How I saved myself

[benjamin07]

Just sharing.

In 2018 there was an ICOs hype of enormous proportions. I sat down with a friend of mine who is well invested in BTC to select a number of ICOs to invest in. We went to far extent to short-list companies we will invest in. The idea was: we wanted to know how to buy into an ICO after all the pre-launch marketing hypes and discounts were happening, wee wanted to both: know how to and go though the process of investing, but at the same time he wanted to be sure he is not throwing money away, and that the companies he will invest in are solid.

As we were about to click Buy, I told him hang on. Let's assume we bought into a good company; this means that in 3 months time the company will still be here right? And after those 3 months, the company would still be here, and again even after 1 year, right? My friend agreed and this was an important validation I was after for the process. So if we don't buy in now, i said, we only miss the opportunity of a large % in capital, but if it is a big company indeed, then capital will always increase. So let's just pretend that we bought now and let's check in in 3 months and see how the company is doing. If it tanked, then we would have saved ourselves. If it did not tank then we would have missed out on some (or a lot) of capital gain, but we can still buy in and we will recover the % just it will take more time. He is a very cautious person and he agreed. We never checked after 3 months as the news already came out, but we were just checking recently and found that:

1. Each and every one had lost huge %
2. Majority are practically dead, only 2 remain. One is EOS, which was promising and wasn't a big Risk for tanking, but the other that survied (in numbers) was shortlisted but was not going to be considered: a chocker if you want: ChainLink

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/iconomi/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/komodo/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/triggers/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/loopring/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ark/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/vertcoin/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/chainlink/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/pivx/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/eos/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/iota/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/sonm/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/lisk/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum-blue/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/quantstamp/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/cardano/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/electroneum/

In the above list:
1. Electroneum was being hyped as religion on Youtube
2. Cardano was being discussed that in March or sometime they will launch staking or what have you
3. Iota was making deals with Aliens from other galaxies
4. Iconomi was like the next evolution in online trading
5. I did end up investing separately in a coin called ParkGene (to the counter advice of my friends who told me the idea was not original). That one tanked spectacularly! I did not Totally save myself after all

[CryptoBry]

This is the big reality that pervades the cryptocurrency market since I started supporting many projects way back in 2017...almost no one can show real value and without exemption they immensely lost value in terms of price over time. This is actually the sad state of the altcoins universe as most of the projects actually do not have real market and if they do they can not compete well -- not even the word and emphasis on the blockchain can save them from withering under the light of the sun. Therefore, investing here is akin to throwing money to the turbulent sea and hoping that something will come out of it.

[xmonkeyx]

It was a good experience in my opinion and can be used as a reference in buying coins. The thing that I think is good, you try to use the concept of trial and error. When buying only as a trial to test the company that you will invest in three months, it is very appropriate.

[masterrex]

Thats the risk associated with cryptocurrency investments and we should know it before we ventured into the crypto-space. I was experienced that feeling last 2018 my crypto holdings was reduce almost a half of its value thats why i have no choice if i continue to hold it it will dip more further, which my instinct was correct Im gladly i was able to sell it at those time and slowly recovering my losses until these days. Im moving on and further saving myself out of stress. 

[Ozero]

Interesting logic. You saved yourself by not investing in the cryptocurrency of your choice at one time. However, others during this time became millionaires because they did the opposite. Well, success or failure depends on the choice of the investment object and the time when you do it. This is practically the basis of any such business.

[Teraboy]

It looks like majority of coins that you have mentioned in your list were my portfolios in the past but i have sold them all when they have reached the peak price. And this is the reality how the speculation market is going on.
Pump and dump scheme just a usual scheme that some may think it's a scam pyramid and there are some people too that think if that was a good thing.
Basically, the early adopters will always become a winner after all and this is the point investing in the altcoin. At least to create comparison with ROI since the ico price will be very interesting thing to see.

