Are ICOs scam?

[sarabanda]

many of them yes,I never invest in ICO

[MoneyJ]

This is depend on the presentation of the upcoming ICOs. Primarily ICO should have the following to call it legit: 1. Reputable and respectable people behind the projects 2. Official website 3. Whitepaper or technical papers that would explain the broad operation of products being launched. Finally a prototype GitHub directory where in developments are in progress.

[CryptoPablo]

Not all of them. First of all you have to understand the idea of the project. Is it profitable or not. And of course whitepaper.
If everything is okay. It's not a scam

[FrayDigger]

It depends on your way to choose the ICO.. I agree that there a lot of scam.. If u don't sure about project invest a little sum

[wpalczynski]

Of course not all of them but you should be careful before investing. Always check the whitepaper carefully and the development team.

[julslet84]

not all of them. It will be not fair calling all ICOs as a scam.
There have been so many successful projects and ICOs and still there.

[Catswold]

Not all ICOs are scam and there are some genuine ICOs too but to identify them you need to do a great level of research and you should also see the team behind the project.

[左]

Not all ICOs are scam but large number of ICOs are scam that was one of the main reason why China banned ICOs.The number if ICOs which are good and not fake is very very less so it better to watch where you are going to invest as you would regret if it were a scam.The real ICOs works very hard but these scam ICOs has really gave bad reputation to all ICOs.But if you are experienced and has a good knowledge about ICOs and stuff then it is very profit in short term I think.

So if most ico's had a market cap of just a few thousand dollars. Would the government still care?
They don't care about scams, they care about taxing people's money.

[Allan Ramanda]

not all ico is a scam, i myself often join ico. before you join ico, you should first check carefully how ico works, and you should read their white paper first.

[MiBambino]

There are many brilliant ICO's among the crappy ones. The key things in my opinion are:
* solid team with experience and connections
* support from other people with experience (executives from large businesses like bill gates or founders of blockchain based companies like vitalik)
* a long, realistic roadmap with both the risks and advantages
* great marketing on a lot of different media (youtube ads, facebook ads, online articles, news reports, ...)
* personal activity and interaction on social media, fora, conventions, ...
* good website
* transparancy

my personal favorites right now are Datum and Change

[jlp]

All ICO not scam. I participate in a new ICO car-taxi (CTX) which is just completed its pre-ico and I already received this month dividend in my ether wallet and ico sale will start after 2-3 days. If you do proper study and make due diligence and proper study, you get good profit from any ICO.

CarTaxi got a 2.9 out of 10 rating:  https://hacked.com/ico-analysis-cartaxi/  I’m scratching my head trying to figure out why a blockchain is needed to tow cars.

In order for an entity, like CarTaxi, to pay dividends before it is making profit, let alone in operation, then it is a ponzi scheme.

There are many brilliant ICO's among the crappy ones. The key things in my opinion are:
* solid team with experience and connections
* support from other people with experience (executives from large businesses like bill gates or founders of blockchain based companies like vitalik)
* a long, realistic roadmap with both the risks and advantages
* great marketing on a lot of different media (youtube ads, facebook ads, online articles, news reports, ...)
* personal activity and interaction on social media, fora, conventions, ...
* good website
* transparancy

my personal favorites right now are Datum and Change

Augur had Vitalik Buterin on their team. Vitalik is the best person in the entire crypto industry that you can add to your team. After raising millions and after two and a half years, all they’ve released is a simple beta that is barely usable.

There are a number ICOs, that haven’t raised anything yet and they already have more software built. Enjin, Funfair and Stockbet already have much more than Augur’s beta.

If anyone understands blockchains, they would know that the Datum team consists of idiots.

Bitcoin is already having scaling issues with its 120+GB blockchain and it’s only storing small numbers for each transaction. Ethereum’s blockchain shot past Bitcoin’s and is approx. 200GB. Scaling is Ethereum’s biggest issue. It stores only smart contracts.

Datum is like ARToken, which wants to store TONS and TONS of data on a blockchain. Good luck with that. Its blockchain will need to be hundreds of Terabytes. Who is going to run its full node? You?

