Tag: Cryptocurrency

ICO Marketing and airdrops

ICO Marketing and airdrops

ICO Marketing
Before going in details about ICO Marketing, let’s understand what is an ICO?

ICO:
ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering is a way for startups to crowdfund capital via selling their own token in exchange of either Bitcoin or Ethereum. In other words, ICO is primarily a fundraising process for startsups to build cryptocurrency businesses.

ICO Marketing:
ICO Marketing is a strategy used by blockchain startups to create awareness about the new token/coin to the people by using different advertising methods.

Airdrops:
Airdrops is a process of distributing tokens or coins to the current cryptocurrency holders for free.

How marketing is getting is more difficult for ICO?

In the last one year, there are lots of unusual things happened in the cryptocurrency market. Some of the most popular social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have banned the Cryptocurrency ads. Apart from this, search engine giant, Google has also banned the Cryptocurrency ads.

A lot of blockchain startups were using social media platforms in order to gain customers. However, as they are banning ads, now ICO marketing is getting difficult. Hence, these ICO’s need a new way of marketing. Apart from this, there are lots of regulations are being placed on the ICO in various countries worldwide. Also, some of the countries have also banned the Cryptocurrency completely.

ICO’s need a new way of marketing

There are still different ways to do ICO Marketing. Here is the list:

  1. Reddit: Build an amazing community on Reddit and engage with the users regularly. As soon as you win the trust of users, it will lead to ICO successes.
  2. Facebook Groups: Even if Facebook has banned the ICO advertising, there are plenty of Groups which are built for people having interest in cryptocurrency, ICO and Blockchain. Hence, you can build a strong community here also.
  3. Twitter: It is one of the fastest growing social media platform and large number of people are using it for advertising. Even if, advertisement are banned, you can still, create an appropriate page on Twitter and post regular updates about the ICO.
  4. Telegram: Another popular social media platform and used by various communities for marketing. On Telegram you can create your own channel and post regular updates about the ICO.
  5. Specialized Forums: Some of the well-known forums are being read by crypto enthusiast regularly. Hence you can list your ICO on various popular forms and gain audience.
  6. Linkedin Groups: There are large number of LinkedIn Groups on Cryptocurrency. Hence, you can provide details about your ICO on all of these groups.
  7. Quora Discussions: Quora is one of the most effective channel for covering ICO. You can post details on special threads meant for ICO.
  8. Email Marketing: You can also send details about the ICO to all of your potential customers via Email Marketing.
  9. SEO Strategy: Build a proper website by considering On-Page and Off-Page SEO Factors. Later, do proper SEO and get listed on various search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.
  10. Airdrops: You can also provide free tokens/ coins to the people in the beginning. This is one of the best way to get audience.
    Hence, you can follow all the above mentioned tactics to do appropriate ICO Marketing. By following all the tactics, you will lead your ICO for success.
  1. Bounties: With bounties crypto enthusiast can complete task to earn tokens. Similar to the “Wild West bounty hunter”, where a person had to catch a criminal to earn a bounty. Nowadays in crypto, people complete a job to earn tokens.

Trusted sources for Airdrops & Bounties are:

  • AirdropAlert
  • AirdropAlert Twitter
  • AirdropAlert TelegramBountiesAlert
  • Cryptocoin.news

  Article Produced By

Front Page » Business » ICO Marketing and airdrops
augustafreepress2@gmail.com

https://augustafreepress.com/ico-marketing-and-airdrops/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Inside the Meteoric Rise of ICOs

Inside the Meteoric Rise of ICOs

Initial Coin Offerings ("ICOs") have quickly grown

to account for more startup funding in blockchain-based companies than all of Venture Capital. Nearly $2.3 billion has been raised to date in ICOs, with the large majority of that taking place in the first half of 2017. In 2015 there was a smaller market for ICOs, where a million dollar sale was a rarity. Only a few of the most visible projects were raising sums in the millions.

Then in 2016 the DAO raised over $150M in a few days, though it was later plagued with security issues and determined to be in violation of securities laws by the SEC. However, the size and speed of the funds raised for the DAO helped bring further attention to ICOs as a sale/funding model. Fast forward to 2017 and we’ve seen a meteoric rise in the amount of funding raised monthly in ICOs. April was $103M. May $232M. June hit $462M. July $574M.

How ICOs Work

Rather than looking to traditional angel or venture investors to place capital as an equity investment, companies developing new blockchain-based products and services have turned to the cryptocurrency community to crowdsource the purchase and usage of their token in an ICO. ICOs are similar in some ways to a crowdfunding campaign, but instead of offering a copy of a product like on Kickstarter, or shares of equity in a startup like on Crowdfunder, what is being offered are digital “tokens.” This process of selling new cryptocurrency tokens in an ICO results in funding received via cryptocurrency, most commonly in Bitcoin or Ether.

But there's more to it…

Utility Tokens

Most ICOs being done today aren't intended to be securities offerings, as they don't offer equity or ownership in the underlying company the way traditional angel or venture investments do. Rather, a large majority of ICOs are intended as “utility tokens" which allow buyers of the token to access and pay for usage of a blockchain-based software service.

One example of a utility token in use today is the Ether token, as it relates to the Ethereum computing platform. Ethereum is the blockchain-based platform where the large majority of the current ICO’s have been developed. When using the Ethereum network, there are costs associated with the processing of blockchain-based transactions. These costs are paid in the form of the tokens used on Ethereum, called Ether. These transaction fees paid in Ether are called "gas" in the Ethereum network. In this way, the Ether token provides access to, and payment for, the computing and transactional functions of Ethereum. But beyond its transactional usage, Ether is also a cryptocurrency that is bought, sold, and traded on the open markets.

And while some tokens may not be considered a securities offering (utility tokens), the recent SEC release put out in July warned investors about the potential for fraud with ICOs as unregulated sales. Specifically, the release outlined details of the SEC investigation into the DAO which raised over $150M in its own ICO, and reiterated its ongoing concerns that some ICOs may constitute securities offerings, like the DAO, while not being treated as such. No formal new rulings or restrictions on ICOs have been issued recently by the SEC, though China recently banned ICOs altogether.

Are Securities Tokens The New Equity Crowdfunding?

In contrast to utility tokens, some ICOs are already being done as registered securities offerings.  One example is longtime Bitcoin and cryptocurrency investor and entrepreneur Brock Pierce, who sees a bright future in ICOs with registered securities – meaning they may include equity or some form of an investment return in connection with the tokens sold in the offering. Pierce is arguably a pioneer of the ICO space as an investor in Mastercoin, the first ICO, in 2013. More recently, his venture capital firm Blockchain Capital did the first ever ICO for a token as a security (BCAP token), selling participation in their venture capital fund as a liquid cryptocurrency.

