LIST: How to evaluate ICO opportunities

[Kristen_Colwell]

Here's a list of interesting ICOs for early 2018:
https://coincodex.com/article/1198/top-5-icos-of-early-2018/

This thread is for discussing concepts.

Do you have any thoughts you can add to our convo on evaluating ICO opportunities?

Thanks,

Crypto-Kristen

[Kristen_Colwell]

So far I only analyze ico well by looking at the team and its advisors, in what areas of the project and looking at the roadmap. with the information you share is very useful to me. thanks.

Can you share some detail on how you analyze the advisors? THE LIST is a little light on questions in that area. Would like to dig deeper...

Thank you,

Crypto-Kristen 

[phelbaby]

This analysis is really helpful and educative,it is really a guide to good ICO,s.I also take time to study and find out all these factors  before investing into any ICO,s.

[Kristen_Colwell]

Need a better understanding of what the heck we are trying to do here???

Check out my YouTube video ==> What is THE LIST?

https://youtu.be/K70E6gL54wc


Best,

Crypto-Kristen 

[rammanbl4]

 I only analyze ico well by looking at the team and its advisors, in what areas of the project and looking at the roadmap. with the information you share is very useful to me

[MEGATRON_S]

Thank you for the information, I think that it will do good for me, as there is a lot of fraud and what to expect from them is unknown, so that wherever you need to climb it is necessary to thoroughly study everything and send out information

[Rexxxem]

You can refer to special sites that give an analysis of the possible implementation of the project and even an analysis of the potential price of the token. But everything costs money ...

[Kristen_Colwell]

You can refer to special sites that give an analysis of the possible implementation of the project and even an analysis of the potential price of the token. But everything costs money ...

I'm a fan of self discovery. The process of seeking answers and assimilating data helps you form opinions and level-up your ICO savvy. BUT, if I had a HUGE investment on the line, I'd happily pay for in-depth analysis to confirm or deny my informed opinion. Does that make sense?

 

Crypto-Kristen

[Filantropica]

Everyone on this topic should evaluate Orbis project .

www.orbistransfer.com

Orbis money transfer and investment PRE-ICO
Min. Investment 0.50€ with 30% bonus

[Kristen_Colwell]

Everyone on this topic should evaluate -------

This is a spam-free zone, thank you.

BYE BYE,

Crypto-Kristen

[MichaelMeu]

Riddle me this....

What is your BIGGEST ICO investment DEAL-BREAKER?

Interested!

Crypto-Kristen

I really couldn't settle on on so I thought I'd go for this.

The thing I'm most excited about for an ICO - if it's an infrastructure project. Look at NEO, look at QTUM, look at IOTA (not shilling, I have 0 bags in any of those).

Deal breakers - in order of importance:
#1 Is the team anonymous (the irony as we still don't know who satoshi is...) ? If so, no go
#2 Is there a whitepaper? If not, you know the answer.
#3 Does the project have a functional use with little/no competition?
#4 Does that project have a functioning prototype? No proto, no invest.
#5 Is their roadmap detailed and, just as important, realistic?
#6 Does it have a reasonable hardcap (<$50m)? Tick
#7 Is there an individual limit on how many tokens people can buy? Massive tick, (minimises the likelihood of whales forming, and if they do, they can only form post-ICO after you've invested and the coin is listed on exchanges which means you are in the money.
#8 Are bonus token offerings to the likes of pre-sale investors and even public sale ones capped at 25% of their total buy? Huge tick (Stops whales dumping short term but if there's enough longevity in project (12 months + hold) then this can be handled with bonus sales of up to 40%).

Totally not the answer you were looking for but just my thoughts.

