What options are open to me?
You're better off putting that money in a slot machine. Most ICOs are scams.
Not really. Most I have read about in the news are not scams except for that dao coin but there are a lot of ico's where people make good money and I want to be one of them for 2017.
I have a few key factors.
-devs need to look serious
-there must be some working tech to try before investing
-escrow of course
-no crazy coin count. Anything over 150M coins and its a no.
-a strong community
where can I find all this in the same coin or cant i
However you want to justify it, you're throwing money at a random anon dude over the internet in exchange for some wild promises and pretty images.
That's the lowest form of gambling there is.
You must only pick losers. Lots of win icos covered in the news everyday. Ico's are the future. Just ask coindesk.
I don't pick ICOs, in fact I have never ever bought into any ICO/IPO scam while I have 273 different wallets on my computer, most of which I mined at some point.
Regardless, your post perfectly reflects your (along with most ICO participants') lack of realization that you're playing a slotmachine where the house has more edge than in any casino - which says a lot.
If you have any logical justification of giving money to a random anon dude over the internet (as a legit investment) in exchange for some magic internet moniez the dev made out of thin air with zero effort and some nice pictures and ambitious promises, I'm all ears.