Need a Jr Member to create a post about upcoming airdrop.Will be given incentives in tokens.contact @sivatropyc
On telegram

Blockchain powered "securities" or tokenised securities help spark institutional adoption into crypto and solve a real-world problem. Exit high brokerage fees and slow transfer of ownership.

If mainstream finance starts using the tech, the crypto-economy will no longer be called a "gold rush" or a "bubble".

Does Security Token Offerings, or STOs legitimise the crypto-economy and brings it to the next level?

Full article

Three ICOs have been suspected of fraudulent activities, namely Egype, ForteCoin and Safemining

Stay safe, more details on the fraud.

Website of the fraud (beware!)

• Egypt
• ForteCoin
• Safemining

[transparency]

There's kinda of a misunderstanding that a high rate means high profit in crypto ratings.

As the cryptocurrency market is still immature compared to mainstream finance, historical rating providers in Wall Stree and all DO give ratings on investment vehicles:

• high rate = more money
• low rate = low money

In crypto, every single rating providers assess either:

• transparency, do they have a telegram group a media mention blabla
• community interest, is there basically an army of shillers or bounty hunters or some other biased people talking about the crypto
• how much money the altcoin/crypto/ICO gave to the rating agency. The higher the paycheck the higher the rate  

We are trying to do things a bit differently. Here's our view on ratings.

Do you trust these ratings when you make a financial decision? Or is do you think it's just faf and bollocks?

I know DYOR and Caveat Emptor is the golden rule, but at some point people need third opinion amirite?

[Advisors don't advise, they promote!]

Most of ICOs out there have at least one thing in common: they accumulate advisors like there's no tomorrow.

On the one hand, advisors work on dozens if not hundreds of project at the same time.
On the other hand, some ICOs have more advisors than actual team members.

Here we're trying to point out that the current "advisor market" may be flawed.

Advisors don't advise, they promote!

1. Why need an advisor?
2. How can you advise 50+ projects?
3. You misspelt "marketer" for "advisor"
4. As many advisors as team members? Really?

full article

[tropyc]

Hello from tropyc!

https://tropyc.co

We figured out it was time to introduce tropyc to the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency family.



1. What is Tropyc?

Tropyc is crypto (and has been since September 2017)
Our mission is to build the best crypto discovery platform for investors and enthusiasts with data, insights and education.

For now, we only focus on the ICO market with:

• Token sale listing and classification (industry, sub-industry, stage of development etc...)
  
• Full token economy valuations: you can sort/filter by network valuation
• Open-source rating (with objective variables, no rating manipulation!)
• Extensive statistics and analytics (more coming!)
• List of partnerships and media mentions for token sales

2. Why we think we're the best at what we do
The ICO listing and rating market has become increasingly competitive with over 100 platforms effectively curating the token sale market.
Each of them brings their level of expertise and professionalism: we'd like to explain how we're better


a. No conflict of interests
Tropyc does not accept money from ICOs!
Unfortunately, a lot of listing and rating websites accept money for rates, undertake consulting services or advertise other ICOs on their site.
It introduces a conflict of interest with ICO listing and rating platforms subsequently losing their impartiality in the process.
We'll launch a SaaS for investors in the coming weeks.


b. Full token economy
You can filter and sort by post-money network valuation, and % of tokens sold to investors, the two most important metrics for smart investments.
The market currently considers sales' hard capitalisation as the primary indicator to assess ICO financials instead of the above.


c. Open-source rating
The framework is open-source, the rating breakdown is transparent, available at the bottom of ICO page and open to public scrutiny (and it's a proof we're not manipulating any rates).
Mind that tropyc does not assess ICOs as investment vehicles, but scores token sales' based on their transparency and how much information they share.


d. Some cool edu-content
We're not just about ICOs. Tropyc is committed to helping the cryptocurrency outgrow mainstream finance.
And it starts with education: sometimes cryptocurrency and ICO concepts might be too overwhelming to understand for the less tech savvy. Therefore, in addition to our a 20-chapter "Crypto 101" series for beginners, we're more than happy to help newcomers on any general cryptocurrency questions on social media (Twitter, Telegram, Facebook) or via chat on our website.
We guide, we do not advise.