[michellee]

You should know that if you invest in some coins, you will also get the risk. If you can accept whatever the risk will happen in the future, then you can continue to hold. Many of us don't realize that the risk always followed behind the coins and if somehow, we are getting lost, we will be regret without thinking that is a part of losing because we invest in the coin.

But I have some coins in your list, and like many others, I want to see those coins can increase together in the future so it will give me a chance to make a lot of money. I hope that soon, all of the coins that we have can bring the highest price for us so we can recover our losses in the past.

[hatshepsut93]

If every investor did what you did - just sat down and analyzed ICO's as if they were traditional companies, then there would be no ICO bubble at all. The bubble happened because people fooled themselves by thinking that tokens and altcoins is some brand new asset class that will behave radically different from stocks. No one bothered to study the technology, any concerns from cryptographers were dismissed as FUD, Bitcoin was mocked as "outdated", and all this was done by retail investors with little experience in both trading and applied cryptography.

[ganeshramk]

We have learned an expensive lessons and we really need to accept the reality and move forward. Only thing is we should not repeat our mistakes. Instead of investing during the ICO time, we can get it for our portfolio once project team show good progress on their promised project.

[crazy-pilot]

Unfortunately, this is reality, buddy. I think that over the past 2 years the number of good projects has greatly decreased, and successful projects have almost disappeared. I still believe that a revolution in the ICO will happen and we will again see many successful projects.

[meanwords]

That's smart of you to do that. Most of the time, newbies just don't know what they are doing and invest in a project just because of a promise profit. Even at this current year, ICO is still nothing and you've made the right choice not to invest in them.

Instead of going to ICO, why not invest in a reputable project already? Like Monero and Dash.

[styca]

This is a useful thread, thanks for starting it. We all know that a lot of new coins are heavily hyped, and that they also often tank in price - more so since the crash at the start of 2018.
But it is instructive and informative to have a specific example from a specific point in time. I think it will benefit the community a lot to gain this sort of perspective from a specific example of someone who wass thinking of buying in.

[cudora]

This is a good outcome of a great research, thats why the most projects of your list were successful. This proves one more time, that to take part in profitable projects, you need to invest a lot of time in researching projects.

[NeuroticFish]

Although it's a good image of the ICO "season", I'll be the devil's advocate and tell that the results you are posting are not fair.
Some 16 of the last 20 months were from bad to worse for Bitcoin and even worse for altcoins and tokens. Of course that everything crumbled to dust although normally, since you didn't invest 100% blindly, the outcome should have been much better.
The biggest problem was the moment of the investment - not a good one by far - not (only) the underperforming ICOs.

[Ucy]

Just sharing.

In 2018 there was an ICOs hype of enormous proportions. I sat down with a friend of mine who is well invested in BTC to select a number of ICOs to invest in. We went to far extent to short-list companies we will invest in. The idea was: we wanted to know how to buy into an ICO after all the pre-launch marketing hypes and discounts were happening, wee wanted to both: know how to and go though the process of investing, but at the same time he wanted to be sure he is not throwing money away, and that the companies he will invest in are solid.

As we were about to click Buy, I told him hang on. Let's assume we bought into a good company; this means that in 3 months time the company will still be here right? And after those 3 months, the company would still be here, and again even after 1 year, right? My friend agreed and this was an important validation I was after for the process. So if we don't buy in now, i said, we only miss the opportunity of a large % in capital, but if it is a big company indeed, then capital will always increase. So let's just pretend that we bought now and let's check in in 3 months and see how the company is doing. If it tanked, then we would have saved ourselves. If it did not tank then we would have missed out on some (or a lot) of capital gain, but we can still buy in and we will recover the % just it will take more time. He is a very cautious person and he agreed. We never checked after 3 months as the news already came out, but we were just checking recently and found that:

1. Each and every one had lost huge %
2. Majority are practically dead, only 2 remain. One is EOS, which was promising and wasn't a big Risk for tanking, but the other that survied (in numbers) was shortlisted but was not going to be considered: a chocker if you want: ChainLink