Change-Bank is way too late to the party. Monaco, TenX and Centra are doing debit cards as well.

Also, nobody is going to put their coins in a bank or any centralized place, for the reasons that Andreas Antonopoulos cited. You are creating a honey-pot for hackers and employees to steal.

Also, they lie about their team. Their “Blockchain Expert” worked as an Inside Sales Rep until 1.5 months prior. Their “Blockchain Developer” never developed a blockchain before.

Also, banking and insurance are very complicated businesses.  Nobody on Change-Bank's team has any experience in banking or insurance.

The easiest way to filter out the shit and scams is to use 3 filters:

1)  HAS THE TEAM BUILT ANYTHING THAT WE CAN USE TODAY?  If not, ignore.  Everything else is useless.  There have been many projects with impressive teams, fancy pretentious titles, detailed roadmaps, cool videos and lots of social media activity that have raised millions and still have not released any software.  Let me know if you want examples.

2)  IS THE TEAM FROM A CORRUPT COUNTRY?  If so, ignore.

https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016

3)  RESEARCH THE PROJECT and don't be suckered by the fancy animations and videos.

And don't be scammed by comments from users who are interested in pumping and dumping.

[Haunebu]

I just joined an ICO, is there any possibilities that I will be scammed. They have just collected $5-10 million.

I agree with the others. There are many scammy icos out there, but there are many legit ones too. You need to do your research and proceed with caution. This is a high risk high reward scenario and you are gambling with your money. Take care.

[MiBambino]

All ICO not scam. I participate in a new ICO car-taxi (CTX) which is just completed its pre-ico and I already received this month dividend in my ether wallet and ico sale will start after 2-3 days. If you do proper study and make due diligence and proper study, you get good profit from any ICO.

CarTaxi got a 2.9 out of 10 rating:  https://hacked.com/ico-analysis-cartaxi/  I’m scratching my head trying to figure out why a blockchain is needed to tow cars.

In order for an entity, like CarTaxi, to pay dividends before it is making profit, let alone in operation, then it is a ponzi scheme.

There are many brilliant ICO's among the crappy ones. The key things in my opinion are:
* solid team with experience and connections
* support from other people with experience (executives from large businesses like bill gates or founders of blockchain based companies like vitalik)
* a long, realistic roadmap with both the risks and advantages
* great marketing on a lot of different media (youtube ads, facebook ads, online articles, news reports, ...)
* personal activity and interaction on social media, fora, conventions, ...
* good website
* transparancy

my personal favorites right now are Datum and Change

Augur had Vitalik Buterin on their team. Vitalik is the best person in the entire crypto industry that you can add to your team. After raising millions and after two and a half years, all they’ve released is a simple beta that is barely usable.

There are a number ICOs, that haven’t raised anything yet and they already have more software built. Enjin, Funfair and Stockbet already have much more than Augur’s beta.

If anyone understands blockchains, they would know that the Datum team consists of idiots.

Bitcoin is already having scaling issues with its 120+GB blockchain and it’s only storing small numbers for each transaction. Ethereum’s blockchain shot past Bitcoin’s and is approx. 200GB. Scaling is Ethereum’s biggest issue. It stores only smart contracts.

Datum is like ARToken, which wants to store TONS and TONS of data on a blockchain. Good luck with that. Its blockchain will need to be hundreds of Terabytes. Who is going to run its full node? You?

Change-Bank is way too late to the party. Monaco, TenX and Centra are doing debit cards as well.

Also, nobody is going to put their coins in a bank or any centralized place, for the reasons that Andreas Antonopoulos cited. You are creating a honey-pot for hackers and employees to steal.

Also, they lie about their team. Their “Blockchain Expert” worked as an Inside Sales Rep until 1.5 months prior. Their “Blockchain Developer” never developed a blockchain before.

Also, banking and insurance are very complicated businesses.  Nobody on Change-Bank's team has any experience in banking or insurance.

