Because many of my friends chose the ICO wrongly, or got a scam at the ICO. So, in this thread I will explain important things about ICO that you should know.
1. Invest opportunity
A good ICO, an ICO that is difficult for other people or we invest in the ICO. Even there is no chance we will invest in the ICO. Example:
- Ontology: Private sale & airdrop only. (Even the airdrop doesn't know anything)
- Mainframe: Private sale, airdrop, proof of heart (a kind of bounty program but the task is difficult)
- Iotex (IOTX): Private sale only
2. Sweet Promise = Bullshit
A good ICO, the developer never promises profit or other sweet promises. So for those of you who are new to the world per ICOan or often join the ICO, don't get sweet promises or fake developer promises
3. Token Metrics
What is Token Metrics? So, the metrics token is technical or data that has something to do with the success of the token or project.
Part of the metrics token:
- Hard cap: The maximum amount of funds to be achieved by a project through the ICO stage. If the related project has successfully raised funds in the specified Hard Cap limit, then the ICO stage will be stopped even though the ICO period has not yet been completed.
What is the ideal hardcap of an ICO? If I think hardcap is the ideal range of $ 10M - $ 25M. Why is that? Yes, the size of the hardcap depends on each project. But, above $ 25M in my opinion it's too big.
Btw, hardcap also affects the initial market release price later. For example, A hardcap token is $ 50M. But his product or project is not equivalent to the hardcap he wants to achieve. The point is that the project is usually normal. Nothing special. Does this mean the project is too greedy? Many projects like this can achieve hardcap, but when the market releases the price drops even further, there are no special people from the project. Automatic demand in the market is also little.
Examples of successful projects with hardcap below $ 25M: Omisego, ZRX, Cindicator, Power Ledger, Dragon Chain, AELF, Gifto, Deepbrain Chain, Zilliqa, Bluzelle, Iotex, Credits, Holo, Mainframe
- Soft cap: The minimum funding target that must be achieved by a project for the continuation of the development of the project to the next stage. In short, Soft Cap is an estimate of minimal funds to be able to run the project. If during the ICO target the Soft Cap cannot be reached, the investor funds that have been entered will be returned, and the project will usually not be continued.
If it's a soft stamp, I'm not too confused. During this time, good-looking ICOs always achieve soft caps. Well, what is important is that you choose the ICO right & are optimistic that the soft cap target will be achieved.
- Token allocation: Well, if this one has a formula too. So the more% the allocation for the sale tokens, the better it means. Because the total token allocation is not controlled by many developers. A minimum of 40% + for sale tokens
- Use of Funds: Regarding the use of funds, what is important is logical or reasonable. What do you want the funds to be used for
- Bonus / discount: Sometimes bonuses also become someone's order to invest in an ICO. But if from the side of the bounty hunter do not get to join the bounty, the ICO gives a bonus above 30% (only opinion, yeah)
- Peg-rate: Peg-rate lock rate from the crypto. For example there is an ico that uses eth, it rates the price of 1 eth = usd 400 when the ICO takes place. So, whatever the ETH price he buys on the market, if the page rate is that much. Price calculation when we buy the ICO according to the peg-rate. Understand? Hope you understand wkwkw
- Lockups: If lockups are usually the coin developer quota that is locked within a certain period
- Price per token: Price per token
- Number of tokens: Number of tokens
In terms of Token Metrics we can also calculate the ICO marketcap value to determine the ICO marketcap ranking.
The formula: Circulating supply x price per token = market cap value
Example: ICO A circulating supply is 20,000,000 and the price per token is $ 1.
20,000,000 x $ 1 = $ 20,000,000. so the marketcap value is $ 20,000,000. We can see the market cap ranking too. Judging from the current coinmarketcap.com data. If ICO A has a marketcap value of $ 20,000,000 then coin A will be ranked 200 coinmarketcap
4. Tokenomics
What is meant by tokenomics is the use of the token. How the token works or runs in its ecosystem
5. Product Uniqueness
Well, if this is really important too. So, the more unique the product or the more prominent the product's uniqueness. The selling value of the product is getting better.
Example:
- IOTA: the first coin that uses DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) technology that IOTA calls Tangle. Which is said to be Blockchain competitors. Price of All Time High IOTA $ 5.5 (rank 5 at coinmarketcap.com at that time)
- DASH: May 2016 DASH Developer announced that they will be the first coins to implement masternode, at that time the DASH price is still $ 8. December 2017 Price of All Time High DASH $ 1642.
6. TEAM
Do they have a famous Team member / advisor? If so, it must be very easy to promote the product.
Example:
- TRX: Has a very famous Justin Sun. Even before becoming a TRX Founder, Justin Sun had already received an award from Forbes China, as one of the successful entrepreneurs in his under 30 years.
- LTC: Have Charlie Lee, who doesn't know Charlie Lee? Google's former employee, Coinbase who has a lot of experience in the field of computer scientist
- THETA: If this THETA token is a little known and there is already a Binance market. So, THETA's vision is "Decentralized video streaming, powered by users and innovative new blockchain". Which he said was YouTube killer. THETA itself has a superstar Team member / Advisor who has experience in the pervideoan industry.
* The THETA member team is the Founder SLIVER.tv
* Media Advisor:
- Steve Chen: Youtube co-founder
- Justin Kan: Co-founder of Twitch
7. Community
The community also plays an important role in participating in the success of a project. Without a community, the coin will not be known by many people.
An odd indication about ICO and requires further investigation. Or the cool language "Red Flags"
❌The first thing you see on their website is 'Buy tokens now', '50% discount ends in x days', some sort of countdown when backing up until the ICO ends (that means they only care about money, not the project itself)
❌ Advertise about the ROI of the project (how much you have the potential to make profit etc.)
❌ There are no contact details (or fake)
❌ Whitepapers only focus on ROI not on the problems and solutions proposed by the project
❌ Fake team (please Google or check LinkedIn to verify team members)
❌ The idea itself does not require blockchain but they desperately want to use blockchain (to get money, duh)
❌ 'Buy' advisor (the advisor only serves 1 role, puts their LinkedIn profile on the website, and that's it). If the advisers 'advise' 40 and 50 projects at the same time, I'm not sure how they can focus on the projects they run
❌ The parent company failed or ran out of money so they switched to blockchain to raise funds and stay afloat
That is my discussion about ICO, if there is a Research / Analysis error please understand.
Note: If you don't like to invest in ICO. You can use this material as Research / Analysis material to choose the bounty that you will follow
Btw, I have an active telegram channel that actively discusses ICO recommendations, long-term Altcoin, Bagholders & Fundamental Analysis. Those who are interested can join this channel:
https://t.me/BeingLittle