As we saw with the JOBS Act and equity crowdfunding laws, broader regulation can help open up a new market while protecting investors with regulated processes. But regulations can also introduce overly-burdensome requirements that hamper innovation and capital formation, as has seemed to be the case with the weak adoption by startups of Title III of the JOBS Act.

What’s Driving the Growth of ICOs

With an understanding of what ICOs are, and an overview of how they work, there is still the question of what’s behind their incredible growth. Here are several of the likely contributors to the growth of this market, along with thoughts on each from leaders in the cryptocurrency and venture investing space…

1. The Massive increase in the Value of Cryptocurrencies

The market capitalization of all Cryptocurrency has risen from $7 billion in January of 2016 to over $130 billion as of now in September 2017. Bitcoin has appreciated nearly 30X since September of 2013 ($135 USD per Bitcoin), reaching over $4,000 per Bitcoin in September of 2017. In part, this is due to Bitcoin’s role as the most widely known, used, and accepted cryptocurrency for payments. Ether has appreciated more than 100X since August of 2015 ($2.83 USD), reaching over $300 in September of 2017. In part, this has been due to Ether’s role as the core utility token of Ethereum – the most widely used blockchain-based computing platform for ICO’s / token sales.

The early cryptocurrency buyers and holders have experienced massive gains and are now sitting on hundreds of millions, or even billions, in cryptocurrency value. ICOs are a way for some of these early cryptocurrency holders to diversify their holdings using the cryptocurrency itself, without taking their money out into fiat currency (offline bank-based dollars). Sam Englebardt, Managing Director of Private Investments at Galaxy Investment Partners, the family office of billionaire and large cryptocurrency investor Mike Novogratz, said…

“It would be naive not to acknowledge that there’s something very bubbly about what’s going on here with ICOs, but it’s also the easy answer. While bubbles are sometimes fueled by nothing more than pure speculative mania and greed, most are actually rooted in something very real. Railroads were that way. The internet was obviously like that; the excitement was built on a legitimately transformative innovation and, when the dust settled, that innovation ultimately met and exceeded the initial speculators’ wildest expectations.

I think the same is true with the blockchain — the underlying potential of the blockchain to touch and disrupt so many different aspects of our lives, on a global scale, is becoming apparent. Ideas spread fast these days and crowdfunding did a lot of the groundwork to make those ideas actionable. It can’t go up like this forever, but I’d say we have a long way to go before we hit the top."

2. The Power of Blockchain, Tokenization, and Decentralization

In the last year we’ve seen an incredible move by startups and founders towards use of blockchain technology and tokenized models. Rather than building new products on centralized architectures and database structures, an incredible wave of new development and innovation is happening on blockchain technology to kick off new decentralized services and models. There’s a deep technical community running full speed towards a blockchain-based future, with experienced technology company founders jumping in to the fray with blockchain. A majority of the ICOs you’re seeing today are for new companies, who are yet to launch their products to the market.

That said, with the tremendous interest and adoption from leading technologists and founders, it’s no surprise that we’re also starting to see a growing list of more traditional VC investors putting money into decentralized applications and blockchain-based approaches to traditional and existing businesses. We’re also starting to see the ICO and tokenization model start to catch up with more mature and established companies. Erick Miller, CEO of CoinCircle and investor at his venture capital firm Hyperspeed Ventures, said…

“The invention of true peer-to-peer digital money was first just an experiment that has grown into a revolution. This digital money, which pairs blockchain technology with cryptocurrency, enables an unprecedented transformation in how we store and transmit value. We are now in the next phase of the experiment and it is one of the most simple but incredibly fundamental paradigm shifts in the history of currency. Today, we have peer-to-peer programmable money, decentralized protocols utilizing their own coins, and coins that execute unstoppable decentralized logic all creating an entirely new economic system. I believe what is happening in the space today will bring about an era of new technological connectivity.”

3. Token Sale ROI

Another reason for the rise in ICOs are the incredible returns that some tokens have provided to early buyers. For example, here are some top ICO performers according to ICOstats.com (as of September 22nd, 2017):

Ethereum: 84,720% ROI since ICO – Stratis: 54,038% ROI since ICO – Augur: 2,720% ROI values since ICO

With this, it’s incredibly important to understand that price appreciation of a token in the short term might have little, if any, bearing on the medium and long-term sustainability of the token and the underlying company or project for which the token was created.

Cooper Maruyama the founder of ICOstats.com shared…

“I think there’s sort of a snowball effect kicked off by the success of Bitcoin and Ether. I think people see this all under the umbrella of “crypto” and want to be in on the next thing that will bring large returns. So they throw ETH/BTC at new tokens – which ideologically falls under that same umbrella of “crypto” – with the expectation of the same returns. Whether that will be the case is yet to be seen, but according to the data, buying more ETH on the same day of each ICO has seen better returns over time."

4. Token Sales As Community Acquisition

Great ICOs aren't just for the money. New services that leverage blockchain technology and incorporate token-based models do so to use tokens as a mechanism for the exchange of information and value within their product. Which is why, the more buyers and holders of a token, the greater the potential for the usage of the token, and thus demand. In this way, a token sale represents a new model of crowdsourcing or crowdfunding, where the line between buyers and customers are blurred.

As an example, imagine if 1,000 new participants sign up and buy tokens in an ICO. This not only provides funding for futher development and expansion, it also jumpstarts the underlying service with a community of users as token holders. One example of this was the Bancor ICO, which took in over $153M at the time, while the sale also resulted in thousands of token-buyers. These early and first buyers of the Bancor token are the most likely future users and adopters of the core protocol and services that Bancor provides.

"We had one of the largest bounty programs in history with thousands of active participants working towards the success of the token launch, directly through our software's alpha demo," Galia Benartzi, CoFounder and VP of Business Development at Bancor explained.

"While we ourselves were a small team, we had ambassadors all over the world translating, explaining and creating great content about the Bancor protocol. These contributors remain more motivated than ever to see the project succeed, as they own a piece of the open source network via their tokens. Rather than paying marketing or PR firms, we can share these resources directly with end-users in a distributed and still orchestrated way. The reach is a step function larger and also feels much more authentically aligned. This is inline with blockchain's promise to decentralize every aspect of business, including growth itself."

What’s Next In The Market

The majority of ICOs launched to date have been for relatively new and upstart companies with little or no existing growth or revenue. However, we’re starting to see ICOs come to market from more established VC-backed companies who are tokenizing their businesses. One example is Unikrn and their UnikoinGold token sale, the first token sale backed by Mark Cuban. The company is a post-Series A and VC-backed company, and a leader in the esports industry with a growing online community.

