Explain the concept of ICO's to a newbie

[lukas_argongroup]

Outdated.

[mk4]

First off, if you're new to bitcoin or blockchain technology in general, it definitely is a very bad idea to go straight to ICOs.

Anyway, ICOs are pretty much like crowdfunding but for cryptocurrencies, whereas you receive a certain amount of a certain token depending on how much BTC/ETH you offered.

[nexus2k14]

I can recommend you check on YouTube: Hacking The System ICO - Ian Balina. He was working for IBM and decided to quit and invest in new ICO's. I think user: mjglqw is right, jump to ICO's is a deep water my friend but you can try invest tiny amounts buying from exchange after ICO's is complete and see how it goes. It's a bumpy ride I must admit for sure! I am on one ICO 800$ loss but it doesn't bother me - I am long term so either price will back and rise or I lose all. It's a gamble and you need to understand that. Always read roadmap/white paper and don't invest more you can lose.

[p3rplexamous]

I can recommend you check on YouTube: Hacking The System ICO - Ian Balina. He was working for IBM and decided to quit and invest in new ICO's. I think user: mjglqw is right, jump to ICO's is a deep water my friend but you can try invest tiny amounts buying from exchange after ICO's is complete and see how it goes. It's a bumpy ride I must admit for sure! I am on one ICO 800$ loss but it doesn't bother me - I am long term so either price will back and rise or I lose all. It's a gamble and you need to understand that. Always read roadmap/white paper and don't invest more you can lose.

I agree.  Jumping into the blockchain and cryptocurrency world with limited to no knowledge and going straight into ICO's IMO is a bad idea.  The reason being, we are still so early in the evolution of this industry and there are so many bad and ultimately unsuccessful ideas that have huge market values.  I am not saying that it is not possible to make money, only that for ever 100 ICO's there is most likely only a handful of ICO's with real long term value. 

My advice would be to learn and read as much as you can, find out what interests you, learn about the technology and what new ICO's are offering that differ from what is currently exisiting, buy some Bitcoin or Ether and learn how to safely store it, transfer it, buy it, sell it, and learn how it works so when you decide to jump on other projects, you have a good baseline understanding of the process and the ecosystem.  A great resource is Princeton Universities Crypto Currency and Blockchain course.  Its free and has TONS of great videos.  Great place to start.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency.  I also find Reddit to be really helpful and have put together a Multi Reddit if you care to give it a look https://www.reddit.com/user/P3rplex/m/digitalcurrency/  And lastly, podcasts and Youtube, I have attached some of my favorites below if you care to give them a listen.

Unchained - My favorite and best produced - https://www.forbes.com/podcasts/unchained/

Lets Talk Bitcoin - https://letstalkbitcoin.com/ (this is more like a channel that has a bunch of different podcast producers shows on it.  Some are better than others)

The Investors Podcast, We Study Billionaires - https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/ (this one is not only about cryptocurrencies, but has some good episodes about them, like this one https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/episodes/bitcoin-mastermind-charlie-lee-tuur-demeester/ )

NPR’s RadioLab - Not only about cryptocurrencies but has a good episode about one of them - http://www.radiolab.org/story/ceremony/

NPR’s Planet Money - Not only about cryptocurrencies but has a good episode about one of them http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/06/29/484029238/episode-708-bitcoin-divided or http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/02/10/514577243/episode-753-blockchain-gang

Joe Rogan Podcast - Not only about cryptocurrencies but has a good episode about one of them
http://podbay.fm/show/360084272/e/1390877423?autostart=1
http://podbay.fm/show/360084272/e/1473292089?autostart=1


Youtube:
1. This guy does a great job explaining all things crypto in an easy to digest way.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggNMXYug_4DYFWniw7EfjA

2. This young programmer does a pretty good job of diving into some topics and easy to understand.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrYmtJBtLdtm2ov84ulV-yg

3. Andreas Antonopolus’s youtube channel, this guy is a well versed Bitcoin advocate that has a shit ton of talks about a variety of topics surrounding Bitcoin, and although the quality is not great, he does a good job of explaining it.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWCJCWOxBYSi5DhCieLOLQ

4.  This guy produces videos daily and since he is in England, they are up prior to you waking up.  Some higher level topics and news.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLnQ34ZBSjy2JQjeRudFEDw

[zaja6799]

Thank you guys! You helped me alot! 

[lukas_argongroup]

Thanks for the replies, great resources to dive into. I'm actually reading about blockchain since 6 months already and therefore am able to wrap my mind around the concept of ICO somewhat. But I found it being very difficult to describe it to people not involved in cryptocurrencies. But your answers helped a lot already.

[jlp]

Read:

3 kinds of ICOs - Protect Yourself
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2243157

[sukamasoto]

ICO is initial project for spesific coin so if you decide to invest on ICO, there 2 chance, win a lot of profit or being scam
Most ICO AFAIK, is scam because they just gather massive amount of investor money so that's why we can see Chinese ban ICO

[JollySkipper]

I have an idea, I write it down and explain it in my whitepaper. I gave it to let people read it and think about it. I ask for people to buy my tokens if they like the idea in order to make it and when the idea become a real thing and is profitable , people who invested on the idea will have some big returns.

[eckmar]

The concept of 95% of ICOs can be explained like this (at the moment):
Give your money. Receive worthless coins. Developers will work for years. Everyone forget about the hype. Lose money.

[chrisfatos]

If you know what is an IPO, then it makes this easy.

But instead:

is unregulated
performed using crypto currency
can be achieved with smaller budget, and with just an idea.

[digital_weezer]

Here is a great article on what an ICO is and if you should invest in them.

https://medium.com/@crowdholding/what-is-an-ico-and-should-dive-in-f712ffdef9eb

[btcbringer]

If you know what is an IPO, then it makes this easy.

But instead:

is unregulated
performed using crypto currency
can be achieved with smaller budget, and with just an idea.

i agree with you, IPO will do much help to understand ICO, and i think one more difference is that everyone can participate in ICO easily while IPO only open to institution

[lukas_argongroup]

If you know what is an IPO, then it makes this easy.

But instead:

is unregulated
performed using crypto currency
can be achieved with smaller budget, and with just an idea.

i agree with you, IPO will do much help to understand ICO, and i think one more difference is that everyone can participate in ICO easily while IPO only open to institution

I also found that starting off with the concept of IPO's works good. With the main difference that investors don't buy a percentage of a company but rather a share of a (future) network. If the network becomes valuable and gains traction, a return can be made on this share. Depending on wether the network / platform already exists during the ICO, it's either a security or utility that you are essentially buying from a legal perspective.

[Franko30]

I think the reason why we have so much ico nowadays is very simple, it is a new hyped way to fined money to projects. And every days projects which is didn't connect with crypto start their ico.  But i still believe it is a good way to fundraising if your team is good programmers, who know what they do and project connect with crypto

[dload.1]

Can explain in few worlds. Give me your money and may be we will do something. And if .... you will get more money.

[Geemy]

thank you for making this thread , i can now understand what the mean of ' ico ' and alos ' pre ico '

[BitcoinLoan]

If you are new here do not start with one of the hardest thing. ICO is for experienced user so i propose first you learn about easier things