e. Industries and sub-industries
Any cryptocurrency enthusiast would agree that the decentralisation drive is industry agnostic. It means that crypto is disrupting the economy as a whole and not just the world of banking.
We're excited to classify over 4,000 Initial Coin Offerings by:
- 15 industries
- 120+ sub-industries
- 5 stages of development


f. More variables mean better rates
We're introducing variables that no other listing websites showcase including token issuance dates, media mentions, legal advisors, and smart contract audits to name a few.
You can go through the entire list here. A rating algorithm's efficiency usually increases when there are more (relevant) variables.
It also gives more information to the end user, and that's why we're constantly working on adding new variables that make sense (open to any suggestion).


g. Stats
Last but not least, as the ICO market generates heaps of data, we're building a 360-degree analytics and statistics solution for the token economy and ICO market.
The product intends to support ICO investors, journalists,  managers and enthusiasts.


We'd love to have feedback from the community. Please share any suggestions and feature requests, we'll build it for you!
Telegram | Facebook | Twitter

[Conflict of interests]

Cryptocurrency is intense, and while its landscape is continuously evolving, the market should aspire to exceed the level of professionalism of mainstream finance.

In this quest of self-improvement, the ICO market and its rating platforms have begun a curation drive to effectively filter the fraudulent projects from the genuine ones and the less attractive opportunity from the #lambo #moon rockets.

But we're still far behind.

There are some very insightful listing and rating platforms out there (and tropyc is proud to have them as competitors), but we noticed many areas of improvement that rating and listing platforms should focus on:


Conflict of interests
ICO ratings should not undertake consulting and advisory services for upcoming blockchain startups including PR, advisor search, design, smart contract and so one. The same entity should not conduct advisory and rating services.

Pay-for-rating
Let us state the obvious, no rating is valuable if paying a fee increases scores. Additionally, introducing a flat fee to get rated filters out the smaller projects from the bigger ones, therefore, listing and rating should be free!

Open the methodology
Rating needs to be broken down into sub-ratings so that the user can accurately know how the project got a specific rate. A closed-source does not add tremendous value to an investor.

Community rating
Peer-reviewed ratings are open to censorship, manipulation and sentiment bias. As such, a 4/5 on "team" for person A might be a 3/5 for person B, depending on their experience and expectations. While community ratings are crucial and give value to the investor, they should not be clubbed with the platform's review.

full article:https://tropyc.co/pages/news/ico-rating-market-analysis-improvement

[full article]

The best strategy to follow in ICO investment is the antique old "caveat emptor" trade principle, aka "let the buyer beware" or "do you own research."

As such, the environment has become so irresponsible that even the SEC has created a fake ICO called "HoweyCoin" brimming with red flags (including guaranteed returns and random celebrity endorsements).
It must be a stressing issue if one of America's least digital connected agency starts creating fake fraudulent use cases to warn investors.

The SEC indeed shared valuable insights on fraudulent ICO patterns, that's why we tried to figure out a bunch more.

Here's our non-comprehensive list of ICO red flags to supplement the SEC's warning:

• 1. Promoting blockchain technology rather than a product
• 2. The only token functions are "money functions."
• 3. Guaranteed returns and MLM incentives
• 4. Unclear token distribution and extravagant bonuses
• 5. Opaque private sale valuation
• 6. No vesting period
• 7. No hard capitalisation
• 8. Ideas, ideas, ideas
• 9. Poor media mentions

full article https://tropyc.co/pages/news/what-makes-an-ico-shady-af

[Bitcoin]

Hello,

We thought we’d help out newcomers in our exciting industry by sharing a 101 crypto-guide. It’s not perfect, but it surely help getting a hands-on the important concepts of the crypto-economy.

Let us know if you have any suggestions or would like us to go a bit more in-depth on the topic of your choice

https://www.tropyc.co/pages/crypto101

Bitcoin

• What is Bitcoin?
• Store, Buy, Spend
• Under the Hood
• Bitcoin Economics

Wallet

• Definition
• Best Practices
• Wallets vs. Bank
• Cold Wallets

Ethereum

• What is Ethereum
• Economics of Ether
• Smart Contracts
• The DAO

Token

• Classification, Terminology
• Token Economy
• What is an ICO
• ICO as an instrument

Invest

• Fundamentals
• Portfolio Design
• Portfolio Management
• Scams

We all read over and over that ICOs are scams and fraudulent investment opportunities.