"We won’t be taking the funds from our sale and trying build something from scratch, hoping to attract users and get adoption,” said Rahul Sood CEO of Unikrn in his Medium post about UnikoinGold. "This isn’t an investment; it’s a purchase of a product that we developed that has utility on our platform and ours users love and demand. We already have users and adoption, and now the UnikoinGold token will unlock even more functionality and value for our community.”

Expect more mature startups and large existing businesses to continue to explore the ICO space. With serious tech Founders and deep pocketed VCs and Crypto investors moving full-steam ahead, Blockchain and tokenization is emerging as one of the most powerful new technological and economic movements we’ve seen since the birth of the Internet. The hype and the astronomical returns can't last forever, but the underlying innovations are transformative and here to stay.

Article Produced By
Chance Barnett

Entrepreneur, Investor, Adventurer. CoFounder CoinCircle. Founder & Chairman, Crowdfunder. Catalyst in equity crowdfunding legislation & JOBS Act.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chancebarnett/2017/09/23/inside-the-meteoric-rise-of-icos/#49be45075670

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Around a Dozen Airdrops are Coming to EOS Holders

Around a Dozen Airdrops are Coming to EOS Holders

The coming months will be crucial for all cryptocurrencies.

So far, the markets are not looking all that impressive, with little to no improvements in sight. At the same time, there is some good news for EOS holders. Various airdrops are coming to holders in the next few weeks and months.

The EOS Airdrops are Coming

One of the unusual benefits of holding specific cryptocurrencies is how one can be entitled to an airdrop. This issuance of “free coins or tokens” usually affects the major cryptocurrencies. In the past, Bitcoin and Ethereum users have seen their fair share of such tokens appearing out of nowhere. It now seems EOS holders will go through a similar phase. Raising awareness for new blockchain projects requires a unique approach.

Rather than raising money through an ICO, these projects are giving away value. It is a conscious decision which benefits all parties involved. EOS holders receive these tokens for exciting projects, and the project creators issue tokens to themselves as well. Later on, some of those tokens are sold across exchanges for additional project funding. It is a tried and tested business model which usually works out pretty well.

As such, the EOS user base will see a fair few new tokens make their way to the ecosystem. The list is growing steadily, with the first airdrops to occur in the coming weeks. Chaince will be the first project to do so, with 900 million of the 2 billion tokens being airdropped on June 15th. Having an active “stake” in a new asset trading platform for EOS projects will certainly appeal to some users.

The Value of Aidropped Tokens

One thing worth taking note of is how these EOS airdrops work. Most projects issue 1 token per user in exchange for every EOS in their portfolio. For “whales”, this means a lot of free money will be heading their way in the coming weeks. All of these tokens will still need to achieve some form of monetary value on their own accord. That will not be easy, albeit some of these airdrops are seemingly in a rather advanced stage of development.

With nearly a dozen airdrops on the horizon for EOS users, an interesting future lies ahead. It further confirms developers are building new products and services on top of this ecosystem. More competition is a good thing in this regard. As of right now, most people tend to focus on the Ethereum blockchain for such purposes. Additionally, NEO is also gaining some traction in this regard.

The big question is whether or not these airdrops bring additional value to EOS. The projects they represent seemingly are on the right track to success. However, they are all in an unfinished state, and without initial excitement, their chances of success will diminish quickly. An interesting year lies ahead for EOS at this rate. Airdrops will continue to be a big part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem moving forward.

Article Produced By
JP Buntinx

https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/05/28/around-dozen-airdrops-coming-eos-holders/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

The Moscow Exchange Prepares Infrastructure to Conduct ICOs

The Moscow Exchange Prepares Infrastructure to Conduct ICOs

The Moscow Exchange (MOEX) is preparing infrastructure

that will allow companies to conduct initial coin offerings (ICOs), which it expects to launch this year, Reuters reported June 8. The exchange is reportedly working on the development of basic infrastructure for companies to participate in ICOs and publish token sale data. According to Moscow Exchange CEO Alexander Afanasiev, the exchange will not list tokens, but provide information about the responsibilities of token issuers, in addition to descriptions of certain tokens and ICOs to investors.

He added:

“Right now we’re looking at this from the point of view of fiat currencies, because cryptocurrencies don’t have the status of a legally protected asset. If they obtain that status, we will place them in our system as well.”

Additionally, the exchange is looking to issue futures contracts for ICOs, provided there is sufficient demand from investors. Afanasiev said that currently the exchange is conducting marketing research on potential interest in the products and what type futures specification it might be. The Moscow Exchange is the main liquidity and price discovery center for Russian financial instruments. It trades in equities, bonds, derivatives, currencies, money market instruments, and commodities, with a total trading volume around $1.1 trillion, as of May 2018.

In May, the Russian State Duma approved the first reading of new laws regulating the cryptocurrency industry. The laws define cryptocurrencies and tokens as property, and lay out specifications for interacting with crypto and blockchain-related technologies. Sberbank CIB, the investment banking arm of major Russian bank Sberbank, and the National Settlement Depository, which is part of the Moscow Stock Exchange Group, announced plans to pilot the country’s first official ICO last month. The possible launch of the project is scheduled for the end of summer 2018.

Article Produced By
Ana Alexandre

Total change in her career took Anastasia into the world of analytics and business information as a researcher and translator in 2010. Some time later she got into FinTech, a dynamically developing segment at the intersection of the financial services and technology. Ana joined Cointelegraph in September 2017.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/the-moscow-exchange-prepares-infrastructure-to-conduct-icos

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

What is a cryptocurrency airdrop?

What is a cryptocurrency airdrop?

What is a crypto airdrop?

A​ ​crypto airdrop​ ​is​ ​when​ ​a​ ​blockchain project distribute​s ​free​ ​tokens or​ ​coins ​to​ ​the​ crypto ​community. To​ ​be​ ​a​ ​recipient​ ​of​ ​an​ crypto ​airdrop often​ ​the​ ​only​ ​requirement​ ​is​ ​that​ ​you​ ​have​ ​coins from the relevant blockchain stored​ ​in​ ​your​ ​wallet. Examples of this format of airdrops are Byteball, Stellar lumens and OmiseGo. These airdrops required you to proof you were the owner of Bitcoins or Ethereums at a certain time ( snapshot) of the blockchain.

