3 kinds of ICOs — Protect yourself

[rehydrogenated]

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“You need large amounts of money to buy real estate and your money is tied down for an indefinite amount of time.”

This is a very well thought out article. Thank you very much for writing it. Too many ICOs lately are based on some very basic lies. The annoying part is that at the moment we are firmly in bubble land where every insane idea can get incredible amounts of investor cash by making pie in the sky announcements and it will be years before any sees any results. Most of these ICOs will crash and burn one day and everyone will see them for what they are. Right now, however, you can see a total scamcoin go up 4000% in a couple months. People like to say this is a ponzi scheme, but it is typically investor fraud that is only allowed because we are dealing with an unregulated market. The volatility in altcoins is a direct result. We will all be better off with some government control *ducks*

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[Apaxy]

Quote
“You need large amounts of money to buy real estate and your money is tied down for an indefinite amount of time.”

This is a very well thought out article. Thank you very much for writing it. Too many ICOs lately are based on some very basic lies. The annoying part is that at the moment we are firmly in bubble land where every insane idea can get incredible amounts of investor cash by making pie in the sky announcements and it will be years before any sees any results. Most of these ICOs will crash and burn one day and everyone will see them for what they are. Right now, however, you can see a total scamcoin go up 4000% in a couple months. People like to say this is a ponzi scheme, but it is typically investor fraud that is only allowed because we are dealing with an unregulated market. The volatility in altcoins is a direct result. We will all be better off with some government control *ducks*

in fact, and so it is understandable that many ico or aimed at fraudulent actions, or almost have no real prospects in the future. Of course, many users understand this and know about the existence of such dysfunctional projects, but no one talks about how to avoid problems with themselves.

[Paycoinzzz]

Quote
“You need large amounts of money to buy real estate and your money is tied down for an indefinite amount of time.”

This is a very well thought out article. Thank you very much for writing it. Too many ICOs lately are based on some very basic lies. The annoying part is that at the moment we are firmly in bubble land where every insane idea can get incredible amounts of investor cash by making pie in the sky announcements and it will be years before any sees any results. Most of these ICOs will crash and burn one day and everyone will see them for what they are. Right now, however, you can see a total scamcoin go up 4000% in a couple months. People like to say this is a ponzi scheme, but it is typically investor fraud that is only allowed because we are dealing with an unregulated market. The volatility in altcoins is a direct result. We will all be better off with some government control *ducks*

in fact, and so it is understandable that many ico or aimed at fraudulent actions, or almost have no real prospects in the future. Of course, many users understand this and know about the existence of such dysfunctional projects, but no one talks about how to avoid problems with themselves.

According my experency, I can see there are many ICO projects with idea, roadmap can not be the truth in future.
All promises are lie, it just want to make the investor can be keep calm and have strong faith in the project while the devs are robbing the money of investors.

[saycryptohello]

For me, first I'm looking at project idea, is there an MVP? Clients? How long are they working on the project? Why are they need ICO? Second - clear information about future plans and a common vision.

[icosource]

While there are continuous numbers of nefarious ICO's "launching" every week, luckily they are relatively easy to spot.  Alternately, the ICO's that generally float to the top and become well known (and well funded), are also relatively easy to spot as well.

We use a system at https://icosource.io called "Minimum Viable Offering", in which any project on our site to be listed must:

1.  Display the members of their team on their homepage
2.  Contact us via an email which includes the project url.
3.  Have both Facebook and Twitter pages for their project.
4.  Have a minimum of two of:  Slack, Telegram, Reddit, BitcoinTalk, Discord, Github and Medium.
5.  Must have a whitepaper.
6.  Their logo must be of a high enough quality to portray a professional project.


We're asking for suggestions on other checks we can include at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2561039.new#new.  We're interested in all points of view and ideas surrounding ways to reduce contact between scam ICO's and users, and would appreciate your contribution to the conversation!

[bribed]

As we see more and more scam ICO's popping up and also ICO's that are legit but still take advantage of shady marketing tacticts because they maybe thing thats ok, because everyone is doing it, I think this thread is really really helpful to everyone that is trying to do due dilligence on his potential investments. The filters are set really good and will most likely expose scam ICO's or ICO's with a shady or unsustainable business model. Can we also ask on this thread about potential scams, where we are not sure if they are or not?

[Matthewmorris4]

I won't invest in any ICO without a prototype. The risk of being scammed is well too high. How many ICO's don't even have a MVP ? More or less 90% ?

With a prototype, we can expect the team to manage and fully develop the product described in the whitepaper.

Before ICO's, every startup that encountered the success would have developed a high quality product. The product was tested by the public and now ? 

Most people just following ICO for the word spread which is too hype for it, and others an ICO with the refferal system, which is there's a lot of bugs inside.
People always trying to cheat to get more and more value in every ICO they choose

[kseniya.pride]

I won't invest in any ICO without a prototype. The risk of being scammed is well too high. How many ICO's don't even have a MVP ? More or less 90% ?

With a prototype, we can expect the team to manage and fully develop the product described in the whitepaper.

Before ICO's, every startup that encountered the success would have developed a high quality product. The product was tested by the public and now ? 

Most people just following ICO for the word spread which is too hype for it, and others an ICO with the refferal system, which is there's a lot of bugs inside.
People always trying to cheat to get more and more value in every ICO they choose

True that! In a future there wont be super high bonuses. ICOs should have a prototype, traction, community.
Hype can hurt a project.. Hype = speculators.
Thats why I believe in Crowdholding. These guys have a working product, low hype and real community.

[Asmus003]

Thx for the useful article! I always advise to invest in few ICO that already have a working business. It will save you from scammers.

