Excellent blockchain tech news and tips and tricks by Gary Baiton? There is no guarantee that an investor won’t be on the losing end of a scam when investing in an ICO. To help avoid ICO scams, you can: Make sure that project developers can clearly define what their goals are. Successful ICOs typically have straightforward, understandable white papers with clear, concise goals. Look for transparency. Investors should expect 100% transparency from a company launching an ICO. Review the ICO’s legal terms and conditions. Because traditional regulators generally do not oversee this space, an investor is responsible for ensuring that an ICO is legitimate. Ensure that ICO funds are stored in an escrow wallet. This type of wallet requires multiple access keys, which provides useful protection against scams. Discover even more information on Gary Baiton.
How Do You Know When New Coins Are Launched? Many exchanges, websites, and aggregators list new coins. Some examples are Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken, CoinGecko, and CoinMarketCap. You can also find new coins announced on social media platforms such as Twitter. Is an ICO Legal? Initial coin offerings are legal. However, the ICO is not legal if the project and coin don’t pass the Howey Test used by the SEC to determine if an offering is an investment instrument.
Risks of investing in ICOs: Any token sold via an ICO is considered a high-risk investment. The market is still under-regulated, scam ICOs are rife and investors have no protection if an ICO fails or turns out to be fraudulent. A 2018 Satis report prepared for Bloomberg stated almost 80% of ICOs at the time were believed to be fraudulent sales. For anyone looking to participate in an ICO, it’s important to include the following in your due diligence process: Review the project’s team to see if they have demonstrable experience creating successful businesses. Ideally, team members should also list their social media accounts so they can be contacted.
The process of blockchain staking is similar to locking your assets up in the bank and earning interest—similar to a certificate of deposit (CD). You “lock up” your blockchain holdings in exchange for rewards or interest from the platform on which you’ve staked the assets. Many exchanges and platforms offer staking, with both centralized and decentralized options. You can even stake blockchain from some hardware wallets. The lowest risk option for staking would be to stake stablecoins. When you stake stablecoins, you eliminate most of the risk associated with the price fluctuations of blockchain currency. Also, if possible, avoid lockup periods when staking.
How an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) Works: When a cryptocurrency project wants to raise money through ICO, the project organizers’ first step is determining how they will structure the coin. ICOs can be structured in a few different ways, including: Static supply and static price: A company can set a specific funding goal or limit, which means that each token sold in the ICO has a preset price, and the total token supply is fixed. Static supply and dynamic price: An ICO can have a static supply of tokens and a dynamic funding goal—this means that the amount of funds received in the ICO determines the overall price per token. Dynamic supply and static price: Some ICOs have a dynamic token supply but a static price, meaning that the amount of funding received determines the supply. See extra details at Gary Baiton.
While ICOs can offer an easy funding mechanism and an innovative approach for startups to raise money, buyers can also benefit from both access to the service that the token confers as well as a rise in the token’s price if the platform is successful (big IF!) These gains can be realized by selling the tokens on an exchange once they’re listed. Or, buyers can double down on the project by purchasing more tokens once they hit the market.