This is why the ICO & bounty era is almost over

[grknondr]

Nothing is over, dont lose heart just yet. Even though people can empathize, its pointless raving and ranting like a petulant kid, each time someone snatches the lolly in your hand.

Easy now camper...  I'm just pointing out some problems we're facing with ico's.  Every single problem I've listed has been discussed before and are taken in account for investors when investing (or not investing).  Many of these problems could be solved when there would be regulations.  Let'stalk about those, in order to be a bit more constructive since you're all thinking I'm some depressed kid who bought into some ico and got screwed  

- Every ICO team member should do a mandatory KYC so everybody can find these people when the shit hits the fan.
- Vitaliks DAICO idea with escrowed funds that are released when certain goals on the roadmap are met.
- Pay bounties in eth/btc/fiat and not in tokens
- Team tokens should be locked for a year (a lot do this already).
- Delete Telegram as a whole   (no j/k I don't like chat groups of 50k people, they are useless)

I am not sure if such restrictions are established but evet they are not, your ideas are interesting and further ideas must be taken into consideration.

[Angel0]

Some points are real and when it hits the nerves, it hurts, but due to fake and scam ICO who are just here to collect money and then runaway, it does affect the sales that you've mentioned above, if 90%of ICO are all successful then buying tokens are not a problem until today.

[cryptomorphines]

Most of ICOs are scams ,even if you have researched well most of the team will only give you linked in profiles which is bullshit because anyone can claim they are these professionals etc, which in reality they are bunch of shit people who will steal millions of people! these bastards shouldnt be trusted because investors doesnt want to invest anymore because of these scam projects.

[bandar]

Some points are real and when it hits the nerves, it hurts, but due to fake and scam ICO who are just here to collect money and then runaway, it does affect the sales that you've mentioned above, if 90%of ICO are all successful then buying tokens are not a problem until today.

True but I think we are at that point where 90% were successful (bull market/bubble) and a lot of 'thugs' noticed how easy it is to collect peoples money.  A lot of people saw (too late) what happened with all these ico's: you invest 1 eth when eth was $350, two months later you get 10 eth with eth being worth $1k.  Big profits, who wouldn't invest?  Then the market turns red, a lot of people have bags of ERC-20 tokens that don't have a reason to exist and nobody is buying the tokens above ICO price IF they even hit exchanges.  So this is a turning point where a lot of investors will get scammed, the crypto community will get a reputation of some naive wild west were a lot of stupid people get screwed until the day regulations will come.  then at first most scam projects will die, and then (and not sooner) things will get interesting again for investors (since ICO/blockchain investments ARE interesting IF the scammers don't take over this scene.

[ceferov]

Some projects sold hard cap in seconds. that was a crazy time. now it's a bit hard time for crypto and no one wants to participate  on ICOs with BTC $6.5k or ETH $500. People mostly prefered to participatte after big earnings

[Johnnywelsh]

Your comment about Googling developers and not finding any historical projects or news about them, how many coders tend to use alias when contributing to repos or have never made their stuff publicly available?

If you Google alot of the devs behind alot of the big Internet sites and apps I doubt you'll find much historically about them.

[koralan]

Some points are real and when it hits the nerves, it hurts, but due to fake and scam ICO who are just here to collect money and then runaway, it does affect the sales that you've mentioned above, if 90%of ICO are all successful then buying tokens are not a problem until today.

This is a very difficult period for the entire cryptocurrency market, so most ICO projects extend the time to sell to attract more investment and bounty campaigns are stretched out compared to the original. But I think this is a common problem for the whole market, when everything is stable and green again, ICO projects will grow as strong as before. I am always optimistic about the potential of the cryptocurrency market.

[bandar]

Your comment about Googling developers and not finding any historical projects or news about them, how many coders tend to use alias when contributing to repos or have never made their stuff publicly available?

If you Google alot of the devs behind alot of the big Internet sites and apps I doubt you'll find much historically about them.

An alias is not a problem.  IF the alias has something worthy publicised.  But don't pretend to be a major player in the 'real ICT world' let alone banking when you can't even prove you have actually worked ANYWHERE EVER with your "name'".  I'm not talking about a wikipedia page, I'm talking about ANYTHING.  I'm not even in the IT world, have a regular job and no need of many connections and still I'm found on numerous places when you google my real name.  It's not normal that some dudes acting out like they're the new Elon Musk but can't be found on the internet.  The fact that legit projects have teams that are to be found proves the point.

[cryptoheroin]

I totally agree,ICOs would come to its end for good because these scammers wont have any chance in the future because less people are willing to invest to these projects as most of these ICO are scams,or some of them are turning into scam after some good times has passed.Never wanted to see people getting scammed by these bastards,that is why it is better to be permanently banned!