[MichaelMeu]

9. Marketing & PR: how serious are they?

• Is there a professional whitepaper?
• Is the whitepaper free from spelling and grammar errors?
• How in-depth is the whitepaper's description and outline of the technology?
• Is there a professionally developed website?
• Does the website include a comprehensive ICO FAQ?
• Does the website list the company's physical address?
• Is there professional presence on top social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)?
• Do team members include the project on their LinkedIn profiles?
• Is there an official presence on Telegram?
• Is the Telegram channel active and growing?
• Do the Telegram admins have regular access to key team members for questions?
• Is there an official presence on Slack, Rocketchat, Gitter?
• Does the project have an announcement (ANN) thread on BitcoinTalk?
• Does the company report progress on a regular basis?
• How is customer service and tech support on the project's social media accounts?
• Is the ICO listed on top ICO ratings websites?

There's a few things I'd alter here with regards to Telegram/BitcoinTalk etc.

1) Do the admins respond to users concerns (on Telegram, for instance)?
2) Do they have a Discord community? (I find Discord, personally, to be a better and more thorough platform for team members communicating what's going on. Everyone just talks past one another on Telegram I find, and people focus far too much on the 'pinned' posts - people basically reading what the admns want them to).
3) Check the ANN thread on BitcoinTalk. Look for the following signs which raise suspicion:
Do a lot of the positive posts come from new accounts with relatively few posts? This is common on spam projects. Often reputable members post saying if something's dubious and could be a scam. Members with 400,500,600+ posts should be regarded in higher esteem with respect to what they are saying about a project.
Are posts being deleted? Sure sign of a scam (people will often quote their own posts with a copy of their deleted post - before it gets deleted - as they are probably mentioning that it is a scam)
Is the thread overly focused on bounties? Again, likely sign of a scam.

Great points. I worked them into the Marketing & PR section. Thoughts?

9. Marketing & PR: how serious are they?

• Is there a professional whitepaper?
• Is the whitepaper free from spelling and grammar errors?
• How in-depth is the whitepaper's description and outline of the technology?
• Is there a professionally developed website?
• Does the website include a comprehensive ICO FAQ?
• Does the website list the company's physical address?
• Is there professional presence on top social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)?
• Do team members include the project on their LinkedIn profiles?
• Is there an official presence on Telegram?
• Is the Telegram channel active and growing?
• Do the Telegram admins have regular access to key team members for questions?
• Is there an official presence on Discord, Slack, Rocketchat, Gitter?
• Does the project have an announcement (ANN) thread on BitcoinTalk?
• Is the BitcoinTalk ANN thread overly focused on bounties?
• Do many of the positive Bitcointalk posts come from new accounts with relatively few posts?

Thank you so much for your collaboration. This is FUN!

Crypto-Kristen  [/list]

Just add regarding Bitcointalk: Is there any evidence of posts being deleted? Investigate if anyone is claiming so? Are the opinions of seasoned members being shouted down? E.g If there is 4 members with 200+ posts calling the ico suspicious and 20 members with between 1-28 posts calling the project legit, I'd be valuing the opinions of the former, not the latter.

[MichaelMeu]

10. Hype: what are people saying about the ICO? (ratings + community)

• Is there a Reddit community?
• Are there a significant number of users on the main social media pages for the project? (Bitcointalk, Telegram, Twitter, Medium, and YouTube)
• Is the social community diverse?
• Is there a bounty program?
• Is there an airdrop?
• How often has the project been mentioned in the press?
• Has the project been mentioned in mainstream technology media and in prominent finance publications? (Techcrunch, VentureBeat, Forbes, WSJ, Reuters, etc.)

Just a small thing I'd add here. If any bounty program is distributing more than 2% of its token sale to a bounty program, probably want to avoid these icos. No ico should need 2% of all tokens for a bounty program. I'm really not a fan of bounty programs at all, but 0.5% being committed to bounty programs seems reasonable to me.

If they distribute more than 2% this is not a bad thing, but the critical point is that token burn action and bounties should be paid according to sold tokens, not to the token reserve. If they pay according to the total reserve, this is bad.

Pay attention to this finding, very important.

This is a great point. Can you help me phrase and place the question? I'm thinking this goes in the Token Offering Structure section...? Something like "Are token burn actions and bounties paid according to sold tokens or to the token reserve?"