The​ ​format​ ​of​ ​these​ crypto ​giveaways​ ​is​ ​usually​ ​like​ ​this:​ ​At​ ​a​ ​pre-announced​ ​time​ ​the​ ​project​ ​behind the​ ​event​ ​will​ ​take​ ​a​ ​”snapshot” ​of​ ​the​ ​blockchain,​ ​​ anyone​ ​holding​ ​Ethereum or Bitcoin​ ​at​ ​that​ ​point​ ​will​ ​receive​ ​a certain number​ ​of​ ​free​ ​e-tokens.​ ​This can also be done on other blockchains, but Ethereum and Bitcoin are the most used for this airdrop format.

Other (often smaller) airdrops require social media posts or you need to contact a member of the team on the Bitcointalk forum. This form is gaining more popularity since September 2017. It's currently a hype to just fill in a google form with your email, telegram, twitter & wallet address to get free tokens. This format is often used for new crypto projects that are using airdrops as a marketing campaign. Another possible way to get free e-coins is a faucet. This means you get a small amount of free crypto for a longer period of time. Some wallets, crypto casino's or crypto promotion sites run this type of airdrop.

You might wonder, why would anybody give away free cryptocurrency?
                                   I have wondered the same and my thoughts on this are the following;

To offer coins for free the people are the product. With doing an airdrop the project creates awareness about their ICO or token. It brings people to the project that otherwise would not have owned or heard about it. It could lead to token price appreciation, since people value a token they own higher then a token they don't own. This is called the endowment effect: "In psychology and behavioral economics, the endowment effect (also known as divestiture aversion and related to the mere ownership effect in social psychology) is the hypothesis that people ascribe more value to things merely because they own them." In addition to that I think people are more likely to buy a token that they previously owned or still own, since they are already familiar with it.

A crypto airdrop would create a community/network of people who own the tokens. If you would list the token distribution after an ICO in a pie graph, a large part of the pie is still owned by the Dev's or project. Another large part is owned by people who joined a pre-sale. And a reasonable part is owned by people who invested in the ICO. An airdrop adds a extra slice to the pie and that slice will have the most people in it. Decred still shows a pie-graph like this example on their homepage

An crypto airdrop also plants a seed. When you look at coinmarketcap you will see a list of thousand coins. Just on page one you can see 100 coins listed. However if you have or had a coin that name is still in your brain. The seed is planted and whenever you check coinmarketcap and scroll down, the name of the free e-Coin will jump out and people will check how it is doing. If they see an article that the free e-Token is doing well or bad, they are more likely to click it if they own it or previously have owned it. It's just like advertising!

Aren't there free e-Tokens worthless?

NO they are not! Byteball is distributing airdrops to Bitcoin holders every month. The price of Byteball surged to over $900 per Byteball in mid july 2017. OmiseGo gave away free OMG tokens to Ethereum Holders, the price of OMG tokens surged to $ 12 in September 2017. Most recent eBTC airdropped 2500 eBTC tokens per applicant, on day 1 of hitting the exchange the price rose to $0.80 cents per token, which means the airdrop was worth 2000$ ! The only requirement for this airdrop was to sign up with your email and wallet address. The easiest $2000 I ever made!

Of course the airdrops I mention above are the ones that stand out. Most of the crypto airdrops I apply to are worth between 1-50$. However this is all free money. You can either sell these tokens to collect more Ethereum & Bitcoin, or you hold them and hope for a price surge.

Article Produced By
Pokernomad

https://steemit.com/free/@pokernomad/what-is-a-cryptocurrency-airdrop

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

What Initial Coin Offerings Are, and Why VC Firms Care

What Initial Coin Offerings Are, and Why VC Firms Care

The venture capital industry is beginning to take a good, hard look

at a new financial instrument coming out of the bitcoin community — Initial Coin Offerings, or ICOs. Also known as “token sales,” this new fundraising phenomenon is being fueled by a convergence of blockchain technology, new wealth, clever entrepreneurs, and crypto-investors who are backing blockchain-fueled ideas. ICOs present both benefits and disadvantages, as well as threats and opportunities, to the traditional venture capital business model.

Here’s how an ICO typically works: A new cryptocurrency is created on a protocol such as Counterparty, Ethereum, or Openledger, and a value is arbitrarily determined by the startup team behind the ICO based on what they think the network is worth at its current stage. Then, via price dynamics determined by market supply and demand, the value is settled on by the network of participants, rather than by a central authority or government.

Venture capitalists, who generally have been standoffish to the ICO phenomenon, are now becoming more interested in it for a number of reasons. One is profits — cryptocurrency investors made some massive returns in 2016, with cryptocurrencies from Blockchain startups Monero and NEM both seeing 2,000% increases in value. For example, the cryptocurrency used for the Ethereum network, called Ether, saw its value double in just a few days in March 2017. Yes, in three days, people who invested in Ether doubled their investment. Those investors can opt to cash out to a fiat-backed currency, or wait for the cryptocurrency to continue to rise (or fall). Volatility is a two-way street. While the price of Ether has been rising, Bitcoin has dropped 20% to $1,000 dollars from a record $1,290 on March 3, 2017.

The second reason VCs are becoming more interested in ICOs is because of the liquidity of cryptocurrencies. Rather than tying up vast amounts of funds in a unicorn startup and waiting for the long play — an IPO or an acquisition — investors can see gains more quickly, and can pull profits out more easily, via ICOs. They simply need to convert their cryptocurrency profits into Bitcoin or Ether on any of the cryptocurrency exchanges that carry it, and then it’s easily converted to fiat currency via online services such as Coinsbank or Coinbase.

What traditional investors don’t like about any of this is the regulatory uncertainty; the high valuations and over-capitalization; the lack of control over financials, strategy, and operations; and the lack of business use-cases. And like any industry, the ICO arena has had its fair share of outright scams, pump and dumps, and blatant Ponzi schemes. However, much of the criminal activity is now being mitigated by self-organized, crowdsourced due diligence in the community, as well as by external parties such as Smith and Crown, a research group focused on cryptofinance, and ICO Rating, a ratings agency that issues independent analytical research on blockchain-based companies. At least one VC firm is moving into cryptocurrencies. Blockchain Capital is set to raise its third fund via a digital token offering in the first-ever liquidity-enhanced venture capital fund (where people can invest without locking their money up for years on end) via a digital token called BCAP.