However, it is important to define ICOs as financial instruments rather than financial products.
In other words, scammers can leverage ICOs as a fundraising tool, the same way that can leverage bonds or product crowdfunding.

As a financial instrument, ICO offers ground-breaking benefits:

• Facilitates liquidity for traditional illiquid assets
• A non-discriminatory financial instrument for the people
• Suitable for any stage of development
• Flexible functionalities and utility
• Resource-consuming exercise instrument

But most importantly, like with any other fundraising instrument, projects require a product with users!
Although the trend in the ICO market is to raise copious amounts of cryptocurrencies for user-less products, the more users the product has, the better an ICO will be.

Why inject capital into a fundraising campaign for an idea? Wouldn't it be smarter to first invest in the product?

https://tropyc.co/pages/news/ico-financial-instrument

[1. Lack of transparency repels smart investors.]

Today, most of them have started to onboard blockchain startups into their portfolio and even launch token sales; look at YCombinator's LiveEdu or Union Square Venture's investment in Filecoin.

Institutional investors prefer to enter the cap table at an early stage - before a public sale occurs. As such, this practice gives bargaining power to institutional investors and reduces their risks drastically.

1. Lack of transparency repels smart investors.
The practice of not disclosing private sale valuations introduces a series of structural problems:
Will the valuation drastically increase between the private and public sale? Are private sale investors looking to have a short-term exit? Has the private sale been engineered to guarantee fast and profitable exit?

2. Different valuation but same stage of development?
Private sales often occur weeks before the public one. Since most of initial coin offerings involve product-less start-ups (and therefore pre-product market fit startups), there is no significant difference regarding the stage of product development between a private and a public sale.

3. Against the blockchain ideology.
In the event of an opaque private sale valuation, smart investors would never chip in, as the risk of a significant valuation delta is considerable. Public sale investors are reluctant to significant changes in valuations and most importantly, to be the last ICO investor.

4. Benefits of Private sales.
First, it gives credibility to a blockchain start-up. Secondly, private sale investors can provide non-financial investment to the project. Finally, Initial Coin Offerings are resource-draining financial instruments that have high capital and operations expenditures, especially with marketing and promotion. Kickstarting an ICO is therefore costly, and private sale investors can fill the liquidity gap.

https://www.tropyc.co/pages/news/private-sales-limitations

Do you think private sales add value to an ICO?
private sale < public sale?

[1. $xx worth of tokens airdropped? Did you mean $0 worth of tokens?]

Hello there,

We'd like to offer a fresh perspective on Airdrops.
Most of us witness the same pattern, an ICO would promote their Airdrop with "Get $1 million for free of Airdrops".
It introduces a few issues:

• 1. $xx worth of tokens airdropped? Did you mean $0 worth of tokens?
  Airdrops valuation are set unilaterally and without market feedback by the issuer. If I bake 10 cookies, keep 5 for myself, sell 4 in 6 months and divide the last one into 1,000 crumbs, give the crumbs to random people for free and tell everyone i'll sell the remaining 4 for $1 million each - did I just give $1000 to 1000 people? Nope.
• 2. It's not "free" and not "money".
  Because these tokens are poor units of account, mediums of exchange and stores of value. Okay, they might have future value, but by no means have any present value intrinsically.
• 3. Airdrops are for opportunists
  What if investors start subscribing to every airdrops? Aren’t they incentivised to do so? ICOs do not gain any value from airdrops, as it does not target potential investors or users anymore, only airdrop opportunists. Furthermore, it can also repel genuine investors that missed out on an airdrop: Why did someone get free tokens while have to pay for it?
• 4. It’s the perfect tool for shitcoiners and scammers
  Airdroppers want their digital assets to have a price tag in future and will, therefore, promote the token sale and hope for its success.
  There’s no issue about this phenomenon in the event the ICO is serious and professional. However, in the event of a fraudulent project, airdrops can help scammers create a community of naive airdroppers that would promote their scam — without realising what they are doing.

more info = https://www.tropyc.co/pages/airdrops-screwing-up-cryptocurrency-market

We think blind airdrops disbursed by product-less ICOs are not sustainable, non-sensical and should fade away, sooner or later. Smart ICO should not leverage them, they are toxic.
Do you agree?