The easiest way to filter out the shit and scams is to use 3 filters:

1)  HAS THE TEAM BUILT ANYTHING THAT WE CAN USE TODAY?  If not, ignore.  Everything else is useless.  There have been many projects with impressive teams, fancy pretentious titles, detailed roadmaps, cool videos and lots of social media activity that have raised millions and still have not released any software.  Let me know if you want examples.

2)  IS THE TEAM FROM A CORRUPT COUNTRY?  If so, ignore.

https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016

3)  RESEARCH THE PROJECT and don't be suckered by the fancy animations and videos.

And don't be scammed by comments from users who are interested in pumping and dumping.

If we take your opinion into account Ethereum should've been ignored as an ICO.

Datum isn't going to store tons and tons of data on the blockchain instantly. It's gonna grow, just like bitcoin and ethereum did. Nobody is instantly gonna jump on the datum project, it'll take time. Also, its not gonna store all data, just the data that's gonna be sold. Facebook is storing massive amounts of data and sells that data to advertisers. Are you saying Facebook is more technologically advanced than Blockchain?

Change isn't too late for the party. Are you saying centra, monaco and tenx are gonna supply the entire world of cards? I don't think so. Plus, Change is based in Estonia, which is the most digital country in the world, giving it quite a good start. About the centralisation, that's just not true. You say we need to research projects but you didn't research Change, or you're invested in either one of the three others you mentioned.

About their team, they actually do have experience, but even if they didn't that's no guarantee for failure. One of my best friends has never had a job, yet he's the CFO of 2 LLC's and 1 VC he started, all of which are succesful.

Last, being born in a corrupt country doesn't make you corrupt yourself. This market doesn't depend on its country of origin, but like I said with Estonia, being based in a good country definitely has its advantages, but it's no necessity. Look at where Vitalik comes from, one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

[John Langut]

Most of them are. Like big names presenting a white paper that is just a farce and funding big bucks with it, just because they have a reputation.
And then there's also the regular golddiggers who want to get rich to easily. These are all people who give Ico's a bad name. So, be aware and make sure not to fall into their traps.

[jlp]

All ICO not scam. I participate in a new ICO car-taxi (CTX) which is just completed its pre-ico and I already received this month dividend in my ether wallet and ico sale will start after 2-3 days. If you do proper study and make due diligence and proper study, you get good profit from any ICO.

CarTaxi got a 2.9 out of 10 rating:  https://hacked.com/ico-analysis-cartaxi/  I’m scratching my head trying to figure out why a blockchain is needed to tow cars.

In order for an entity, like CarTaxi, to pay dividends before it is making profit, let alone in operation, then it is a ponzi scheme.

There are many brilliant ICO's among the crappy ones. The key things in my opinion are:
* solid team with experience and connections
* support from other people with experience (executives from large businesses like bill gates or founders of blockchain based companies like vitalik)
* a long, realistic roadmap with both the risks and advantages
* great marketing on a lot of different media (youtube ads, facebook ads, online articles, news reports, ...)
* personal activity and interaction on social media, fora, conventions, ...
* good website
* transparancy

my personal favorites right now are Datum and Change

Augur had Vitalik Buterin on their team. Vitalik is the best person in the entire crypto industry that you can add to your team. After raising millions and after two and a half years, all they’ve released is a simple beta that is barely usable.

There are a number ICOs, that haven’t raised anything yet and they already have more software built. Enjin, Funfair and Stockbet already have much more than Augur’s beta.

If anyone understands blockchains, they would know that the Datum team consists of idiots.

Bitcoin is already having scaling issues with its 120+GB blockchain and it’s only storing small numbers for each transaction. Ethereum’s blockchain shot past Bitcoin’s and is approx. 200GB. Scaling is Ethereum’s biggest issue. It stores only smart contracts.

Datum is like ARToken, which wants to store TONS and TONS of data on a blockchain. Good luck with that. Its blockchain will need to be hundreds of Terabytes. Who is going to run its full node? You?

Change-Bank is way too late to the party. Monaco, TenX and Centra are doing debit cards as well.

