Counterparty

Lol, good answer. Good luck!

But teh globe... such spinning 

There is a whole service sector built around making nominee arrangements regarding the "51% shareholdings to UAE Nationals" requirement.

Bitcoin securities are a grey area. But after U.S authorities stepped in and gave Erik Voorhees a slap on the wrist (when they could have otherwise made an example of him) everyone got back to it. At the end of the day it's a convenient way for small businesses and start-ups to get much needed funding in a frictionless manner. Bitcoiners who invest in these securities have received some expensive lessons. We hope that as a result we will be seeing less scammers and incompetent folk getting funded and more legitimate opportunities.

If your pr0nsite is profitable and you can report on past financial performance and need the money to scale somehow (with a business plan to support it) then it may be a good idea. Rental Starter is a good example of a decent performing security in Bitcoinland and like you, Branny's business is unrelated to the crypto field.

From the current centralized exchanges I would go with Havelock. If you can pass their background check then it means a little bit more to investors than other solutions. The problem with the centralized exchanges in the space is that they themselves are quite vulnerable. If you have the energy/capacity you may want tot look into "Bitcoin 2.0" technologies and decenetralized exchanges.

If some girl you just started talking to asked you if you think she's fat, would you ever say yes?

Similarly the unfortunate thing about when entrepreneurs describe their idea to others is that most people will "like" it.

Often, the best market research is conducted by trying to validate specific hypotheses rather than looking for feedback for a whole solution you envisioned.

The biggest selling points of this IPO is that it's on Counterparty. IMO the Counterwallet interface might have a few bugs but Counterparty at the protocol level has had a really sound, scholastic approach.

ASICMINER and Satoshi Dice are probably the biggest success stories. What they seem to have in common is competence in their team and from early on were very pragmatic in the way they responded investors (with the exception of when MP did the talking for S.Dice). They never promised the world to anyone.

I think Rental Starter is proving to be a champion in the space. It's shaping up to be a prime example in proving that Bitcoin investors shouldn't necessarily have their options limited. I think in the near future quality start-ups from many fields will take advantage of Crypto funding and technologies that are associated with that - such as the decentralized exchanges. Assuming Bitcoin continues to do well. And more serious projects would more likely be interested in P2P stocks rather than un(self)regulated centralized ones (that have like a 50% fail rate?).

Can someone come up with the ball park number of how much money was put up in total by the community to fund projects?

It would be quite constructive to list success stories and study common characteristics of their approach, team, product/service, e.t.c.

Counterparty stopping by in Cyprus

http://www.goldnews.com.cy/en/financial-services/counterparty--building-on-the-digital-currency-revolution