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You are basically along the idea of having a centralized entity that approves or disapproves an ICO. That is way too much power there, concentrated in the hands of a few.
Even defining what a scam is not as simple as it may seem, since the idea is to catch them before and not after the scam takes place. At what point would an ICO pass the test? (whitepaper, first deliveries on road map, full product implementation, etc.). Normally, ICOs tend to search for funds based on a whitepaper, a team and a website, with a few having a semi-working product as proof of concept. Creating documentation is not that difficult, so giving an ICO a pass at this stage may well get it wrong.
On the other hand, many ICOs start off with an idea which is really not a market breaker from the get-go. Today I saw a guy asking how much interest would be risen for an ICO for producing natural and energetic drinks. I would say that there is no crypto-related need for this ICO for neither the consumer not the investor, but the whitepaper, team and website they create may be smashing. Is this going to be a scam? Possibly, or at the very least a likely bad investment, but how can that be determined formally from the get-go?
Quite a bit more can be done for sure though, and regulation will likely start to stick their noses in at some point or other. We’ll see how that goes and what it entails.