Also, nobody is going to put their coins in a bank or any centralized place, for the reasons that Andreas Antonopoulos cited. You are creating a honey-pot for hackers and employees to steal.

Also, they lie about their team. Their “Blockchain Expert” worked as an Inside Sales Rep until 1.5 months prior. Their “Blockchain Developer” never developed a blockchain before.

Also, banking and insurance are very complicated businesses.  Nobody on Change-Bank's team has any experience in banking or insurance.

The easiest way to filter out the shit and scams is to use 3 filters:

1)  HAS THE TEAM BUILT ANYTHING THAT WE CAN USE TODAY?  If not, ignore.  Everything else is useless.  There have been many projects with impressive teams, fancy pretentious titles, detailed roadmaps, cool videos and lots of social media activity that have raised millions and still have not released any software.  Let me know if you want examples.

2)  IS THE TEAM FROM A CORRUPT COUNTRY?  If so, ignore.

https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016

3)  RESEARCH THE PROJECT and don't be suckered by the fancy animations and videos.

And don't be scammed by comments from users who are interested in pumping and dumping.

If we take your opinion into account Ethereum should've been ignored as an ICO.

Datum isn't going to store tons and tons of data on the blockchain instantly. It's gonna grow, just like bitcoin and ethereum did. Nobody is instantly gonna jump on the datum project, it'll take time. Also, its not gonna store all data, just the data that's gonna be sold. Facebook is storing massive amounts of data and sells that data to advertisers. Are you saying Facebook is more technologically advanced than Blockchain?

Change isn't too late for the party. Are you saying centra, monaco and tenx are gonna supply the entire world of cards? I don't think so. Plus, Change is based in Estonia, which is the most digital country in the world, giving it quite a good start. About the centralisation, that's just not true. You say we need to research projects but you didn't research Change, or you're invested in either one of the three others you mentioned.

About their team, they actually do have experience, but even if they didn't that's no guarantee for failure. One of my best friends has never had a job, yet he's the CFO of 2 LLC's and 1 VC he started, all of which are succesful.

Last, being born in a corrupt country doesn't make you corrupt yourself. This market doesn't depend on its country of origin, but like I said with Estonia, being based in a good country definitely has its advantages, but it's no necessity. Look at where Vitalik comes from, one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

There are a few differences between when Ethereum had its ICO and today:

• There are far more ICOs today than back then, so you can be much choosier
• Vitalik was co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine in 2011. This means that he was already a leader in the field, when he started Ethereum in 2014.  Most of the ICOs today are not started by leaders in this field.  Some of them have only been exposed to cryptocurrencies for a few months.
• Vitalik grew up in Canada and Ethereum started in Switzerland. Today, you have many ICOs coming from corrupt countries around the world:  https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016  In 2014, you didn't.

Datum only needs to be a fraction of the popularity of Bitcoin or Ethereum, and it will have a bigger blockchain and have scaling problems.

Facebook, or any company, can process more data than the blockchain, because their databases are centralized. Centralized databases can process much more. That’s one of the reasons that Visa can process way more and faster than the blockchain.

I’m not invested in any coin bank for the reasons I cited:

Nobody is going to put their coins in a bank or any centralized place, for the reasons that Andreas Antonopoulos cited. You are creating a honey-pot for hackers and employees to steal.

I would not invest in Change-Bank because they lie about their team. Their “Blockchain Expert” worked as an Inside Sales Rep until 1.5 months prior. Their “Blockchain Developer” never developed a blockchain before.

Also, banking and insurance are very complicated businesses. None of the people on Change-Bank's team have experience in banking or insurance.

There will be scams from North America or Western Europe and there will be successful projects from corrupt countries. But when you invest, you have to factor in probability. The probability of scams coming from corrupt countries is higher. If you get a phishing email, it's likely from a corrupt country. It's not just scams. The probability of projects that are not well thought out, that do not fully understand the complexities of business, blockchain or technology, that will exaggerate, will be higher from corrupt countries as well.