ICOs are the Wild West of financing — they sit in a grey zone where the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and many other regulatory bodies are still investigating them. The main problem is, though, that most ICO’s don’t actually offer equity in start-up ventures; instead, they only offer discounts on cryptocurrencies before they hit the exchanges. Therefore, they don’t fit into the current definition of a security, and are technically outside of traditional legal frameworks. Secondly, they are global instruments — not national ones — and they are funded using bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies that are not controlled by any central authority or bank. Anyone can invest, and they can even do so pseudo-anonymously (it’s not impossible to find out who people are, but it’s not easy, either). Currently, there’s no Anti-Money Laundering (AML) law or Know Your Customer (KYC) framework, though some companies are working on that. One example is Tokenmarket, a marketplace for tokens, digital assets and blockchain-based investing, that has teamed up with the Stock Market of Gibraltar to offer KYC- and AML-compliant ICOs.

Detractors of these new funding schemes scream for structure and protection, point out the scams, demand more control, and say that without equity, investors don’t have enough skin in the game. Meanwhile, proponents retort that there’s a real need for freedom to invest outside the accredited system, which sees the wealthy getting wealthier. They argue that the door needs to close on the domination of Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley and other VCs and investors in the tech industry who have been making massive returns on the backs of entrepreneurs for far too long.

How Blockchain Works

Here are five basic principles underlying the technology.

1. Distributed Database

Each party on a blockchain has access to the entire database and its complete history. No single party controls the data or the information. Every party can verify the records of its transaction partners directly, without an intermediary.

2. Peer-to-Peer Transmission

Communication occurs directly between peers instead of through a central node. Each node stores and forwards information to all other nodes.

3. Transparency with Pseudonymity

Every transaction and its associated value are visible to anyone with access to the system. Each node, or user, on a blockchain has a unique 30-plus-character alphanumeric address that identifies it. Users can choose to remain anonymous or provide proof of their identity to others. Transactions occur between blockchain addresses.

4. Irreversibility of Records

Once a transaction is entered in the database and the accounts are updated, the records cannot be altered, because they’re linked to every transaction record that came before them (hence the term “chain”). Various computational algorithms and approaches are deployed to ensure that the recording on the database is permanent, chronologically ordered, and available to all others on the network.

5. Computational Logic

The digital nature of the ledger means that blockchain transactions can be tied to computational logic and in essence programmed. So users can set up algorithms and rules that automatically trigger transactions between nodes.

For blockchain startups, ICOs are a win-win — they allow startups to raise funds without having equity stakeholders breathing down their necks on spending, prioritizing financial returns over the general good of the product or service itself. And there are many in the blockchain community who feel that ICOs are a long-awaited solution for non-profit foundations that want to build open-source software to raise capital. Non-profits usually hold about 10-20% of the total cryptocurrency they issue; as Ethereum did in their ICO in 2014, with 20% going to the development fund and the remaining going to the Ethereum Foundation. This is so they have a vested interest in building more value, as well as having reserves for growth in the future. (As of March 2017, the market capitalization of the ether token was more than $4 billion.)

The market cap for bitcoin is now close to $20 billion, and half of that is allegedly owned by less than one thousand people, who are called “bitcoin whales.” Many of them are in China, but there are also hedge funds and bitcoin investment funds who hold massive amounts of bitcoin. Most made their money early on by buying or mining bitcoin when it was still under $10 (in the early days of 2011-2013). It’s now worth approximately $1,120 per bitcoin. These “bitcoin whales” are currently the ones who make or break many of the ICOs. Some of the enormous profits they have made in bitcoin are being channeled back into innovation, as many of them seek to diversify holdings, as well as support the ecosystem in general.

More than $270 million has been raised in ICOs since 2013, according to Smith and Crown (not including the $150 million raised in The DAO scandal, which was returned to investors). Since 2013, there’s been about $2 billion invested in blockchain and bitcoin startups from the VC community. ICOs are becoming more and more popular for startups seeking to get out of self-funding, bootstrapping starvation mode and avoid being locked in by venture capitalists, watching their own equity drown in a sea of financing rounds. ICOs are dominating the overall crowdfunding charts in terms of funds raised, with half of the top 20 raises coming from the crypto-community. In a recent conversation, MIT scientist and author John Clippinger described the vast potential of this new movement to me

as such:

One way of thinking about a crypto-asset is as a security in a startup, which begins with a $10 million valuation and becomes a $10 billion dollar entity. Instead of stock splits, the founding crypto-asset gets denominated in smaller and smaller units; in this case 1,000 to one. Here, everyone in the network is an equity holder who has an incentive to increase the value of the network. All of this depends upon how well the initial crypto-asset and its governance contract are designed and protected. In this instance, good governance, e.g. oversight, yields predictability, security, and effectiveness, which in turn creates value for all token holders.

Just as venture capitalists are taking a hard look at this new phenomenon, so should we all. It’s not just about the money that can be made; it’s also about funding blockchain projects and, in the near future, other startups and even networks, as Clippinger noted. We now have a way to easily fund open source software, housed under foundations rather than corporations, that can truly drive faster innovation. Right now, blockchain technology is at the stage where the internet was in 1992, and it’s opening up a wealth of new possibilities that have the promise to add value to numerous industries, including finance, health, education, music, art, government, and more.

Article Produced By
Richard Kastelein

Richard Kastelein is the publisher of Blockchain News, Founder of Blockchain Partners and interim Chief Marketing Officer of Humaniq, a blockchain startup focusing on banking for the bankless. He’s also on the steering committee of the Blockchain Ecosystem Network and is organizing the CryptoFinancing 2017 event.

https://hbr.org/2017/03/what-initial-coin-offerings-are-and-why-vc-firms-care

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Crypto Firms Turn to Airdrops to Boost Blockchain Projects

Crypto Firms Turn to "Airdrops" to Boost Blockchain Projects

Nothing in life is free. Or is it?

A blockchain project called Dfinity last week announced it will give away $35 million worth of digital tokens. The recipients can wait to use the tokens on Dfinity’s network—which the company is touting as a “Cloud 3.0″—or, as many will do, they can slip them to speculators and cash out in real money.

Welcome to the age of “airdrops,” where entrepreneurs disperse crypto coins to prospective users for no cost. The tactic has come to be seen as the most viable way for blockchain projects to get off the ground. They’re like the Initial Coin Offerings that were all the rage last year but, instead of selling digital tokens, the project’s masterminds simply give them away. In addition to Dfinity, there are murmurs the journalism-on-a-blockchain project Civil and Everipedia, a would-be competitor to Wikipedia, will soon conduct airdrops of their own.

It’s not hard to see the strategy here. In the wake of the fraud-a-palooza that accompanied many of last year’s ICOs, regulators are set to pounce on any outfit that starts selling tokens to the good people of the Internet. That’s why just giving the tokens away feels like a safer strategy. While it doesn’t bring the same cash windfall, it creates an opportunity to sell reserve tokens on the secondary market. Of equal importance, airdrops offer a way for blockchain projects to distribute tokens far and wide, and build up the network effects that are essential for success.