[kendra1107]

I've noticed quite some changes in ICOs and bounties:

- The whole market is flooded with BS projects
- There are way too many ICOs
- Teams are often fake
- Telegram groups of 25k people don't mean a thing
- Hardcaps aren't reached anymore.  Remember a few months ago when some ico's were sold out in minutes?  When does that still happen?  It doesn't... the contrary is happening: icos last for months and months
- Bounties: they sell them by their hardcap number at the price of the last stage.  For example: 4 million USD bounty!  That is IF all 400.000.000 tokens are sold AND you could sell them at the last price of 0.1$ which you never will.
- Bounties/caps are often calculated in eth and for some reason ico-people still think 1 eth is 1000$.  Wake up and smell the news!  1 eth is less than half of that!
- Nobody is buying tokens anymore
- They lie about how many tokens are sold
- Private investors... don't make me laugh.  There are no private investors....  If there were, they would be bragging about which ones which they don't.  ALL lies and more lies.

very unfair and unrealistic assessment of market forces. You need to understand first of all that it's very hard to invest in crypto currencies with fiat right now. Every day press and politicians are spreading FUD, tax liabilities, scam accusations, all fake news and false propaganda to prolong the eclipsed system of banking and fiat money.

Investors are naturally afraid because of legal repercussions in many parts of the modern world reaching totalitarian levels. IRS, SEC, outright bans in many other countries etc.

So there are extremely good ICO projects in 2018, but people are scared and deliberately deterred from investing. Free enterprise always finds a way to flourish, so don't worry, it's just a temporary hiatus as more and more intellectual people understand that the mainstream "politically correct" establishment has become the enemy of the free people.

This only proves the risks which are embedded in this system. We tend to expect things to go the way we want them to. But in reality, there is no easy ride. There will be bumps along the way (almost endless in fact) as things now a days are dynamic whether for good or bad. Do we stop when we hit a bump? We shouldn't! Coz the only way we can reach our destination is if we keep on moving forward. It's a rough road as the old saying goes. Even a sail on the waters can be rough at times. We can get tired, exhausted, beaten up, even frustrated along the way. But what reward will we receive if we allow ourselves to be drowned by these.

OP has stated some facts which we should have embraced from the beginning since volatility has in fact been emphasized from the start. So whatever situation the market or these ICO's are in at current, should have been foreseen. Meaning, if you decided to jump in, whatever the outcome, it's on you.

[junjunsalsalani]

I have the same thoughts,these ICOs are going to come to its end if these scammers wont stop to what they are doing ,these are destroying cryptocurrency's credibility to the people,by spreading shit scam projects and those newbie investors will spread that cryptocurrencies are scams that is how i see the market will collapse as most of the investors will leave!

[bulbolitobayagyag]

I've noticed quite some changes in ICOs and bounties:

- The whole market is flooded with BS projects
- There are way too many ICOs
- Teams are often fake
- Telegram groups of 25k people don't mean a thing
- Hardcaps aren't reached anymore.
- Nobody is buying tokens anymore
- They lie about how many tokens are sold
- Private investors... don't make me laugh.  There are no private investors....  If there were, they would be bragging about which ones which they don't.  ALL lies and more lies.

These are just the facts on how worhtless these ICO investments are,these people are just getting millions of dollars from the investors which is why new investor are too scared to put their money into our market because they know how these ICOs are going to do with their money,ICOs should collapse and permanently banned !

[Inspector2580]

I've noticed quite some changes in ICOs and bounties:

- The whole market is flooded with BS projects
- There are way too many ICOs
- Teams are often fake
- Telegram groups of 25k people don't mean a thing
- Hardcaps aren't reached anymore.  Remember a few months ago when some ico's were sold out in minutes?  When does that still happen?  It doesn't... the contrary is happening: icos last for months and months
- Bounties: they sell them by their hardcap number at the price of the last stage.  For example: 4 million USD bounty!  That is IF all 400.000.000 tokens are sold AND you could sell them at the last price of 0.1$ which you never will.
- Bounties/caps are often calculated in eth and for some reason ico-people still think 1 eth is 1000$.  Wake up and smell the news!  1 eth is less than half of that!
- Nobody is buying tokens anymore
- They lie about how many tokens are sold
- Private investors... don't make me laugh.  There are no private investors....  If there were, they would be bragging about which ones which they don't.  ALL lies and more lies.

EDIT: (since most posters only read the OP):  That's why:

- Every ICO team member should do a mandatory KYC so everybody can find these people when the shit hits the fan.
- Vitaliks DAICO idea with escrowed funds that are released when certain goals on the roadmap are met.
- Pay bounties in eth/btc/fiat and not in tokens
- Team tokens should be locked for a year (a lot do this already).
- Delete Telegram as a whole   (no j/k I don't like chat groups of 50k people, they are useless)

EDIT2:

I invested in a lot of ico's last summer.  Most of them made profits, sometimes huge profits.  When the market turned red, I stopped investing money and started investing time.  I turned to bounty hunting (mostly translation jobs, some sig).  By doing that I read a lot of WP, did a lot of research on teams and websites and then it started to occur to me that there are A LOT of fake teams, fake linkedins, vaporware products that only consist of marketing. 