[Shishir99]

You can not say them Scam.
Maybe they become unsuccessful to fulfill their words after the ICO.
That doesn't mean Ico's are scam.
There are lot's of legit ICO are available
We just need few calculation to choose the right one.

[TooDumbForBitcoin]

I just joined an ICO, is there any possibilities that I will be scammed. They have just collected $5-10 million.

I agree with the others. There are many scammy icos out there, but there are many legit ones too. You need to do your research and proceed with caution. This is a high risk high reward scenario and you are gambling with your money. Take care.

Most of ICOs are not scam, but claims and possibilities/skills of teams are not consistent with each other. Such investments are ventures, so diversify your assets and be happy 

[MiBambino]

All ICO not scam. I participate in a new ICO car-taxi (CTX) which is just completed its pre-ico and I already received this month dividend in my ether wallet and ico sale will start after 2-3 days. If you do proper study and make due diligence and proper study, you get good profit from any ICO.

CarTaxi got a 2.9 out of 10 rating:  https://hacked.com/ico-analysis-cartaxi/  I’m scratching my head trying to figure out why a blockchain is needed to tow cars.

In order for an entity, like CarTaxi, to pay dividends before it is making profit, let alone in operation, then it is a ponzi scheme.

There are many brilliant ICO's among the crappy ones. The key things in my opinion are:
* solid team with experience and connections
* support from other people with experience (executives from large businesses like bill gates or founders of blockchain based companies like vitalik)
* a long, realistic roadmap with both the risks and advantages
* great marketing on a lot of different media (youtube ads, facebook ads, online articles, news reports, ...)
* personal activity and interaction on social media, fora, conventions, ...
* good website
* transparancy

my personal favorites right now are Datum and Change

Augur had Vitalik Buterin on their team. Vitalik is the best person in the entire crypto industry that you can add to your team. After raising millions and after two and a half years, all they’ve released is a simple beta that is barely usable.

There are a number ICOs, that haven’t raised anything yet and they already have more software built. Enjin, Funfair and Stockbet already have much more than Augur’s beta.

If anyone understands blockchains, they would know that the Datum team consists of idiots.

Bitcoin is already having scaling issues with its 120+GB blockchain and it’s only storing small numbers for each transaction. Ethereum’s blockchain shot past Bitcoin’s and is approx. 200GB. Scaling is Ethereum’s biggest issue. It stores only smart contracts.

Datum is like ARToken, which wants to store TONS and TONS of data on a blockchain. Good luck with that. Its blockchain will need to be hundreds of Terabytes. Who is going to run its full node? You?

Change-Bank is way too late to the party. Monaco, TenX and Centra are doing debit cards as well.

Also, nobody is going to put their coins in a bank or any centralized place, for the reasons that Andreas Antonopoulos cited. You are creating a honey-pot for hackers and employees to steal.

Also, they lie about their team. Their “Blockchain Expert” worked as an Inside Sales Rep until 1.5 months prior. Their “Blockchain Developer” never developed a blockchain before.

Also, banking and insurance are very complicated businesses.  Nobody on Change-Bank's team has any experience in banking or insurance.

The easiest way to filter out the shit and scams is to use 3 filters:

1)  HAS THE TEAM BUILT ANYTHING THAT WE CAN USE TODAY?  If not, ignore.  Everything else is useless.  There have been many projects with impressive teams, fancy pretentious titles, detailed roadmaps, cool videos and lots of social media activity that have raised millions and still have not released any software.  Let me know if you want examples.

2)  IS THE TEAM FROM A CORRUPT COUNTRY?  If so, ignore.

https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016

3)  RESEARCH THE PROJECT and don't be suckered by the fancy animations and videos.

And don't be scammed by comments from users who are interested in pumping and dumping.

If we take your opinion into account Ethereum should've been ignored as an ICO.

Datum isn't going to store tons and tons of data on the blockchain instantly. It's gonna grow, just like bitcoin and ethereum did. Nobody is instantly gonna jump on the datum project, it'll take time. Also, its not gonna store all data, just the data that's gonna be sold. Facebook is storing massive amounts of data and sells that data to advertisers. Are you saying Facebook is more technologically advanced than Blockchain?

