token.
Users are not going to adopt a different colored coin for every service they want to use, nor go buy colored coins for every WeTrust fee they need to pay.
These companies need to develop business models that don't depend on them each creating their own unit-of-exchange, because monetary theory informs us that will never happen!
The ICO craze is for taking money from stupid people. Simple as that.
All of you who are buying these tokens are going to lose.
Well, you could copy a smart contract, but you can't copy a team or their experience.
Keep in mind that any ICO is just like any startup. Lots of uncertainty in the early stages, all around. So, it's not entirely fair to pick on one or the other. They all have to prove their models and traction. The ICO is just like a funding event. Better to judge them on what they will do with the money later and how they progress.
