2 Tips to improve the transparency of ICO’s

[WHooHooo!]

There are many aspects which makes an ICO transparent or not. But the following two got my attentions lately. I am wondering what you think about it.

1)   How is KYC information safely stored?
Before I invest in an ICO, I always ask in their Telegram group “How the KYC information is safely stored?”. [Suspicious link removed]panies who are well organized give you a straight answer and explain how the information is securely stored or which (external) tool they use for securing sensitive information like KYC. Also some let you know what happened with the information after approval and how long the information is kept. And they should. I mean, they thought about it at forehand, right? And they should secure sensitive information like passport photos from people who are giving their trust and money. They KYC information can be abused in many ways and is worth a lot of money.

Here is the thing. Most [Suspicious link removed]panies who are launching an ICO don’t answer the questions at all. Even if you asked them a few times. And if they do, they say: Trust us, it is safe (Really, that is what they say). It makes you wonder, do they know what they are doing, do they care and is the KYC information securely stored?

To protect and respect potential investors it will be great when the whole KYC process including storage is transparent and clear.

2)   Profile pictures in Telegram group
Companies which launching an ICO collecting 10’s of millions of dollars. When looking at the profile pictures of their customers service employees in their Telegram groups, the following is complete ridiculous. In many cases they are completely anonymous, using strange names and using unrecognizable profile pictures. That is not how you should treat your investors which invest literally 10’s of millions in your company. It definitely is not professional.

What do you think? Should companies which are running an ICO’s improve these points?

[alani123]

I think that your number two point generally goes back to anonymity in General. The teams behind cryptocurrencies should be having their names in public as much as possible and that doesn't just have to do with telegram.

Overall, the team of an ICO should be doing anything for publicity and being anonymous is giving a bad image and doesn't help investors.

[Gabz999]

I think you have some point in that. Sometimes I notice other ICOs that they do not show their real photos on their Telegram channel which leads to the investor to not to trust on them. Other also don't answer the truth about the KYC when you ask them. We should be very careful when investing on ICOs that saying they are a good company. Yes ! they should improve this so we investors will trust them.

[vendy86]

i agree with the first.
KYC is very important and contain a secret of customet identity.
we have to make sure our secret doest fall to wrong hand.
but about the second suggestion about telegram picture,its even impoaible to know is that pic are really them.
so easy to take someone pic and add to our profile pic.

[ichanjay]

I agree with the KYC thing, no doubt that KYC is now a trend in all new ICO's unlike before where you can invest anonymously. Most ICO's just hire company partners that conduct the checking and not really handling the KYC process themselves

[rehydrogenated]

I think your #1 is extremely important. I have asked for my money back in 1 ICO because I seriously doubt they were doing the KYC right. There really needs to be a major company like Experian (j/k ) that is holding all our personal information safe. This is a landmine waiting to happen.

I like the idea of being able to invest in ICOs without government interference, but I think these companies will just need to register with the government. A couple more high profile scams and we will start to see a huge pushback on unregistered ICOs out of Estonia.

[blockclick]

Information about KYC process (ICO stage and afterwards) is really important, agreed. I don't want to wake up someday to see a loan on my name lol
About second point - I tend to agree with you. Real names and real photos (at least logo of the company) are good sign. I think that providing TG links to official team members in pinned message in chat is also a must - too many scammers nowadays

[Quickfant]

I think a good way to show a ICO is legit and trustworthy is to do all ICO activities off of Bitcointalk. There is so much spam in the tokens and announcement sections which has led to several different topics getting deleted. If they would just host their comments/applications off site it would prevent this problem.

[spraypaint]

Really the image says a lot about the project. I've seen developers with game and anime images in the telegram profile that simply did not give me any confidence in the project.

[akamit]

#1
I technically do not like the concept of KYC implementation in ICOs. It is because, cryptocurrencies are meant to be anonymous.
As there could be different reasons for different companies to use KYC concept and we (investors) pretty much can't do anything regarding this.
But your concern is very much logical when I think "to whom we are giving our personal info" are those companies/guys trust-able. Nowadays terrorists are also doing ICOs to raise money.

#2
I don't think a profile picture is very much important in order to determine the legitimacy of an ICO/COMPANY.
A company can hire a social manager by offering monthly salary to manage the telegram group. So if an ICO is scam then that manager is nothing to do at all.

[RieraMusic]

They should be more transparent giving confidence to the investor I think.  But even good projects have theses mistakes, every telegram group of the Icos I have invested in have admins with no profile picture and nicknames instead of real names...