Risky, yes, of course! But to generalize ICO as scam is too much. I don't think ICOs are scam. There are some of them of course. We cannot deny that as there are developers who are only after money and not really putting their heart to their project.
But it needs your prudence, diligence, hardwork, and so on to get the right ones. There are legit ones of course. And it's really worth it.
Take a look at my signature, do some research, and you will believe that not all ICOs are scam.
Well put, Tom. Some ICO's are scams, others are not. Put the legwork in, look at the founders, the business plan, market cap, issuance, terms and most of all; see if they have a viable product before investing. Look at the multiple. For instance, I saw a filestorage ICO that had a market cap of high 100's of millions if not billions, no product to show for. Highly competitive market, no track record in the sphere for the founders. I stayed out. Look for track record, viability, a product demo, and the financials. If they can't produce good financials, a well thought out business plan and pro forma, then they are not even competent to run a multi-million dollar business.
That said: ICO's is an exciting vehicle indeed and I see that there will be companies that can truly make it. Point in case; etherum for instance that raised their ICO at 30 cents per eth. Growth of 1000x in a few years. Its the same as during the dot com boom. Many crap companies will be seeking capital, but its about finding the ones that make it big. The guys that invested in Amazon in late 90's would be happy today, the guys that invested in Earthlink; not so much.
