Hello to all current and (future) cryptoinvestors, this guide will teach you everything you need to know about an ICO and why you should capitalise on them in the future. Many of you are probably accustomed to the cryptocurrency market already and are reaping massive rewards which is great, however there are so many hidden opportunities to benefit you all.
Fiat Real World IPO's
If you are familiar with the stock/share market that operates in major countries, you will know that these stocks started somewhere, whether it was in a small office or through a mobile application such as Snapchat. An IPO or Initial Public Offering is when a company such as Snapchat transforms from a private company into a public one and creates shares (a piece of ownership of the company) that are offered to people like you and me. In exchange for these shares the company expects capital (money from us to begin their operations and grow) to be invested. The company's shares are then put onto the stock-market at a predetermined price, which can then rise or fall through open trading.
What is an ICO then?
Much like an IPO, an ICO is the initial coin offering, a basic opportunity for early adopters to invest in a new startup coin. Sometimes people are only invited to these things, they're not necessarily available for anybody to find and to buy in to. Over recent times however many of these coins have allowed and have even advertised public involvement and are known as crowdsales when this occurs.
When a cryptocurrency startup firm wants to raise money through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), it usually creates a plan on a whitepaper which states what the project is about, what objectives the project will fulfil upon completion, how much money is needed to undertake the venture, how much of the virtual tokens the pioneers of the project will keep for themselves, what type of money is accepted, and how long the ICO campaign will run for. During the ICO campaign, enthusiasts and supporters of the firm’s idea buy some of the distributed crypto-coins (which start off as tokens) with fiat or virtual currency. These coins are referred to as tokens and are similar to shares of a company sold to investors in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) transaction.
How to Find an ICO Opportunity
The best way to find out about upcoming ICO's is to do your own research. Most of the information is out there in the open market. Keep an eye out on social platforms such as Twitter where founders of ICO's are likely to inform people about them. If you simply search "ico" into google you will find hundreds of articles. There is also a great Facebook page called "Cryptocurrency Collector's Club" where there is ongoing discussion about cryptocurrency and of course upcoming ICO floats.
How to Buy into an ICO
Firstly I would not recommend investing in an ICO if you are not already familiar with cryptocurrency operations such as wallets, exchanges, fees and encryption. If you are okay at basic crypto procedures, then once you have found an opportunity simply head to that coins website. Yesterday I invested 2 ethereum into "Status", a mobile application that integrates ETH technology. There was a large green button on the homepage which said "contribute", once I clicked on that link an individual address was created for me to deposit funds into. You simply cannot however deposit funds from wallets such as coinbase or Poloniex. A supported wallet was needed such as MyEtherWallet or Mist. For 1 eth invested you receive 10,000 SNT (status) tokens. I essentially received 20,000 tokens, therefore worth about 3 cents each. I am now patiently waiting until the coin is released into the market which may take a few months.
Benefits:
- Gives you the opportunity to buy the coin before the general sale. So normally you buy a cryptocurrency by going on one of the exchanges such as Poloniex or Bitrex. This is the general sale, when its available to the open market. But in an ICO you are essentially buying it pre-sale, before it is offered on the open market. It gives you the opportunity to get the coin at the cheapest price as it hasn't been put on the open market and it hasn't been speculated or bought and sold (pumped and dumped).
- Generally once the coin is released onto to the market its price will increase dramatically due to flocks of purchasing by speculators late to the party and news articles that will further bump it up. I'm talking 3x to 10x in value, so get in early folks!!
Drawbacks:
- ICO's can be very risky, some coins that undergo the ICO process are never even released into the open market as the project or startup has failed, normally due to a lack of interest or issues in development. You are therefore essentially buying it on a complete punt, however most ICO's will have a vision behind them and if you see that vision becoming a reality, thats when you should invest in the ICO. In other words only invest if you passionate about the idea. If you are in it just for the greed, you will only feel even more regret and hatred if the project fails.
Thats my 2 cents everybody. Feel free to contribute by leaving me your opinion in the comments :) Also feel free to follow me for more content.
Great post, will be looking at ico's too from now on. I always felt like it was a bit scammy or something like that, now i understand it + follower + resteem
Thankyou, much appreciated!
This post received a 3.0% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @avion! For more information, click here!
$10 Free worth of Eth tokens!! https://goo.gl/9uD4Tn Authorship ICO you will receive 75 ATS tokens! just need an Eth Wallet!
It is important to mention that most of the ICOs don't have a single line of code written and not a single person who can explain what blockchain is. And even if the idea is great, what is the motivation to continue working on it after you raised more money than you can make by creating this technology.
I like where you're coming from. I agree that many developers are hopping on the ICO bandwagon due to recent successes with them. I personally would be highly motivated to work full time on my own business if it were fully funded and I were able to use that money to take it all the way - I suppose the thing to ask is, are they doing this for a job or because they are thoroughly in love with the work they do and the product they're building?
Exactly, research of the team always comes first! What is their reputation and what is the area of their expertise. Only after that comes the idea.
Check This ICO
https://steemit.com/ico/@mornevd/skincoin-ico-00days-02hours-min30
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by avion from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.
Hey @avion, thanks for the article and congratulations on your work! I've also been writing a bit about ICOs in my own blog. If you'd care to take a look, I've been trying to develop an ICO Valuation methodology. I've been through how not to get scammed and how to properly evaluate an ICO team. Also, I put some alerts out for a possible ICO Bubble, as have the CFA Institute.
To facilitate the way people keep up with ICOs I came up with the Ultimate ICO List and an ICO resources list.
Hopefully you'll find some of that useful.
Looking forward to your reading new posts of yours and hearing your thoughts on mine ! Cheers
You missed the biggest step which most people are confused about. You don't simply contribute Ethereum. How do you receive the coins? You just send ether and you'll get Status in the mail? santa? poof magically appears? LOL
Thats what I was hoping to find out, If I use myetherwallet.com, Can you tell me the exact process?
"only invest if you passionate about the idea" - thanks for that! That is going to be my number one criterion. Enjoy ICO hunting!