A harder question is whether the airdrops are legal. The answer, according to attorneys familiar with securities law, can be summed up as “not really.” Under the first prong of the legal test for determining whether something is a security (and must be registered with the SEC), regulators will look at whether there has been an investment of money—a term that is much broader than just cash.

“There’s a line of cases saying it’s not limited to money. It can be something of value, or goods or services. From the SEC’s perspective, the [token recipient] might be giving the issuer something of value by becoming part of network,” said Sam Waldon, an attorney with the firm Proskauer. And according to Blake Estes of Alston & Bird, the SEC has frowned in the past on companies’ attempts to juice investor interest through giveaways. In 1999, for instance, the agency cracked down on firms offering “free stock” as a way to attract investors to Internet ventures. The SEC itself hasn’t specifically addressed airdrops but, based on recent comments from the agency’s Chairman Jay Clayton, any U.S. venture dabbling in tokens had better tread carefully.

All of this puts blockchain projects in a bind: If they can’t sell or even give away their tokens, how can they get any traction? In the case of Dfinity, the company found a workaround by firmly excluding U.S. citizens from its airdrop. But excluding Americans may not be a viable option for the likes of Civil, whose blockchain journalism project is focused squarely on U.S. towns and cities. The project now faces a dilemma: Tokens are essential to its success and, for now, the group has no easy way to distribute those tokens to its target audience.

The upshot is the SEC’s recent crackdown is helping to shield gullible investors from token scams, but it could also hurt U.S. blockchain innovation if legitimate projects have no way of getting off the ground. Here’s hoping the agency’s gnomes are hard at work creating a safe harbor of sorts that will let U.S. companies and consumers join the age of airdrops. Or else that precious cargo will only end up in foreign hands.

Article Produced By
fortune

A version of this article originally appeared in the The Ledger,

http://fortune.com/2018/06/04/blockchain-airdrops/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Airdrops: Key Themes and Design Considerations

Airdrops: Key Themes and Design Considerations

A Tool for Network Adoption and Governance

 

If you’ve ever opened your crypto wallet and found tokens

that you didn’t knowingly purchase or accept, you’ve probably been the recipient of an airdrop — an event where free tokens or crypto assets are distributed to a group of prospective users. Why would the leaders of a project choose to distribute tokens for free? The thinking is generally that it is a tool for seeding network adoption — by giving people tokens for your protocol, it’s more likely that they will both learn about your protocol and participate in the network. Another reason is to achieve greater initial decentralization of token holders by making sure they don’t just start in the hands of the project team and folks who participated in a token sale.

While airdrops may seem on the surface to be a simple marketing tactic to boost awareness of a new cryptocurrency, they’re actually a complex tool with the potential to fuel more than just brand recognition. Looking ahead, we’ll likely see airdrops go through multiple evolutions as users play around with different elements and uses for them. There is a vast design space around airdrops, hard forks, and other methods of token distribution, which have only just begun to be explored. To try to get our heads around this topic, in December, IDEO CoLab and CoinList hosted 12 practitioners in the crypto asset field — including founders, engineers, designers, and investors — to discuss airdrops. What follows is a synthesis of some of the themes and design provocations surfaced in the discussion.

Key Themes

Airdrops as a way to bootstrap new networks and communities

Airdrops can enable easier and faster bootstrapping of new protocols and communities. Airdrops to large communities of existing token holders (e.g., ETH) can provide wide distribution and a new model for marketing to and acquiring users. Airdrops may also help narrow the gap between the distribution and usage of tokens, as compared to a token sale.

Questions:

  • How do you airdrop “fairly” and equitably, especially when it is easy to game if you know how the distribution will be done in advance?
  • How do you know who to airdrop to, and how much to airdrop to them?
  • How do you airdrop to future users of the platform, not just investors or speculators?

Potential to sidestep regulation

There is an assumption that giving away tokens BEFORE a market price has been established for them may enable a project to avoid many regulatory requirements of token sales. It is unclear whether this is actually the case, given precedents set by the SEC related to stock “giveaways” (see 1999 Wilmer Hale analysis), yet it is a frequently cited reason for pursuing airdrops as a distribution mechanism. [Update: some teams like Harbor and TokenSoft are rolling out products that explicitly take the stance that some or all airdrops will not be exempt from regulatory requirements.]

Questions:

  • How should issuers legally and financially account for airdrops? As a marketing expense? As a donation? Something else?
  • How might regulatory agencies (e.g., SEC, OFAC) view and respond to airdrops, especially as they increase in frequency.

Airdrops as a marketing interface and onboarding experience

 

For many airdrop recipients, receiving tokens may be their first exposure to that project. Currently, airdrops are done without any direct way for users to learn more about the project other than searching Google or Etherscan for the token’s name. This is a poor onboarding experience and one which has much room for improvement in terms of design.

 

Questions:

  • How do you communicate with the recipients of airdrops? Could airdrop transactions include an onboarding message and link to learn more in the Input Data field?
  • How should an airdrop’s onboarding experience be designed to reduce friction and optimize adoption and usage?
  • How might airdrops reimagine marketing and advertising?

Improve effectiveness of airdrops via better targeting

 

Airdrops to date have targeted all holders of an existing cryptocurrency (either BTC or ETH), but it may be more effective to target a subset of addresses based on their possession or use of other tokens. For example, when launching a token for machine learning experts, it might be more effective to target NMR holders, or more specifically those who have actively staked tokens in a Numerai competition. While the ethics are murky, targeting addresses that frequently interact with various gambling platforms may be a good way to seed adoption for a project like FunFair.

 

Questions:

  • How do you ascertain the ‘identities’ or ‘profiles’ of address holders to make better decisions on which users to airdrop tokens to?
  • What analyses can be performed to make better inferences for the purposes of targeting?

Incentives post-airdrop to use utility (or attach airdrop to usage)

 

Instead of giving out tokens and hoping recipients will engage, there could also be an incentive to use the tokens to earn the allocation (and/or a larger one). There was a lot of interest in this idea, which essentially amounts to an initial airdrop targeting a broad population with small amounts of a token, followed by a targeted airdrop with more tokens to those who actively engage with the platform after the initial airdrop. One framing of this is to think of the initial tokens as coupons, which could be “redeemed” for more value after a desired action is taken.

 

 

Questions:

  • How do you create airdrops incentives and/or contingencies based on user actions?
  • What is the range of post-airdrop incentive models that will exist?

