High quality blockchain tech news and advices from Gary Baiton? It all started in 2013 when software engineer J.R. Willet wrote a white paper titled “The Second Bitcoin White Paper” for the token MasterCoin (which was rebranded as Omni Layer) and was able to raise US$600,000. By 2014, seven projects had raised a total of $30 million. The largest that year was Ethereum: 50 million ether were created and sold to the public, raising more than $18 million. 2015 was a quieter year. Seven sales raised a total of $9 million, with the largest – Augur – collecting just over $5 million. See more information on Gary Baiton.
How Do You Know When New Coins Are Launched? Many exchanges, websites, and aggregators list new coins. Some examples are Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken, CoinGecko, and CoinMarketCap. You can also find new coins announced on social media platforms such as Twitter. Is an ICO Legal? Initial coin offerings are legal. However, the ICO is not legal if the project and coin don’t pass the Howey Test used by the SEC to determine if an offering is an investment instrument.
Risks of investing in ICOs: Any token sold via an ICO is considered a high-risk investment. The market is still under-regulated, scam ICOs are rife and investors have no protection if an ICO fails or turns out to be fraudulent. A 2018 Satis report prepared for Bloomberg stated almost 80% of ICOs at the time were believed to be fraudulent sales. For anyone looking to participate in an ICO, it’s important to include the following in your due diligence process: Review the project’s team to see if they have demonstrable experience creating successful businesses. Ideally, team members should also list their social media accounts so they can be contacted.
There is no guarantee that an investor won’t be on the losing end of a scam when investing in an ICO. To help avoid ICO scams, you can: Make sure that project developers can clearly define what their goals are. Successful ICOs typically have straightforward, understandable white papers with clear, concise goals. Look for transparency. Investors should expect 100% transparency from a company launching an ICO. Review the ICO’s legal terms and conditions. Because traditional regulators generally do not oversee this space, an investor is responsible for ensuring that an ICO is legitimate. Ensure that ICO funds are stored in an escrow wallet. This type of wallet requires multiple access keys, which provides useful protection against scams.
This is the most common way of earning money from blockchain currencies. Most investors buy coins such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and more and wait until their value rises. Once their market prices rise, they sell at a profit. This investing strategy requires one to identify more stable and volatile assets that can shift in value rapidly, resulting in regular profits. Assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have been known to maintain regular price fluctuations; they can, therefore, be considered a safe investment in this regard. However, you’re welcome to trade any asset you feel is going to rise in value; all you need to do is to analyze each asset you invest in before committing to HODLing it. Also, you don’t need to buy the most expensive assets for you to make profits. There are thousands of small altcoins that have decent price shifts; consider having a mix of all coins that have a promising future value and are not just popular in the exchanges.
What Is an Initial Coin Offering (ICO)? An initial coin offering (ICO) is the cryptocurrency industry’s equivalent of an initial public offering (IPO). A company seeking to raise money to create a new coin, app, or service can launch an ICO as a way to raise funds. Interested investors can buy into an initial coin offering to receive a new cryptocurrency token issued by the company. This token may have some utility related to the product or service the company is offering or represent a stake in the company or project. Read more info at Gary Baiton.