Topic: ICO's : Heaven's angels subject to hell's abuse. (Read 545 times)

tl, dr
selfbuys are the issue. There is no way to prevent that. All icos are potential scams and it's impossible to prove otherwise.

This was a follow up thread to this article :
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=post;topic=1530158.40;num_replies=47

tl, dr - nobody cares

Disclosure : I am posting this thread after someone engaging in ICO's pm'ed me and spoke his mind out. It was insightful to have his perspective on the topic. I'd initially wanted to work on a book  on the industry (investigative financial journalism) with the said party but due to a lack of agreements I don't think that would happen. Either ways, I found it relevant to talk about how ICO's can be a force for good. My intention is not to bash on any economic system or community but rather to find solutions to the on-going plague of scams and rip-offs within the community.

The following is an ideological post that looks at the positive attributes of Bitcoin and how ICO’s could leverage them. Reality however, paints an ugly picture.


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Man's ability to share and contribute is perhaps what has helped him rise above all other species. While animals often display emotion and affection, rarely have they ever worked in packs of scale. Yes, wolves hunt in packs and animals stay in herds for shared reasons. We humans have shared the same mind-set for thousands of years when we were foragers and farmers. However, it was only when we shared resources, collaborated at scale and in the process established civilizations that we managed to really take over the globe. Primitive man, unlike today's version was subject to nature's forces. He was a slave to natural patterns like weather, the rise and setting of sun and often times, the mass migration of animals. Modern man, in comparison sets his own rules. He defines his territories and boundaries. Additionally, he even calls the shots for the very beings that once feared him. The fact that we have animals in cages screams out this very fact. It displays man's supremacy over all other beings. How did we really get here ? In order to understand this, we'll need to question the very basis of humanity's  progress.  All scientific developments, geographical exploration and financial establishments have an underlying theme : collaboration. Together we are more powerful than we are as individuals. While the individual mind may be capable of doing wonders (eg : Tesla), it is only when we join hands together to redefine norms that we have made progress. No revolution has toppled systems with only an individual. It is the power of the masses that enabled everything - be it the french revolution or the on-going financial revolution that Bitcoin promises.

When you strip away the greed, manipulation and everything else that's shown in bad light about Bitcoin and look at it in its bare, naked essentials, you'll realize what makes it special.  For the first time, in the history of mankind, we have a financial system that is being defined by the people, for the people. It is not minted by a government agency in some remote region without you being aware, but rather verifiable and traceable on a ledger that can be looked into anyone. Ofcourse, there is the added perk of being able to be a part of the minting process in itself with a miner. Bitcoin opened ways for international economies to interact with each other without external intrusion or regulation. All of a sudden someone in Russia could be in business with someone from Syria or USA without the burden of dealing with banks or long series of questions. This was also empowering to relatively poorer sections of the society as unlike fiat currency, Bitcoin required no document validation or identity proof - things that are often not found with people barely making it through life. In other words, Bitcoin was a technological progress that transcended borders, regulation, barriers and distance to bring the global economy together for the first time. In economic perspective, this was as huge as finding trade routes between the east and the west.

ICO's are a byproduct of this very underlying tendency of Bitcoin to help economies that were otherwise divided and controlled by the global elite to interact with each other. When you think of it Bitcoin took the power of the corporates to issue stocks and shares and gave it to the average man. Theoretically, a tech savvy farmer could do an ICO for his produce instead of having to sell his soul for money from moneylenders who would often charge ridiculous rates. As a matter of fact, in emerging economies like India, where farmers commit suicide every 30 minutes owing to loans as low as 100 dollars, this technology has the power to save lives. Rounding off Ethereum's fundraise to 15 million or taking an estimate of 100 million for total funds raised through ICO's - together we could have saved the lives of over 1.5 million farmers or in extension 6 million lives (assuming a family of four). Granted, it is not our responsibility to do so, all am stating here is the power of decentralized currency and crowd-funding to influence lives.

The positive aspects of ICO could be summed up as

1. Global connectivity.

An individual living in the most remote regions could possibly invest in start-ups in silicon valley theoretically with the blockchain. Assuming the SV start-up hold's true to its promise, Bitcoin is offering investment opportunities to individuals that previously had no access to such opportunities. LAck of access to investment tools that produce massive returns is part of the reason why we such incredible wealth disparity. VC’s are able to find 100-500x their investments (in rare cases) and the opportunities these investments produce additional income for  those engaging with the said businesses. Bitcoin, for the first time made access to investing in such instruments a possibility for anyone, anywhere. In other words, Bitcoin is pretty much at the epitome of free market thinking.

2. Capital Mobility

A large number of entrepreneurs in Africa often produce solutions so original, simple and effective, yet find little or no backing for it. There are inventions out there that could effectively save the lives of thousands of individuals. Corporations and governments either curb these inventions for private benefit or for the establishment of a monopoly or leave them alone to die a sad death. Bitcoin however has the potential to bring together philanthropic individuals with disposable income and individuals with the ability to put it to good use together. This is revolutionary in the sense that we are opening a whole new world of opportunities to individuals that otherwise had no access to this. Additionally we are compounding our rate of innovation as research becomes more decentralized and differential approaches emerge from different parts of the globe. This, has the power to change the world as we know it.

Additionally, ICO’s mobilize funds to generate employment for people around the globe. In an ideal scenario, I envision a team that is funded by an ICO to have individuals working from remote locations on the same vision, round the clock. ICO’s are a means for society to empower educated citizens that seek employment as they mobilize capital that’d otherwise be idle or end up with the corporations. At the heart of the last recession, the governments ordered banks to dispose more funds to small and medium enterprises, however none of that happened. If anything ,we witnessed bank employees being paid in the millions when the global financial system collapsed. They say, Bitcoin in itself was released as a response to the events that happened back then.

3. Accountability.

As mentioned in a thread earlier, the beautiful part of transactions on the blockchain is it's traceability and ease of accounting. It is indeed very easy for transactions to be labelled while being sent and make it openly accessible to shareholders. In an ideal scenario, the blockchain offers an open picture of all income, expenses and assets of the organization to anyone that wishes to verify this. In economies that are riddled by insider trading and places where transparency is on the lower side, the blockchain has the power to disrupt things for the larger good. The masses would be able to verify things as fast as anyone within the organization and make their decisions. This has much larger implications in the context of digital governance. Most bids / offers taken by the government happened behind sealed doors and citizens are rarely ever able to hold the firms accountable for the money businesses attain. The blockchain could settle this once and for all.


When you have a financial system that brings together economies of the world, in a fashion that is transparent and accountable, you tend to believe it can change the world. In some ways, it has. However, bitcoin related crowd-funds are yet to mobilize capital in a fashion that is effective and produces large real world implications. From a philanthropic point of view - we have the power to mobilize funds to build schools or save lives. From a capitalistic point of view, this community could move funds for enabling organizations like Grameen bank in Bangladesh to invest into emerging small and medium enterprises there. From purely altruistic point of view, we could be making donations to redcross right now. However, none of this feeds our greed or desire to multiply money in a matter of days. The interest rates, real world offers is abysmal and any top notch start-up that emerges would be either a slave to compliance or subject to hype and eventually greed.

To sum up what am saying, ideologically, in theory - ICO’s could be a force for good. However, as displayed by the n number of ICO’s that have failed and feeded people’s greed here, we have not utilized it to its best form yet.

I will be posting about how capital mobility on the blockchain could be further leveraged for profit, social good and progress in the future.

Have an ICO you believe to have changed the world ?
One that didn’t depend on p&d but delivered results ?
Post about them below so I could look further into them.
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