How to spot reputable crypto projects?
12.07.2018 / Cryptocurrency Trading
New projects are created almost daily in the cryptosphere. At the same time, one can quickly lose track of which projects are aiming for a truly sustainable improvement of a problem with their visions. If you take a deeper look in the subject, you can not get around two terms: ICO and tokensale. But what lies behind these terms, and more importantly, how can you quickly and easily validate projects based on a few criteria? But back to the start: An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) or tokensale is a means of raising capital by selling a certain quantity of self-created cryptocurrency (coins/token) to the community. To be precise, there is a slight difference between ICO and tokensale. A tokensale uses an existing blockchain (Ethereum, NEM, Lisk, EOS, …) to create tokens via smart contracts, an ICO is built on its own blockchain. Especially in fast growing business fields and high potential markets a tokensale is an adequate financing method, which can provide the selling company with a financial gain in order to expand its business activities. It’s important that the token meet a clearly defined purpose related to the product or business model at a later time.
Never forget — it’s ALWAYS important to do your own research and due diligence.
How to spot reputable crypto projects? If you are interested in a project that also implements an ICO/tokensale, there are some solid indicators that will help you choose sustainable projects. The following points show characteristics of a serious project (related to projects from the cryptosphere):
- Does the project already provide a MVP (minimum viable product) or a beta version of the service/product?
- Do the founders and the team have a solid background? Can they be verified based on the information they provide about themselves?
- Does the website offer a whitepaper? It should. And you should probably read it before participating. Watch out for a good structure and a clear representation of what the project does.
- Does the project have strong and well structured online presence on several social media channels, where they not only promote their product, but inform and interact broadly with the community?
- Is there a return for your investment promised? Definitely a red light since this is highly speculative and unserious. No one can and should make such promises.
- Is there a well communicated and realistic roadmap of the project?
Furthermore, the structure of the sale itself can be an indicator for the seriousness of the tokensale. The following bullet points are useful hints:
- Is there a presale for large investors? If yes, how many percent of total tokens are offered? If a small number of people own a large number of coins from the very beginning, they are able to strongly manipulate the market after the sale ended. A wide distribution of coins is most likely a good sign.
- Is there a well-announced and structured whitelisting process? Is there a clear declaration of how many tokens are offered?
- Are bounties offered (e.g. for advertising, referrals)? Keep in mind that bounties are very likely to get dumped once a coin hits the exchanges, which might negatively impact the valuation. So bounties should only be a really small part of total units.
- Is there a well defined and communicated hard cap (defined as the maximum amount of funds accepted) and soft cap as well as a clear time frame for the accomplishment of those? Since a project shall oblidge to return all contributions if it can’t reach its set soft cap.
As a rule of thumb it is valid to say if a tokensale sounds to be too good to be true, it probably is. Maintaining a skeptical perspective when assessing initial coin offerings will help you to avoid getting scammed. Does anything else about the project sound fishy? Even if it’s just a small detail, it’s well worth to do some more research.
Why does it make sense for Blockpit and the business model behind it to make a tokensale? One thing that was always in our mind was the centralized storage of sensible data, which results in many pain points. As we know this space, it was clear that having this data would make us very likely to get attacked, subpoenaed or just not trusted by our customers. This is why we decided to use blockchain-based Zero-Knowledge-Proofs (ZKPs) in this ecosystem of a “normal” SAAS platform to proof correct calculation without the need to show initial calculation data. For this purpose and of course the need for fundraising, we are now introducing the TAX token, which will act as an “Application Access Token” to the platform and fuel for ZKPs.
Our vision is to offer an open and fair ecosystem, which gives higher benefits for those who extensively use it and keep costs low for those who just need the essentials. Our services can only be used with our token. To lift limitations the user has to lock a certain amount of Blockpit TAX tokens in the account for an one year period. These tokens can’t be withdrawn within this time, but remain in the users possession. On a monthly basis part of this stake will be deducted by Blockpit as compensation for the services. The amount of this fee depends on the users rank and the value of the token at the given moment. As already mentioned our TAX token is an application access token, which might benefit early users of the platform. More information therefore you find in the whitepaper.
Furthermore this new funding method is an innovative form for letting a wide range of people take part in a project they trust in. Since Blockpit is operating in this environment and is planning on running its services based on the blockchain technology, it’s only consequent to work with this type of funding method. This endows us with new opportunities of using funds to expand our activities and services before our competitors.
How do we use the money for developing Blockpit?
If you are interested in how a tokensale works, feel free to get in contact with us in our Telegram channel.
Disclaimer
This article should not promote any investment or suggestions for ICOs or tokensales in any form. Investments in general are always afflicted with a certain amount of risk, which also applies for the crypto market. Main driven force of this article is the wish to be a source of information and clarification for those who are interested or about to participate in ICOs or tokensales.
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Originally published at blog.blockpit.io.