[Fedrey]

I won't invest in any ICO without a prototype. The risk of being scammed is well too high. How many ICO's don't even have a MVP ? More or less 90% ?

With a prototype, we can expect the team to manage and fully develop the product described in the whitepaper.

Before ICO's, every startup that encountered the success would have developed a high quality product. The product was tested by the public and now ? 

Most people just following ICO for the word spread which is too hype for it, and others an ICO with the refferal system, which is there's a lot of bugs inside.
People always trying to cheat to get more and more value in every ICO they choose

True that! In a future there wont be super high bonuses. ICOs should have a prototype, traction, community.
Hype can hurt a project.. Hype = speculators.
Thats why I believe in Crowdholding. These guys have a working product, low hype and real community.

I understand that there are a lot of dissatisfied users who express their negative about many ico companies. But it is necessary to take real and effective measures to avoid such situations. But how and what it should do is unclear.

[Sniar]

Most people just following ICO for the word spread which is too hype for it, and others an ICO with the refferal system, which is there's a lot of bugs inside.
People always trying to cheat to get more and more value in every ICO they choose

Well that's how the world goes: people are trying to find a loophole, clever people creating a popping ICOs that are looking like a loophole. Anyway that guys who is loosing their savings in scam ICOs are earning experience: always think carefully and analyze all the factors.

[fearcoka]

Most people just following ICO for the word spread which is too hype for it, and others an ICO with the refferal system, which is there's a lot of bugs inside.
People always trying to cheat to get more and more value in every ICO they choose

Well that's how the world goes: people are trying to find a loophole, clever people creating a popping ICOs that are looking like a loophole. Anyway that guys who is loosing their savings in scam ICOs are earning experience: always think carefully and analyze all the factors.

Honestly, the trash, shit ICO projects made the ecosystem of this field became the speculative place. Look at the profits from ICO lending, wow, if I just care the profits, it's really good for those who invested and bought at ICO price. But for those who bought it at high price, they are the loser at currently. They lost huge money within short time. Ponzi!

[ElitistCA]

I won't invest in any ICO without a prototype. The risk of being scammed is well too high. How many ICO's don't even have a MVP ? More or less 90% ?

With a prototype, we can expect the team to manage and fully develop the product described in the whitepaper.

Before ICO's, every startup that encountered the success would have developed a high quality product. The product was tested by the public and now ? 

Most people just following ICO for the word spread which is too hype for it, and others an ICO with the refferal system, which is there's a lot of bugs inside.
People always trying to cheat to get more and more value in every ICO they choose

True that! In a future there wont be super high bonuses. ICOs should have a prototype, traction, community.
Hype can hurt a project.. Hype = speculators.
Thats why I believe in Crowdholding. These guys have a working product, low hype and real community.

I understand that there are a lot of dissatisfied users who express their negative about many ico companies. But it is necessary to take real and effective measures to avoid such situations. But how and what it should do is unclear.

Everyone all owns the idea to solve its problem, I think the guide of this thread is enough to know the basic knowledge about the way to protect our funds with ICO investment. For this field, speculation is easy to happens, therefore, the price are also very volatile.

[madushanperis11]

The most important point of difference that often confuses participants new to the cryptocurrency space is that tokens are not equity, but are more like paid API keys. In this model contributors don’t measure the attractiveness based on cost of equity, P/E ratios and the like, but on the basis of the future usefulness of the product, number of tokens in circulation (and future inflation/deflation of this number), necessity of the token to the products functionality and the opportunity for capital gains.

[madushanperis11]

The rationale behind ICO funding is that once a product launches and acquires users, demand for its token will increase dramatically, causing token values to rise to the benefit of their holders. Pre-sale participants are often further rewarded with additional bonuses on their token purchase to compensate for their additional exposure. Anyway invest during the pre-sales involves higher risk than other, because pre-sales starts at the very beginning of the project and there are not much information about the project. You have to take high risk as it is difficult to differentiate whether the project will success or it is just another scam.   

[info-ICO.info]

Probably the most useful post in the whole forum.

Thumbs up.

Actually it is very much common sense vs greed.
I followed most the of rules.
Avoid X Countries.
Look for someone with a ready product or atleast working prototype ready.
Something that is viable (blockchain necessary or not, something like WABI, I don't think crypto token are necessary to them, but their product is viable)
Avoid those with long roadmap, seeing the beta in year 2020? I might have already died by then... You might have crashed in the Lambo you bought with our money. Who knows.


Most of the time, one knows that the idea is probably not viable (come on, you wanna take down google or facebook, with a whitepaper that can't even explain things properly?) , but hey, nice graphic, nice team, nice rating, nice return, nice bounty reward (I am going to promote your ICO even to my neighbors' cat), nice +99% bonus for the first day. I AM IN THIS REVOLUTIONARY ICO!!! TO HELL WITH GOOGLE/FACEBOOK/UBER!!!!

Greed kills, stupidity just speed up the process.

[Cryptogiji]

I really like this thread, you speak a lot of sense (most people lose that when they look at marketing from ICOs) and you evaluate clearly according to the market outside of the crypto one.

Keep up the good work, this is a very important thread that any new investors should read.

[BitcoinTurk]

Many thanks for your labor, your topic is very good. Newbie's and another investors can find good information from this topic.

[mroth7684]

nice thread. for newbie and new investor want invest into some ICO. if you invest into a good ICO you will ez to get x2 profit

[yonghongtang]

A very good article , thanks . I will read it many times , and try to translate it into other languages to let more and more people read it . Let's just learn to support the real ico projects.