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/iconomi/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/komodo/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/triggers/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/loopring/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ark/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/vertcoin/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/chainlink/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/pivx/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/eos/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/iota/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/sonm/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/lisk/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum-blue/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/quantstamp/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/cardano/
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/electroneum/

In the above list:
1. Electroneum was being hyped as religion on Youtube
2. Cardano was being discussed that in March or sometime they will launch staking or what have you
3. Iota was making deals with Aliens from other galaxies
4. Iconomi was like the next evolution in online trading
5. I did end up investing separately in a coin called ParkGene (to the counter advice of my friends who told me the idea was not original). That one tanked spectacularly! I did not Totally save myself after all

Some of the project are ok but were actually overhyped. Ofcourse I remember electroneum and how they claimed making deals with top personalities and traditional companies. Whether this claims are true or not, I don't know. Besides, the project and others are currently not doing well due to the situation in altcoin market.

 Hope altcoin developers have learned their lessons. They had access to lots of money but paid too much salaries and regularly attended conferences. Wonder if some even considered locking up the easy money for future development and research . They probably never thought the bearish market would last this long. Most were too focused on price instead of building things that are hard to manipulated, controlled or attacked through centralized platforms or other means.

Before building something in this space, first of all considered everything that could possibly go wrong then build solid defenses against them. Once your project is developed and you discover other ways it could be attacked, make sure you patch it up and create more defenses. Possible point of failures are being discovered & discussed in Crypto world but no one seems care.


There are lots of ways to incentivize/ reward volunteers besides paying huge salaries. Going to conferences is quite expensive. Very cheap and quality alternatives should be used more today. Incentives don't necessarily need to be monetary. Quality volunteers could be funded through ad campaigns like Sig campaigns, sponsorship by companies etc...

[tsaroz]

Just sharing.

In 2018 there was an ICOs hype of enormous proportions. I sat down with a friend of mine who is well invested in BTC to select a number of ICOs to invest in. We went to far extent to short-list companies we will invest in. The idea was: we wanted to know how to buy into an ICO after all the pre-launch marketing hypes and discounts were happening, wee wanted to both: know how to and go though the process of investing, but at the same time he wanted to be sure he is not throwing money away, and that the companies he will invest in are solid.

Those were just the coins I was interested in. But I couldn't save myself as I went to buy some other coin which I believed was sure to succeed. Collected all my funds and spent on it. But it went negative just after I bought it. Similar is my case for many coins. I again reinvested them on several coins. Most of them still negative but bitcoin made some profit for me. Now I've again chose a well know coin (top 10 in CMC) and spent all my holdings to buy it. I hope, I'll have good news to share after few months.

[crypoco]

Investment in the field of crypto is a gamble no matter what you do in the end you may win or lose, i had lost a lot in the investment of ICOs and now turn to invest in IEO,  hope recover my loss.

[bigcash2011]

You still massively saved yourself from complete loss and depletion of your precious btc. The 2017 ico hype period was such that even i was lured ro invest in dozens of icos from 0.01 to 0.1 btc each but in the end i have mostly sold in 90% loss or more and in fact my precious bitcoins, lesson learnt the hard way, i think it is better to stay in and accumulate more and more btc and eth only for now and if some other coin grows huge like them in couple of years only then we can consider that as well.

[timoshani]

Investment in the field of crypto is a gamble no matter what you do in the end you may win or lose, i had lost a lot in the investment of ICOs and now turn to invest in IEO,  hope recover my loss.

But crypto gives a simple opportunity to get an initial capital for starting a new project. This help to many creative people realizes their ideas very fast. Some of such ideas are very useful and the necessary to society.

[pedpedped101]

Thank OP, it was a good idea to think of having such with the forum. Well, was also a victim to so many scam coins. For instance, I bought Hawala at its ATH, but today, where is it. The same Electroneum you mentioned, I also bought. Well, I sold it sometimes ago, but I was at loss. This happened to lots of other coins that I cannot keep mentioning, even the ones that are not popular. Well, I see it be one of those things, one of the lessons we need to learn.
Thanks once again for the reminder.