A Fair ICO Model: RoosterRed’s Uncapped Blind ICO Auctions

[RoosterRed]

I have outlined an ICO model that is fair to all participants. Anyone who wants to participate can, every participant who purchases tokens is happy about the final price, and the company offering the ICO gets to maximize funding in an ethical way.

https://steemit.com/ico/@roosterred/a-fair-ico-model-roosterred-s-uncapped-blind-ico-auctions

Snippet:

In my Uncapped Blind ICO Auction model there is no set amount of money that an ICO can raise. There is no set amount of participants either. Everyone that wants to participate can participate, and the company raises the maximum amount of money it can.

A company will thoroughly outline its ICO. Participants in the ICO bid two numbers: The amount of money they are offering in the ICO, and the highest market cap they will tolerate. Participants are ranked first by market cap and then randomly (with those of the same bid). Participants cannot see each other’s bids. A Smart Contract collects all the funds and finds the maximum market cap that can be funded with the bids. Participants who were priced out or positioned out are automatically refunded.

Let’s look at an example. Mark bids twenty thousand dollars at a maximum market cap of three million. Jay bids ten thousand dollars at a maximum market cap of two million dollars. Jerry bids two thousand dollars at a maximum market cap of one million dollars. The Smart Contract calculates that the maximum market cap that can be funded is two million dollars. At that price, there were over two million dollars in funds. Mark gets one percent of all tokens. Jerry is refunded. Even though Jay’s bid was valid and at the market cap, he is refunded as people like Mark were given priority and he was ranked too low amongst those who bid two million. This system incentivizes participants to honestly bid the maximum market cap they will tolerate.

[South Park]

I have outlined an ICO model that is fair to all participants. Anyone who wants to participate can, every participant who purchases tokens is happy about the final price, and the company offering the ICO gets to maximize funding in an ethical way.

https://steemit.com/ico/@roosterred/a-fair-ico-model-roosterred-s-uncapped-blind-ico-auctions

Snippet:

In my Uncapped Blind ICO Auction model there is no set amount of money that an ICO can raise. There is no set amount of participants either. Everyone that wants to participate can participate, and the company raises the maximum amount of money it can.

A company will thoroughly outline its ICO. Participants in the ICO bid two numbers: The amount of money they are offering in the ICO, and the highest market cap they will tolerate. Participants are ranked first by market cap and then randomly (with those of the same bid). Participants cannot see each other’s bids. A Smart Contract collects all the funds and finds the maximum market cap that can be funded with the bids. Participants who were priced out or positioned out are automatically refunded.

Let’s look at an example. Mark bids twenty thousand dollars at a maximum market cap of three million. Jay bids ten thousand dollars at a maximum market cap of two million dollars. Jerry bids two thousand dollars at a maximum market cap of one million dollars. The Smart Contract calculates that the maximum market cap that can be funded is two million dollars. At that price, there were over two million dollars in funds. Mark gets one percent of all tokens. Jerry is refunded. Even though Jay’s bid was valid and at the market cap, he is refunded as people like Mark were given priority and he was ranked too low amongst those who bid two million. This system incentivizes participants to honestly bid the maximum market cap they will tolerate.

But that will no longer be an ICO that will be just similar to what already happens in the open market, so I’m against this idea, the purpose of a coin offering is to raise money for the operation and the creation of the project, by doing this the devs will have no idea if they are going to raise the amount of money they need and the people bidding will not have an idea if they are going to get any tokens.

[RoosterRed]

I have outlined an ICO model that is fair to all participants. Anyone who wants to participate can, every participant who purchases tokens is happy about the final price, and the company offering the ICO gets to maximize funding in an ethical way.

https://steemit.com/ico/@roosterred/a-fair-ico-model-roosterred-s-uncapped-blind-ico-auctions

Snippet:

In my Uncapped Blind ICO Auction model there is no set amount of money that an ICO can raise. There is no set amount of participants either. Everyone that wants to participate can participate, and the company raises the maximum amount of money it can.

A company will thoroughly outline its ICO. Participants in the ICO bid two numbers: The amount of money they are offering in the ICO, and the highest market cap they will tolerate. Participants are ranked first by market cap and then randomly (with those of the same bid). Participants cannot see each other’s bids. A Smart Contract collects all the funds and finds the maximum market cap that can be funded with the bids. Participants who were priced out or positioned out are automatically refunded.

Let’s look at an example. Mark bids twenty thousand dollars at a maximum market cap of three million. Jay bids ten thousand dollars at a maximum market cap of two million dollars. Jerry bids two thousand dollars at a maximum market cap of one million dollars. The Smart Contract calculates that the maximum market cap that can be funded is two million dollars. At that price, there were over two million dollars in funds. Mark gets one percent of all tokens. Jerry is refunded. Even though Jay’s bid was valid and at the market cap, he is refunded as people like Mark were given priority and he was ranked too low amongst those who bid two million. This system incentivizes participants to honestly bid the maximum market cap they will tolerate.

But that will no longer be an ICO that will be just similar to what already happens in the open market, so I’m against this idea, the purpose of a coin offering is to raise money for the operation and the creation of the project, by doing this the devs will have no idea if they are going to raise the amount of money they need and the people bidding will not have an idea if they are going to get any tokens.

Risk averse Developers can simply stick a price floor in the Smart Contract so that if the ICO fails to raise enough funds it is automatically cancelled.