 

Unintended consequences (e.g., tax liability) of airdrops

 

Airdropping tokens may create unwanted tax and legal liabilities for recipients (and issuers). There may be more unintended consequences, as airdrops are delivered to large exchanges, custodians, and margin traders. Modeling for how different actors in the network will respond as airdrops become more prevalent will be important to an airdrop’s design and its ability to deliver on its intent.

 

Questions:

  • What is the cost basis and tax liability of an airdrop to its recipient? What if that recipient is an exchange, custodian, or margin trader?
  • Will people value or feel differently about tokens that they get for free?

New airdrop models

As airdropping becomes more common, new models will emerge for different strategies. For example, Stellar has done multiple airdrops to bitcoin holders which required proactive proof of ownership, while OmiseGo did a passive airdrop to Ethereum addresses over a minimum threshold.

 

Experimental models surfaced:

  • Hard spoons: Copying the balance/UTXO set from an existing blockchain network and using it as the basis for token distribution for a new protocol. Basically, you’re copying the economic distribution of tokens on one network and using that as the starting point for a completely separate protocol that is quite distinct from a technical standpoint.
  • Continuous distribution models with “central bank” and monetary policy: Models where tokens are not entirely sold/allocated up front, but rather made available over time through an issuance scheme that is laid out in advance but not necessarily governed through a process like proof of work or proof of stake.
  • Contingent airdrops: In which receiving tokens is dependent upon the user taking a desired action. See #5 above.

Airdrops for inter-protocol governance

Airdrops could be an effective tool for dealing with governance decisions that affect holders of multiple tokens. The simplest version is doing a protocol merger/acquisition, whereby holders of tokens for one protocol are granted tokens on another protocol as a way of combining the communities. This can be done via agreement of project leads and respective stakeholders of each project, but could also be done in a fashion akin to a hostile takeover, where incentives are given by one project for the holders of another project’s tokens to burn their tokens or sabotage the target protocol. See Andy Bromberg’s “What The First Token Hostile Takeover Could Look Like” for more details. Also discussed was the possibility of building “poison pill” terms into smart contracts to proactively counter such attacks.

Questions:

  • How might airdrops lead to greater collaboration? Competition?
  • For what other corporate strategy and/or finance actions could airdrops be used?

While the initial conversation took place under Chatham House Rule, the following people consented to being recognized in this piece for their participation in the conversation: Andy Bromberg, Arianna Simpson, Dan Elitzer, Gavin McDermott, Ian Lee, Jay Freeman, Joe Gerber, Joey Krug, Joseph Poon, Richard Craib, and Tara Tan. No assumption should be made about any individual’s agreement or disagreement with any of the observations above.

Finally, given the pace at which everything in this industry moves, obviously there have been further developments since the initial conversation in December. One is airdrops targeting folks who may not already be crypto users, such as the experiments Numerai is doing to target data scientists on Kaggle and university students; Earn.com rolled out a product allowing airdrops to be offered to over 100,000 users; and Merkle airdrops are an interesting proposal to enable a simple claim process while reducing blockchain bloat. While it’s clear that airdrops are a powerful tool for network adoption and governance, we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface with how they can be most effectively deployed. Let’s keep experimenting!

Article Produced By
Dan Elitzer  ( in IDEO CoLab )

https://medium.com/ideo-colab/airdrops-key-themes-and-design-considerations-efadc8d5d471

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

As ICOs Get Compliant What Does That Mean for Airdrops?

As ICOs Get Compliant What Does That Mean for Airdrops?

          How_to_Buy_Bitcoin_325x300

ICOs Are Getting Compliant and Airdrops Will Have to Follow Suit

We’re approaching the halfway point of 2018 and so far over 340 ICOs have raised almost $9 billion between them. Even amidst concerns over regulation, scams, and hackers, those numbers are not to be sniffed at. In fact, while most people think of last year as the non-stop party for ICOs, 2017 saw just 210 of them raising under $4 billion in funds.

What gives? It seems that even with bearish market sentiment and the US SEC breathing fear into the hearts of blockchain startups, ICOs are still going strong. Of course, what happens after they raise the funds remains to be seen–as well as what direction legislation will take. So while many blockchain companies are still bullish on ICOs, others are finding themselves erring on the side of caution and evaluating their options. And as with everything surrounding this decidedly gray area, there’s some confusion as to what those options are.

What Are Compliant ICOs?

A compliant ICO, or STO (Security Token Offering), is regulated by the SEC from the start. There are four major paths open to a US blockchain company that wants to hold a regulated offering and they each have their pros and cons. One of the alternatives, for example, is a using an existing securities exemption called a Reg A+. You can raise up to $50 million and open your offer to anyone over the age of 18. The catch? You need two years of audited financials and significant time and money.

A Reg CF is an easier and cheaper way of raising funds, but you’re significantly limited to how much you can raise (less than $2 million). Fintech Merchant Accounts helps blockchain companies to hold compliant ICOs. CEO Edward Corona says, “keep in mind that they [compliant ICOs] still do not provide business owners the freedom and control of an unregulated ICO.” Right. But then, of course, they also don’t provide business owners with the possibility of ending up behind bars.

Another major advantage of holding a compliant ICO is that you can solicit your deal and advertise it anywhere, making it far easier to raise awareness for your token sale. With Facebook, Twitter, Google and Bing all banning ICO adverts, taking the regulated route will allow you to use these channels for greater exposure. You’ll also ease the troubled minds of many would-be investors rattled by the recent bad press.

What Does This Mean for Airdrops?

Several ingenious ICO teams have taken to creative ways of marketing their projects by using airdrops. Effectively, distributing free tokens to interested parties and creating buzz for their sale. We’ve even seen some incredible physical airdrops, with tokens falling out of balloons.

In this herculean effort to circumvent securities laws, airdrops have gained momentum. Who doesn’t love free money, right? You can even sign up to be alerted to up-and-coming airdrops and revel in all the free cash. But if your Mom ever told you nothing in life comes for free, sorry to say she was right.

Websites alerting people to airdrops

Just as there’s no such thing as a free lunch, there’s no such thing as free stock. That’s not just Momma talking, that’s the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well. So, if you thought that airdrops were an excellent way of getting around the ad ban, or marketing your ICO, you should probably shelve that idea too.

Airdrops are not compliant either.

And they will likely be regarded as security transactions, which presents quite a problematic scenario. Darren Marble, CEO of CrowdfundX, a marketing firm for STOs, points out, “You can’t just send shares of stock to people. The problem with an airdrop is that it’s generally incongruent with US security laws.” So, that great marketing tactic for creating awareness and even escalating FOMO? Not such a good idea after all. “My general advice for STO issuers,” he continues, “I would put that airdrop concept on hold. I would advise anyone in the US not to do it. I get it, it’s a good marketing tactic, but there’s too much risk and uncertainty.”

