The intention of this post is not to actually teach you how to scam people (it’s wrong you idiot!) but to raise awareness on how easy it is to do and to fall for. A lot of newcomers are getting familiar with the world of cryptocurrency and looking for investment options so having as many warnings out there as possible is never enough. Better be safe than sorry.
Let’s start!
Step 1: Name And BrandLike naming your high school band this sounds easy on paper but it shouldn’t be overlooked, a great catchy name can start selling the idea right from the start. You don’t want to use the world coin, that’s so 2013. So pick a name that sounds ethereal (did I went too far that with the pun?).
Effortless, celestial, interconnection...yeah! that’s the good stuff. It should also have a modern social media app ring to it but don’t overdo it or it will sound too gimmicky.
Step 2 - Getting Your Hands DirtyIn the immortal words of Steve Ballmer: DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!
You need to show the faces of the people behind this world changing project. So get some at uifaces.com, come up with some common names (so they are very hard to google) and add the most ridiculous resume you can think of.
Think of these guys as if they had been working on the decentralization of the Antarctica resources for decades. They helped develop the new Svalbard Global Seed Vault sorting method. King penguins swear by them. Albatros don’t get caught in fishing nets anymore thanks to these guys. I’m not sure why that used to happen but who cares right?
Step 3 - Buy Several Bitcointalk AccountsBitcointalk is the most active Bitcoin forum on the internet, they basically grew together. Any developer, investor or enthusiast is familiar with it and almost all cryptocurrency projects are first announced there. The thing is, you can actually buy accounts there, they have value because they can participate in Signature Campaigns and earn Bitcoins based on their ranks. An old and active member is usually respected by the community.
Step 4: The PitchMake it as complicated as possible, throwing so much mumbo-jumbo as you possible can. Keywords are: Tokens, Assets, Blockchain, Ledger, Disruptive, Decentralized, Shares, Platform, Intermediary, Publishing, Trustless, Fixed, Digital.
Create a new Proof Of System! As many know the most popular are Proof Of Work and Proof Of Stake. And hybrid of these won’t cut it anymore so you need to get creative. Proof of Incarnation sounds great, it involves checking for certain unadulterated information to create new blocks or something like that, we can revise this later!
Step 5: Putting it all togetherIt’s time to complete this malevolent puzzle, my horns sure are ready!
Compile all graphics and create images you can embed in the project thread. Getting bardo.io domain is a great idea too, you don’t need to build an actual site, just add a countdown clock widget, a subscribe/sign up button and an Ether and BTC address and you are good to go!
Remember to pump up the raised funds figure daily so users get reassured that a lot of money is getting invested.
Credit to : Moonjelly at Steemit
After you know their scheme and program before they going ICO, now there is some advice from the masters in btt
![Grin](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/grin.gif)
if developer is unknown, run away
if developer is known for scamming, run away
if ANN says premine, run away
if ANN says weird things, run away
if ANN looks bad, run away
if ANN has shiny graphics but nothing else, run away
if ANN has very bad english, run away
if ANN seems too good to be true, run away
if ANN seems too bad to be true, run away
frankly only 1% are left
of this 1% you can wipe out 99% again, so you're left with very little choices
over time your eyes are trained
just be careful and use common sense
sorry for this introduction but you will see what I mean my friend.
by Someone47
ICO is legit if coin developers shows off their real identity in public, if not think thrice before investing.
The true value of a cryptocurrency is in its people, not its tech. The only way to properly evaluate a coin, is to properly evaluate its people.
by MicroGuy
If you see yet another coin with fanciful graphics but no new features or innovation, same old coin specs, no actual road map, no white papers. Promoting ICO as Donation based. Large premine for "ico". High chance it's fake
by Quartx
Best to go for a coin that was around for month and shows stable pricing.
Thanks for reading. Hope masters here can teach us to how to play in Bitcoin world especially in Altcoin world. Funny How Now The ICO Bubble is Going Like Crazy, right ?
![Grin](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/grin.gif)