Change isn't too late for the party. Are you saying centra, monaco and tenx are gonna supply the entire world of cards? I don't think so. Plus, Change is based in Estonia, which is the most digital country in the world, giving it quite a good start. About the centralisation, that's just not true. You say we need to research projects but you didn't research Change, or you're invested in either one of the three others you mentioned.

About their team, they actually do have experience, but even if they didn't that's no guarantee for failure. One of my best friends has never had a job, yet he's the CFO of 2 LLC's and 1 VC he started, all of which are succesful.

Last, being born in a corrupt country doesn't make you corrupt yourself. This market doesn't depend on its country of origin, but like I said with Estonia, being based in a good country definitely has its advantages, but it's no necessity. Look at where Vitalik comes from, one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

There are a few differences between when Ethereum had its ICO and today:

• There are far more ICOs today than back then, so you can be much choosier
• Vitalik was co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine in 2011. This means that he was already a leader in the field, when he started Ethereum in 2014.  Most of the ICOs today are not started by leaders in this field.  Some of them have only been exposed to cryptocurrencies for a few months.
• Vitalik grew up in Canada and Ethereum started in Switzerland. Today, you have many ICOs coming from corrupt countries around the world:  https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016  In 2014, you didn't.

Datum only needs to be a fraction of the popularity of Bitcoin or Ethereum, and it will have a bigger blockchain and have scaling problems.

Facebook, or any company, can process more data than the blockchain, because their databases are centralized. Centralized databases can process much more. That’s one of the reasons that Visa can process way more and faster than the blockchain.

I’m not invested in any coin bank for the reasons I cited:

Nobody is going to put their coins in a bank or any centralized place, for the reasons that Andreas Antonopoulos cited. You are creating a honey-pot for hackers and employees to steal.

I would not invest in Change-Bank because they lie about their team. Their “Blockchain Expert” worked as an Inside Sales Rep until 1.5 months prior. Their “Blockchain Developer” never developed a blockchain before.

Also, banking and insurance are very complicated businesses. None of the people on Change-Bank's team have experience in banking or insurance.

There will be scams from North America or Western Europe and there will be successful projects from corrupt countries. But when you invest, you have to factor in probability. The probability of scams coming from corrupt countries is higher. If you get a phishing email, it's likely from a corrupt country. It's not just scams. The probability of projects that are not well thought out, that do not fully understand the complexities of business, blockchain or technology, that will exaggerate, will be higher from corrupt countries as well.

I appreciate the way you explain yourself, it's clear you're intelligent and you definitely know what you're talking about. I agree with a number of things you say, but what you don't factor in is that technology is always advancing, now faster than it ever has, and slower than it ever will in the future. About Datum, I understand and agree with what you say, except for the fact that technology, more specifically data processing, is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Fog computing isn't sci fi anymore, and localized cloud computing is more than capable of dealing with the amount of data that will be stored and traded on the datum network, because it simply won't come close to what facebook and other media will have to deal with, at least not at first.
The way those crypto 'banks' work isn't with centralisation of our money and finances, it's the centralisation of decentralised services, which makes it not more hackable than any other bank afaik. Also, Change is based in Estonia, which isn't a corrupt country by any standards, at least not more than other countries. Datum is based in HK, which also fights to get rid of corruption. Whether or not that claim is in fact true remains to be seen.

We both know we could discuss this topic endlessly. I have my vision and you have yours, which I respect. The fact of the matter is only time can tell. I believe in every project i've invested in and it has paid off really well. I've therefore decided to participate in both ICO's becuase I felt I could take a little more risk to potentially gain a little more profit. Like I said, time will tell.

[innoachukwu]

Of course not, we have a lot of genuine ICO out there.

[ledu_ico]

I think the first best way to make an impression about an ICO if it is scam or not, is reading the white paper... if it is well written, with lots of details and the ICO goal is explained very clear in it. Try to do research on the Team members to see if they exist or if they were made up.