This Isn’t Fun Anymore

Regulation seems to paint a gloomy picture. Just utter the word and it sends the crypto markets quivering. But the purpose of regulation seems to be two-fold. To give blockchain companies a legal framework from which to work, and to protect investors from ICO scams. According to Marble, blockchain companies shouldn’t get too downhearted. Even though it feels as if their wings are being clipped, there are still plenty of ways of getting funding. He says: “I don’t think real teams should be that concerned. If you have a real blockchain concept or team and you’ve got some skill or differentiation or an incredible vision, the fact that you can’t advertise on Twitter should not deter you or stop you from raising money.”

Hedge Fund Funds

So, you can’t (or don’t want to) hold an ICO, you can’t drop free stock into investors’ wallets and you can’t wow users on social media. But there are still other ways to raise money and they may sort the wheat from the chaff. “If you look at what’s happening in the space, there was obviously a huge rush of retail investors into the market in 2017 and now that’s largely subsided. The Google searches for Bitcoin have dramatically decreased. The conversation about Bitcoin at the dinner table was last Thanksgiving. Now there’s a rush of crypto hedge funds.”

We’re talking about small hedge funds that have anywhere between $5 million to $500 million to invest. And they’re waiting to hear about your project. “Innovative companies,” says Marble, “even if you’re a small team, you can go out and find a page that lists all these funds and then contact these people. The best deals in the space are being funded by a small group of passionate crypto hedge funds that aren’t necessarily impossible to reach.”

Closing Thoughts

The future of fundraising may look a lot different, but it doesn’t have to be gloomy. As ICOs and airdrops start to subside, so too, should the deluge of shitcoins and hollow white papers selling nothing but air.

Article Produced By

Christina Comben

Christina is a B2B writer and MBA, specializing in fintech, cybersecurity, blockchain, and other geeky areas. When she's not at her computer, you'll find her surfing, traveling, or relaxing with a glass of wine.
https://coincentral.com/as-icos-get-compliant-what-does-that-mean-for-airdrops/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

How to avoid getting duped by a bogus initial coin offering

How to avoid getting duped by a bogus initial coin offering

  • 271 initial coin offerings have appeared so far in 2018, according to Coindesk. In 2017, there were 340.
  • In the last several years, investors have poured more than $12 billion into ICOs.
  • Red flags include promising high investment returns and accepting credit cards for investors to buy in.

"There's a real chance the [Securities and Exchange Commission] or another regulator won't be able to recover your investment, even in cases of fraud," said Lori Schock, director of the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy.

An ICO involves the sale of digital coins or tokens, which are typically used to fund a project that involves blockchain technology. In simple terms, this technology — which underlies bitcoin and its crypto brethren — ensures that all transactions using it are secure. Some ICOs are pitching either a new cryptocurrency (i.e., the next bitcoin wannabe) or could be exchangeable for one that is planned by the ICO's promoters. Others might give investors the right to use the coins toward a product or service that

will be offered.

"There's a real chance the [Securities and Exchange Commission] or another regulator won't be able to recover your investment, even in cases of fraud." -Lori Schock, Director of the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy

While not all of these digital assets are considered securities — regulators have said it depends on the specifics of each ICO — many meet the definition of a security and therefore are subject to U.S. securities laws. Already this year, 271 of these offerings have appeared, according to Coindesk. That's on top of more than 340 in 2017. In the last several years, investors have poured more than $12 billion into ICOs. However, the SEC says no ICOs have been registered to date.

Rather, the SEC's Cyber Unit — which has only been around since last September — has brought several fraud cases against operators of ICO offerings. Just this week, the agency announced that it has obtained a court order to shut down an alleged ICO scam that pulled in $21 million in investor money. In total, the SEC alleges $600 million has been raised in fraudulent schemes.

State securities regulators also have been busy. During the first three weeks of May alone, the North American Securities Administrators Association's "Operation Cryptosweep" resulted in nearly 70 inquiries and investigations and 35 pending or completed enforcement actions related to ICOs or cryptocurrencies. Additionally, other investigations into potentially fraudulent conduct are under way, and that's on top of more than a dozen enforcement actions previously undertaken by state regulators.

Even if a particular ICO is held with good intentions, there's no way of ensuring you'll ever see a return on your money. In fact, as is the case with any investment, you could lose all of it. Worse, you face the risk of criminals being behind the ICO and absconding with your money. And if the perpetrators are located overseas, the task of tracking down your investment could be impossible.

"The currency might be virtual, but the pain is real," Schock said. Both federal and state securities regulators have been engaged in public outreach to warn investors about the risks associated with ICOs and cryptocurrencies. The SEC even created its own bogus website to show investors what an ICO scam could look like.

Here are some of the big red flags to watch for.

Promise of huge returns

Generally speaking, investing comes with no promises. So if you're looking at an ICO that is pledging a certain return on your investment, you probably should walk away. "There are no guarantees when it comes to investing,"

Schock said. "A guaranteed return is a major red flag."

"There are no guarantees when it comes to investing. A guaranteed return is a major red flag." -Lori Schock, Director of the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy

 

Credit cards welcome

If you're invited to use your credit card to buy into the ICO, be very wary. Most licensed and registered investment firms don't let their clients use credit cards to buy investments or fund an account. Remember, too, credit card debt typically comes with interest charges if you can't pay off the balance immediately. So that investment could cost you more than anticipated. "If you don't have the money to buy it outright, you certainly can't afford to go into debt for it," Schock said.

 

The deal will disappear

Often, scammers will use high-pressure tactics to create a sense of urgency in the deal."Anything that pushes you to take action now, or discounts that disappear or countdown clocks … those are red flags of fraud," Schock said.

What else you should do

Even if the ICO's white paper — which details the investment and has become a standard with ICOs — looks legit and makes sense to you, don't let that be the end of your due diligence. Look into the people behind the offering. Scam ICOs have included pictures and bios of nonexistent workers. Make sure you can independently confirm that the executives listed are real people with credentials. Additionally, don't let a celebrity endorsement — real or fake — draw you in. The SEC has warned that it could involve a paid promotion, and that the person pitching the ICO might have little understanding of what they're recommending.

Article Produced By
Sarah O'Brien
Personal finance reporter

Sarah O'Brien reports for CNBC's personal finance team.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/30/how-to-avoid-getting-duped-by-a-bogus-initial-coin-offering.html

 

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden