What do you look for when investing in an ICO?

[epidose]

First, the most important aspect in an ICO is the transparency of the project proving that the Benefit is necessary or that will aggregate in some system or platform. Second is to meet Dev, the team and everyone who has been in charge of the project, and finally, the level of disclosure and amount of access and discussion about the project and its theme. These three basics are essential to choosing a quality ICO.

I think that's a good point too, I did some creeping into Tipper based off your signature and I see what you mean in being transparent in regards to the benefit and general discussion around the project itself. I see what you mean for team too, Tipper has a seemingly very well established group of individuals involved and backing the progress of the project. Thanks for the good points - best of luck with the Tipper project!

[DontDoItUs]

The project and their team, I don't see anything better to check out than what I listed there.

[epidose]

Hi everyone

New to this forum but I see a lot of veteran advice here. Lately I've been researching, tracking and dabbling in a ICOs. I'm wondering what everyone's opinion is on ICOs, in general, and what your guidelines for investment might be. Note, this isn't a standard "should I invest in btc or X, Y or Z thread, but more of a place to share some strategies.

Personally I always start with the whitepaper and research it and its merit. If it sounds reasonable, I try to answer the question of "what problem does this ICO solve?" - is there a need for it, or, is it simply applying blockchain to some aspect of some industry for no real reason.

Finally, I look at the team. Have I heard of anyone, can I find them on twitter or LinkedIn, etc.

Anyone have other strategies they are willing to share? Looking forward to the discussion!

You do everything right friend. Everything listed by you makes sense, but I will say from my own experience that the team's notoriety does not always play a major role. There are many such examples. The same Stratis, for example. I look at the idea, the availability of a software product, and also see if the work is being done by the devs.

Thanks - I appreciate that. When you say team, do you put equal weight on the team as the listed advisors? I've seen lots of discussion regarding how much input an advisor may actually have on any given project.

[anizpk]

It's actually very difficult to tell because, tokens of the most icos are selling below ico price on exchanges just after launch unless they are listed on a major exchange like binance. So I never participate an ico unless i have use with that token other than just making money with it. Most ico tokens are untility tokens. so you can use them in their platform. If the project have a solid project and i have use with that project, i will participate.
Else i can grab it on lower price from etherdelta or any other decentalised exchanges after launch

[dimastegar]

The most common strategy I apply, is to ask the developer directly ICO through the existing channels such as email, group telegram, slack, linkedin, facebook, twitter, website support and others. So I can be more confident and understand from the ICO project.

[epidose]

It's actually very difficult to tell because, tokens of the most icos are selling below ico price on exchanges just after launch unless they are listed on a major exchange like binance. So I never participate an ico unless i have use with that token other than just making money with it. Most ico tokens are untility tokens. so you can use them in their platform. If the project have a solid project and i have use with that project, i will participate.
Else i can grab it on lower price from etherdelta or any other decentalised exchanges after launch

That's a good point too; the large majority of ICOs issue a utility token/gas for it's own service, so I guess a major consideration would be if you're going to use the coin in the first place as you may even be better served to just wait till it hit an exchange. Although, I guess some of that aspect is counter-acted by pre-ICO bonus provisions for early investors.

[GregoryPorter]

Well after the SEC report that pretty much every ICO they observed that claimed to be a utility token, actually displayed all of the characteristics they expect to see in a security I would be extra careful on the projects I select. Sure there are some utility tokens out there but if you are investing in something you are unsure about the fact the SEC are being vocal again wouldn't fill me with confidence

[dongxier]

Hi everyone

New to this forum but I see a lot of veteran advice here. Lately I've been researching, tracking and dabbling in a ICOs. I'm wondering what everyone's opinion is on ICOs, in general, and what your guidelines for investment might be. Note, this isn't a standard "should I invest in btc or X, Y or Z thread, but more of a place to share some strategies.

Personally I always start with the whitepaper and research it and its merit. If it sounds reasonable, I try to answer the question of "what problem does this ICO solve?" - is there a need for it, or, is it simply applying blockchain to some aspect of some industry for no real reason.

Finally, I look at the team. Have I heard of anyone, can I find them on twitter or LinkedIn, etc.

Anyone have other strategies they are willing to share? Looking forward to the discussion!

Yes, my strategies are the same as you, but besides this, I'll be looking for more evaluation articles to find out if this project is worth investing.
There is also a reference to the number of people in Twitter and telegrams, which I can let me know whether this project is hot or not.