[responsible and secure environment for investment]

Hello all,

We compiled some tips to optimise an ICO marketing plan. Let us know if you have any insights and inputs:

• Content is key: the website is the storefront, so nail it.
• 24/7 instant investor relations is the new rule
• Educate and engage with your community
• Keep your valuation reasonable and in line with your stage of development
• The market is all about open-source. So be transparent.
• In an unregulated market, be self-regulated
• Listing websites (like tropyc) can help

The above information might be helpful for any project willing to surf the ICO wave.
A good ICO creates a responsible and secure environment for investment.

https://www.tropyc.co/pages/7-things-to-consider-to-ace-your-ico-marketing-plan

What is the golden rule of ICO investment? (It’s over 2,000 years old)

• Caveat emptor aka the golden rule of trade
• The ICO way or the highway
• ICOs are removing barriers to market entry

full aricle: https://tropyc.co/pages/rule-of-ico-investment-caveat-emptor

Singapore and Hong Kong regulators have announced a new blockchain powered partnership involving 20 Asian banks.

1 min read: https://tropyc.co/pages/singapore-hongkong-blockchain-fintech-banks-conglomerate-2019

Cryptocurrencies offer an attractive alternative to the conventional economy and monetary policies implemented by public institutions and central banks: they are transparent.
Let’s face it, there is only a handful of government officials controlling the world money supply.

• The Good: money facilitates trade
• The Bad: governments control the total supply of currencies
• The ugly: “Too big to fail” banks
• Cryptocurrencies: a hedging opportunity against the banking world

full article: https://tropyc.co/pages/bank-monetary-policy

What did you think of our review?

Blockchain technology may get confusing for less tech-savvy individuals, as the barriers to understanding it are incredibly high.

Expecting them to forecast the impact of this disruptive technology is of no use.
Instead, we should comprehend that blockchain, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are not a technology, but rather a cultural paradigm shift.

Full Article: https://tropyc.co/pages/blockchain-cryptocurrency-paradigm-shift

• Crypto does not need you
• You are your own bank
• The concept of Unbanked could be no more
• IoT won’t work without crypto
• Crypto can be fair, transparent and egalitarian
• Every industry needs disruption, now it’s time for banks.

[full article]

Decentralised exchanges (DEX) are a critical piece of the crypto-economy infrastructure, that is still (unfortunately) far away from mainstream use.

Today, a majority of blockchain projects, introduced via initial coin offerings, are dependent on the release of DEX before they can launch a working product.

While a wave of “decentralised exchanges” have been released in 2017, only a selected few facilitate such transactions. Just like any other blockchain project, it can get confusing to assess the stage of development, leaving space for product-less tokens in the market.

Last week, one of the leading DEX protocol, 0x, accommodated large-scale decentralised exchanges on Radar Relay - reaching a volume of $1 million on the 5th of January and over $10 million on the 9th, as seen on the official tracker.

full article: https://www.tropyc.co/news/decentralised-exchange-0x-milestone/

[Full article]

As the cryptocurrency market continues to hit the mainstream media headlines, two of US’ financial regulators invited investors to stay cautious about the emerging market.

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) survey showcased that 94% of state and provincial regulators thought there was a “high risk of fraud” in the cryptocurrency market.

Full article https://www.tropyc.co/news/nasaa-sec-cryptocurrency-ico-warning-caution/

[Read more]

The impressive rise of the cryptocurrency market capitalisation followed by a dramatic correction has left newcomers shocked about price volatility. 
50% price swings over a short period (weeks if not days) aren't uncommon for experienced market watchers and crypto enthusiasts.

After the rapidly increasing awareness of cryptocurrency to mainstream media, regulators and institutionalised investors, many have suggested that the market is heavily manipulated, if not controlled by a handful of stakeholders.

Can these allegations turn out to be true?

• The market is unregulated
• Exchanges act just like banks
• Listing a coin impacts its price tag
• Whales own most the crypto out there

Read more: https://www.tropyc.co/news/market-manipulation-reality-or-fantasy/

Happy holidays from the tropyc team.