When you think crowdfunding, you think Kickstarter or Indiegogo, right? Well think again.
Projects such as Star Citizen (video game), Pebble (smartwatch) and the Coolest Cooler have garnered significant attention from millions of funders on sites such as Kickstarter, and have raised as much as $151+ million, $20.3 million, and $13.2 million dollars respectively. Although Star Citizen does currently hold number one spot for highest crowdfunded project ever, to this date, it might become quickly overshadowed by cryptos and blockchain technology.
Out of the top 25 most crowdfunded projects, to this date, cryptos and blockchain technology consists of more than half the list, holding 13 of the top spots. Right under Star Citizen, the infamous DAO holds the 2nd spot on list of highest crowdfunded projects with $150 million raised in May of 2016, followed closely by MobileGo tokens in fourth spot which raised $53 million, Basic Attention Token (BAT) in 5th spot with $35 million raised, Aragon in 6th with $25 million raised, and fan favourite Ethereum in 9th spot with $18.4 million raised in Sept of 2014. Further down the list you'll find other blockchain projects such as Waves ($16M), Qtum ($15.6M), Cofound.it ($14.7M), Gnosis ($12.5M), iEx.ec ($12.1M), and supercomputer Golem ($8.6M).
These blockchain crowdfunded projects are not listed on any one site in particular, like Kickstarter, however they are finding themselves to be ever more increasing advertised on the notoriously popular website coinmarketcap.com. ICO's, Initial Coin Offerings as they are more formerly known, are the vehicles behind the crowdfunding. Even now, you can visit coinmarketcap.com and find three separate ICO's advertised today.
ICO #1: NVO
ICO #2: DCORP
ICO #3: SkinCoin
What's This Mean?
With crypto currencies and blockchain technology being all the rave right now, this can potentially mean a multitude of things. But just some of my personal thoughts;
I'll start with a positive first. ICO's bring a ton of attention towards crypto currencies and blockchain technology, which is obviously a good thing, unless you don't favor advances to technology. As I write this blog, there is a total of $108 billion flowing through cryptos, which warms my heart…and my pockets as well.
But this also means, watch your investments wisely. ICO's are an unregulated territory, which many will argue is beneficial to the iteration and innovation of the technology; but that also leaves plenty of room for fraudsters and thieves to thrive. Just do a quick Google search on Matchpool ICO or LCF Coins, or just ICO scams in general and see for yourself. But the same argument can be posed to just about any new market or even Kickstarter and Indiegogo as well. Their sites have seen their fairshare of scams themselves, with the owners of the sites doing nothing about it and thousands, if not millions, of crowdfunded dollars srolen!
What are your thoughts on ICO's? What's your favorite ICO? Share your thoughts below so we can all get in on potential gains!
Very good article. I was about to post a similair post. We really need more insights in the (ICO) market and previous investment results (even though they don't deliver any guarantee for the future). I found this great website: https://www.coincheckup.com This site lets you check investment stats, And does a complete background analysis for every single coin. That's tradable on the market.