I always wonder: how is it possible that if they present you a team of so called experts with years of relevant experience in IT, financial industry, marketing, etc that in most cases these people are nowhere to be found prior to the ico?  You google them: nothing, you search for their pictures: nothing, you google the companies they so called worked for: you can't find them (you can find the companies but you can't find evidence that they worked there).  There are only a few ico's that I participated in (with a bounty) that were 100% transparant, where you could actually find the people aboard.  Neufund was one of them.  Most of the times those icos are the ones with hardly any bonuses, no pre-sales, no months long ico's, no facebook and telegram lemmings who try to shill a product and team they don't know.

In as much as one some of the points above are not really valid when it comes to a startUp wit new entreprenuers, you do have an undeniable and valid point. There are too many fake folks out there.

Also there are no private investors. I have long known the pre-sale to private investors is just a big wash. also they pre-sale is a way to create dumps and hurt a project.

You are right. very very right.

[dominasikoin]

Every statements you said are correct, but it's still doesn't meet my perception that ICO & bounty era is almost over, it's because as long there is still a network connection, investors, bounty hunters, developers, and the ICO itself, it will still going on and on and on, it won't over yet for me.

[Vispilio]

very unfair and unrealistic assessment of market forces. You need to understand first of all that it's very hard to invest in crypto currencies with fiat right now. Every day press and politicians are spreading FUD, tax liabilities, scam accusations, all fake news and false propaganda to prolong the eclipsed system of banking and fiat money.

Investors are naturally afraid because of legal repercussions in many parts of the modern world reaching totalitarian levels. IRS, SEC, outright bans in many other countries etc.

So there are extremely good ICO projects in 2018, but people are scared and deliberately deterred from investing. Free enterprise always finds a way to flourish, so don't worry, it's just a temporary hiatus as more and more intellectual people understand that the mainstream "politically correct" establishment has become the enemy of the free people.

I partially agree.  For the record: I LOVE the way you can invest in ICO's.  I think it's the way of investing of the future. Period.  But you simply can not deny the fact that there are A LOT of scams out there.  It's not just some fake news spread by scared banksters who see their world/power crumbling down.  That's just not true.

I invested in a lot of ico's last summer.  Most of them made profits, sometimes huge profits.  When the market turned red, I stopped investing money and started investing time.  I turned to bounty hunting (mostly translation jobs, some sig).  By doing that I read a lot of WP, did a lot of research of teams and websites and then it started to occur to me that there are A LOT of fake teams, fake linkedins, vaporware products that only consist of marketing.  

I always wonder: how is it possible that if they present you a team of so called experts with years of relevant experience in IT, financial industry, marketing, etc that in most cases these people are nowhere to be found prior to the ico?  You google them: nothing, you search for their pictures: nothing, you google the companies they so called worked for: you can't find them (you can find the companies but you can't find evidence that they worked there).  There are only a few ico's that I participated in (with a bounty) that were 100% transparant, where you could actually find the people aboard.  Neufund was one of them.  Most of the times those icos are the ones with hardly any bonuses, no pre-sales, no months long ico's, no facebook and telegram lemmings who try to shill a product and team they don't know.

I thank you and also kendra1107 for your valuable feedbacks. It's definitely true some con artists tried to piggyback on the crypto craze and came up with completely fake ICO projects; however these are not that difficult to spot, and I would also argue not statistically more prevalent compared to the percentage of scams in traditional venture capital and startup investments.

One obvious litmus test, which you also brushed upon, is the visibility and presence of the team. Prior to participating in an ICO or even Bounty, try to reach out directly to one of the founders of the project. If he responds genuinely and within reasonable time frame, and if his credentials check out, it's a pretty strong indicator that the team is legit and active. 99 % of all scam ICO's have anonymous team or so thinly veiled fabricated stories that it falls apart completely upon even a brief glance into the career / CV of the owners...

[cryptotitan]

Yes it is,because most of these are scams and just created just to fool investor and will eventuall runaway! never invest to these projects because 9/10 of these ICOs are turning into scams after sometime,never have a good bounty from the past few months and it should be the reason why most of the investors wont invest anymore.

[mast3rm1nd]

I don't think it's fair to take the state of ICOs now without considering the cryptocurrency market. it is a bad time for everything even if it it a good project. however I don't disagree with you completely, I guess that it's just too early to tell if ICOs are a thing of the past with the current state of the market. you can't be sure about anything

[makuhpal]

You are indeed right these might come to its end,the investors doesnt want to put their money because of these scam projects all over the community,researching wong secure your investments because these people are very good in hiding informations about themselves that is why it is harder to tracked these people.

[fanhuaijiao713]

Now investors are smart, and the fake ico is hard to get money out of!

The excellent ioc project still gathers a large number of investors, and its bounty also has a lot of bounty hunters working!

The bounty and ico won't end!

[CryptoEnthused]

Most ICOs always were BS and scams. But now there are too much of them and it's really hard to find good ones. Maybe that gives you such an impression about ICOs. And by the way, I see that you're carrying signature, that means you didn't lose hope completely. That means you still believe in some ICOs.