Thanks for your help,

Crypto-Krsten
 

V. close:

"Are token burn actions and bounties paid according to sold tokens or according to the token reserve regardless of how many tokens were sold?"

[MichaelMeu]

Check this out!

Different types of ICO investors use THE LIST differently....

If you are looking for a long-term investment in the next big blockchain project, you may find TOKEN PURPOSE and TECHNOLOGY extremely important... On the other hand, a crypto-trader may take a completely different approach to evaluating ICO opportunities. This type of investor may jump straight to TOKEN OFFERING STRUCTURE.

Make sense? THE LIST, just like the One Ring from Lord of the Rings adapts to the finger of the wearer. :-)

Crypto-Kristen
 

Sending so many virtual hugs your way for that post, particularly the last sentence

[pangu]

"How many tokens are being created?
What is price per token?"

Add maybe: what is the marketcap of the ICO at the moment. + How big could it rise?

[sister1001]

Step 10: If it has the name Polymath, stay away!

That is a good one. I would also say "stay away if the name of the coin is Bitcoin + a colour, Ethereum + a colour, Bitcoin + anything in general, etc... " I am sure you get the idea.

[MichaelMeu]

Step 10: If it has the name Polymath, stay away!

That is a good one. I would also say "stay away if the name of the coin is Bitcoin + a colour, Ethereum + a colour, Bitcoin + anything in general, etc... " I am sure you get the idea.

Yes. Those flags would pop up with the criteria certainly but a shortcut is just looking for those combinations. I thought it'd be obvious to most but for some it may not be so thanks.

Also, see if the website is mining from your browser. I've noted this on a few icos recently.

Let's take an example.

Open your task manager on your computer.

Click the Processes tab and monitor the % of CPU being used for a second or so. What percentage is it hovering around?
Mines typically between 14-17% (can spike to 30%, rarely 40-50% but it is possible, would only happen for a moment however).

Now, when you go to ICO site that is using in-broswer mining (likely Monero) that CPU % will spike up in seconds. No way am I investing in an ICO that's slyly stealing my CPU resources. Why would I trust them? Just completely dodgy.

Here's an example which I took from: https://coincodex.com/article/1198/top-5-icos-of-early-2018/ - the spam link someone just posted.

I googled the 'Scorum' ICO (last on the top 5 list) and went to their site for their token sale.

Here's the url:

https://scorumcoins.com/

Have to wait for a few seconds for the webpage to load and then, BOOM! CPU spike + fan will probably start going like crazy also. Yup. Mining from your browser. Want to make sure there's not an error with your browser? Close the tab, watch the spike disappear. Double-check with different browser just to be sure (Chrome + IE I checked with) and voila. Pure scam Scorumcoins is - might as well be called Scrotumcoins, about as attractive as one. Stay away (but quickly do the demonstration for yourself to spot this red flag in the future)

[coinlawyer]

HI?
Of cource evaluating ICO You need to look at the code, but if that’s not you, you can start with the white paper.
But that’s a lot of reading, start with typos.
Here is the article about it https://zengineeringpodcast.com/ruling-out-the-scams-smart-contracts-whitepapers-and-evaluating-an-ico-43821502a9ae

[MichaelMeu]

HI?
Of cource evaluating ICO You need to look at the code, but if that’s not you, you can start with the white paper.
But that’s a lot of reading, start with typos.
Here is the article about it https://zengineeringpodcast.com/ruling-out-the-scams-smart-contracts-whitepapers-and-evaluating-an-ico-43821502a9ae

We're more here trying to provide criteria with which to evaluate ICOs rather than being solely focused on spotting scam ICOs. Scam ICOs should be relatively easy to spot - should be, not necessarily always however. Many ICOs will fail though - not because they're scams but simply because they don't have enough of a USP or enough technical expertise or good enough advisers. Hence the importance of DYOR!

[bitcoinvestor]

Project and team is very important. ICO with realistic project and trusted team. Bobrepair is one of the great ICO. It is supported by John Mc Cafee and the project is skill market. it is very rasional to be applied.