As far as participants are concerned, no one is ever guaranteed anything. Currently participants either luck out and get a whitelist spot, or buy into an uncapped ICO (like Bancor) where they have no control over the final price. I recommend you read the full proposal. You are of course free to disagree. Thank you for the feedback.

[RoosterRed]

I should also note that all this can be modified in really useful ways. You do have to specify that market bids have to be in large block increments (20,000 Ether at a time), but then you can incentivize bidding early, or reward small time investors (or big), and much more. It is a very flexible model. And, yes, most ICOs would still get a post-ICO bump (not all), which is very important.

[davis196]

I should also note that all this can be modified in really useful ways. You do have to specify that market bids have to be in large block increments (20,000 Ether at a time), but then you can incentivize bidding early, or reward small time investors (or big), and much more. It is a very flexible model. And, yes, most ICOs would still get a post-ICO bump (not all), which is very important.

I don`t understand what kind or problem do you want to solve with this model?
What makes this model "fair" compared to the normal ICOs and why do you think that they are "unfair"?
I think that this model will confuse a lot of potential investors in some new ICO and they might not invest.
Keeping things simple is always the best practice.

[RoosterRed]

I should also note that all this can be modified in really useful ways. You do have to specify that market bids have to be in large block increments (20,000 Ether at a time), but then you can incentivize bidding early, or reward small time investors (or big), and much more. It is a very flexible model. And, yes, most ICOs would still get a post-ICO bump (not all), which is very important.

I don`t understand what kind or problem do you want to solve with this model?
What makes this model "fair" compared to the normal ICOs and why do you think that they are "unfair"?
I think that this model will confuse a lot of potential investors in some new ICO and they might not invest.
Keeping things simple is always the best practice.

Did you read my whole article? I only posted a snippet. I go through the current models and problems with each. The booms after many capped ICOs make many here nice profits, but they endanger the whole system. Really.

There is non-stop complaining about uncapped models on this board for good reason. Talk to people who invested in Bancor in the very beginning of the ICO.

The model is still very simple. Participants say how much money they are willing to put in at what maximum market cap or token price. That is it.

[RoosterRed]

I am working on some whitepaper examples. I hope they clarify things.

[RoosterRed]

I have made three whitepaper examples. I hope you read them. They should give current ICO buyers a better idea of what I am talking about.

https://steemit.com/whitepaper/@roosterred/whitepaper-examples-of-uncapped-blind-ico-auctions

Example One: Simple and Pure

Token Sale: We will be offering half of our total one million tokens up for public auction over ten days. We will never issue more tokens. All tokens are fully exchangeable one-for-one if we decide to switch blockchain technologies. One quarter of tokens will be distributed to the founders. One quarter will be kept by the company as assets. If we have to sell any, it will be publicly declared at least five days before hand.

Bid Instructions: We have outlined a range of possible market caps earlier in this whitepaper. We will let the bidders decide the ultimate market cap. There is no price floor or price cap. Bidders will use the bidding wallet to transfer how much they want to invest and indicate the maximum market cap of of the public sale they are willing to tolerate.

Auction Overview: The auction will last from 12:30 GMT Monday, October 9th, 2017 until 12:30 GMT Wednesday, October 18th, 2017. All bids will be treated equally. The bids will be ranked by market cap in descending order. Bids of the same market cap value will be ranked randomly. The Smart Contract will calculate the maximum market cap that can be funded. Bidders whose market cap bid is under this funded market cap will be automatically refunded when the auction is over. Some bidders at the market cap may be refunded too, which will be determined by the random ordering. We will cover all transaction costs.

Commentary: This is a pure Uncapped Blind ICO Auction.

[RoosterRed]

You can modify the system in many more ways than I outlined in the whitepaper examples. The original model is the strongest because it is nearly impossible for participants to gain a game theoretic advantage without outside knowledge.

[949miner]

The market is saturated of airdrops, and some fair ico's are being skiped from all the community, and it is so sad to notice about this, because it looks like a fair project. Just take a look at the announcement's board, it is full of airdrops and all of them have more than 10 pages of replies, and legit projects does not even have more than 4 pages.
By the way, it is a nice project, it needs more attention, i will read the whitepaper when i have some time.

[RoosterRed]

The market is saturated of airdrops, and some fair ico's are being skiped from all the community, and it is so sad to notice about this, because it looks like a fair project. Just take a look at the announcement's board, it is full of airdrops and all of them have more than 10 pages of replies, and legit projects does not even have more than 4 pages.
By the way, it is a nice project, it needs more attention, i will read the whitepaper when i have some time.

Thank you. I believe it can change the market for the better. I need to learn programming. I should start a thread on the project development board. The system needs private transactions, private accounts, and smart contracts to work, so it currently can't exist on an existing platform today (that I know of). In the future, I think several blockchains will be able to accomplish it.

[pinkflower]

An ICO will only be as good as the people running the project. No matter how unfair the distribution is but as long as the team is capable, competent and honest, then the project will have more chances for success.

Think of an ICO that has a fair token distribution but has a team of scammers behind it, like in most cases. Its just a more efficient way of stealing BTC from the community.

[RoosterRed]

An ICO will only be as good as the people running the project. No matter how unfair the distribution is but as long as the team is capable, competent and honest, then the project will have more chances for success.

Think of an ICO that has a fair token distribution but has a team of scammers behind it, like in most cases. Its just a more efficient way of stealing BTC from the community.

This is very true, but we should still try to develop systems with the right incentive schemes.