ICO's

[oc+]

Just wanted to get a bit of input on your thoughts on ICO's.

Have you bought into some? Which ones and why?

I hold a number of coins already but have invested in two ICO's recently. Namely XYO which does look to be onto something, and another called LXT (LCCX) which will be an exchange rumoured to be regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) it will also be based in London.

I noticed a lot of these ICO's ask people to join Telegram which is a bit like an instant messenger service. However my experience on there is mostly of people trying to push prices up, praising the project which hasn't really got to Beta yet and of course it's full of spammers and scammers.

The ICO's also offer a number of bonuses which they call bountys (basically coins) but these tend to just be asking people to mention the ICO in the main crypto forum so you end up with thousands of people just pushing different ICO's all the time for the bounty they will receive. They also give bounty's for those that tweet.

A lot of ICO's claim to be going through marketing periods too but all promotions seem to be on the same type of websites and you'll see little of them in the main media. The ICO's rarely know when they will be listed on an exchange or which one's too, or at least they don't tell anyone until a few days before it does get launched for sale.

For anyone looking to buy into an ICO the best advice I can offer anyone who wishes to try it for the first time is take a good look at their whitepaper which describes the product they are trying to create and what the coins will be for. Read it at least three times and jot down all questions you might have. You can then fire these questions off to one of their team but do try to get one of the head guys or girls to answer rather than just an admin helper. Don't invest stupid amounts either and don't be scared of missing out. I expect most buy in because they believe it might just be the next bitcoin.

Personally I own BTC, XRP, ETH, and DAN, and am awaiting XYO and LXT.

I'm excited by XYO genuinely (IF it works, it will basically be better than GPS where tracking is concerned) but think I've jumped the gun on LXT but shall wait and see. DAN btw is going to be an AI App that helps with crypto advice but won't be launched until Q4 I believe.

Anyway, be great to hear anyone elses thoughts on this!

[Sherlock]

I believe ICOs are either scam or very overpriced projects ATM.

I am not buying stocks, I am not investing into companies which I do not manage or own. ICOs are such shares of companies, but at crazy high prices only with label "blockchain" on them.

I do not know why blockchain should be used at so many projects. I do not know how so high valuations can be justified. Those startups should cost 100-1000x less.

What I absolutely do not understand is why cryptoexchanges should be tokenized. They simply do not have to be. And if they are then it makes sense only to avoid regulation, stay in shadows and be unregulated.

To have regulated trustless exchange is an oxymoron and stupidity.

I believe in BTC/crypto as money. I believe in it as investment vehicle. This ICO spam is annoying. There is no value. There even was no value ever in almost any ICOed coins, but it should have been invested in ICOs 1-2 years ago, because human greed is just amazing. I made a mistake where I underestimated the human greed. But I do not believe I am making the mistake in May 2018. I do not believe there are enough people who will invest into flashy useless or overpriced projects by now.

Maybe there is some killing ICO right now starting. Then I am simply not able to evaluate it and I need to stay away until I see something.

[Gerrypolt]

I made profit in the ICO's I invested in early last year, and lost in the ones I bought at the end of the year.

2 most profitable for me was MCO and ETN. 2 least profitable have been LATX and NOX. Im currently waiting to see if any start becoming profitable again, but market still seems to be dropping.

[Strider1973]

I believe ICOs are either scam or very overpriced projects ATM.

I am not buying stocks, I am not investing into companies which I do not manage or own. ICOs are such shares of companies, but at crazy high prices only with label "blockchain" on them.

I agree with you Sherlock; I would at max invest a little bit of "gamble" money into an ICO.

The problem is, that usually as opposed to an IPO you don't get any shares, you just buy their coins and hope that they will increase in price. But often with an ICO, you don't have any ownership rights and won't get paid out any dividends or any interest.

[Sherlock]

I do not have or know the term "gamble money". I do not throw away even pennies. I think all money, which is my past effort, matters.

I went big into bitcoin 3-4 years ago, because if something has (or seems to have) value, then the money and energy has to be dedicated into it. As there is no value in lotteries (usually) and I do not play them, there is no value in ICOs.

The bet on ICO is that the token will appreciate, because usually the token itself is somehow implemented into the project. That is why the value goes primarily up. Just the secondary rise is the speculation. So yes, in a way, the expected appreciation of the tokens or coins, is a dividend.

The fact that "investors" do not push the projects to deliver real results and revenue only shows how twisted the ICO world is. The amount of idiots who just want to get rich is limited. Yes, everyone wants money, but money is made by serious projects. With every new ICO we are getting closer and closer to the point where will be revealed that this king is naked. There is no evidence that we have use for blockchain apps atm.

Altcoins just cannibalize on bitcoin, that is all the magic. Bitcoin appreciation makes sense. But many BTC hodlers just got rich and started to throw the wealth into alts because they thought it is diversification. Then the speculators and broader public who just saw amazing gains jumped on bandwagon. It worked. So it was repeated. And it is being repeated, but it is losing the steam fast.

The only value in ICOs is to make your own ICO (MLM).

[Vargoso]

Weill I think like 90% of the ICO projects are just scams or bad projects, 5%% are good projects but will not work in the long time, and maybe just a 2-5% will work in the longtime.

The whole idea is revolutionary to me, is like a new internet as I read in some forum.

I have read a lot about the technology behind and actually I enjoyed a lot reading that (well I'm an engineer so nerdy style is my style).

Like every investment, only invest money you are willing to loss, and this specially applies if you are going into blockchain and ICO projects.

[GG-US]

These are the biggest scams right now, especially for newbies that want to create gambling sites.

This one in particular just went on salehttps://www.tombola.io/

They are based in Hong Kong and plan to create a "provably fair" lottery. Yes, you will get to prove it's hard to win the lottery finally!

There is also a UK bingo company with the same name as their gambling product...

It appears to be a way to get bad ideas funded that VC's would never touch.