[epidose]

Well after the SEC report that pretty much every ICO they observed that claimed to be a utility token, actually displayed all of the characteristics they expect to see in a security I would be extra careful on the projects I select. Sure there are some utility tokens out there but if you are investing in something you are unsure about the fact the SEC are being vocal again wouldn't fill me with confidence

That's a good point too, but I thought that ICOs were skirting this by basically not offering the pre-ICO/ICO to North America, thereby avoiding any type of regulation by the SEC. I know a few other people who replied here had signatures indicating they were part of an ICO project; maybe they can respond to this with their 2 cents?

[Dreamr]

Hi everyone
New to this forum but I see a lot of veteran advice here. Lately I've been researching, tracking and dabbling in a ICOs. I'm wondering what everyone's opinion is on ICOs, in general, and what your guidelines for investment might be. Note, this isn't a standard "should I invest in btc or X, Y or Z thread, but more of a place to share some strategies.
Personally I always start with the whitepaper and research it and its merit. If it sounds reasonable, I try to answer the question of "what problem does this ICO solve?" - is there a need for it, or, is it simply applying blockchain to some aspect of some industry for no real reason.
Finally, I look at the team. Have I heard of anyone, can I find them on twitter or LinkedIn, etc.
Anyone have other strategies they are willing to share? Looking forward to the discussion!

You've got everything that is needed to look for when investing in ICO. From reading the whitepaper to the ICO team and the social media profiles, the last thing to look for is the company location, background, roadmap, and the previous achievements. with all that looking good nothing fishy then can go ahead straight to invest in the ICO.  

[pprun]

Personally I always look for the team members of visible if possible because through their presence I will gain small trust. Then next I look for their mission and vision to crypto world. I also look their roadmap because seeing its goal can add also a small confidence that this is true group.

[epidose]

You've got everything that is needed to look for when investing in ICO. From reading the whitepaper to the ICO team and the social media profiles, the last thing to look for is the company location, background, roadmap, and the previous achievements. with all that looking good nothing fishy then can go ahead straight to invest in the ICO.  

Thanks! So, I haven't really paid much attention to the company location (yet). Are there certain countries that have found themselves under fire for hosting projects (unknowingly I assume) that wind up being fraudulent more often than not?

[bjmpoker001]

first i look about their team. and their product.
if i think their team and project is good, then i will be good too.
we must carefully read about ICO information, so we don't waste our funds.

[JeffBrad12]

Well after the SEC report that pretty much every ICO they observed that claimed to be a utility token, actually displayed all of the characteristics they expect to see in a security I would be extra careful on the projects I select. Sure there are some utility tokens out there but if you are investing in something you are unsure about the fact the SEC are being vocal again wouldn't fill me with confidence

It doesn't matter. That based on the SEC compliant. As you can see SEC has made an announcement regarding it just like every USA investors are not allowed to participate in the ico because that was involved very high risk.


Whatever SEC called that as security, utility or something like that the conclusion will be on the investors itself.

[Bokugo]

An ICO should have a solid development team. It also should come out with a whitepaper and a concrete roadmap.

But I wondered how free they let themselves tied to a project.
It is hard work of the team is very diperluhakan that this project can develop and successful...

[subG]

Before I invest in an ICO, I always look for a strong technical team.  Developments are the most important thing for a project and it takes technical skills to do this.  I also like the project to have a marketing person on the team. 

[zxcv cool]

Investment ico of course is to obtain high profits, but the market of ico is very cold at present, so it is not recommended to invest in ico.

[andthereyou]

Investment ico of course is to obtain high profits, but the market of ico is very cold at present, so it is not recommended to invest in ico.

Anyway for investors now is the best time to invest in crypto because the market is down. Also you can buy more tokens in an ICO with your fiat money if you convert it to ETH or BTC. When the uptrend is realize then more profit will be gain. But the opposite will happen if the market won't recover.

[Mikado$]

Profit is the pursuit goal of all merchants on cryptocurrency. But things are never easy to get. In the ico campaign, the fraud problem is always the priority and most prudent to remove it. And experience to realize the idea of establishment in the user trend is the most important to be able to get profit. It also depends on the status of the crypto and dollars to optimize that profit.

[paulsen]

what i'm looking for in ICO and Altcoin is the opportunity to earn cheap coins for resale when the altcoin price goes up and significant. many free coins are given bye the project for free when the bounty starts.