Unless you are one of the few successful day traders of crypto who can make the right calls just by looking at the charts, LISTEN UP.
This is going to be some tough love but I can’t say this enough.
If you aren’t willing to at least read the white paper of a crypto project, why in the world are you willing to give them your money?
Here’s how being an educated investor can save your butt and ease your mind when the crypto rollercoaster inevitably kicks into gear.
- If you invest in a project that you’ve thoroughly researched, you’re an active member of the community, then you won’t be so quick to sell when the dip inevitably happens.
- Educating yourself will help teach you how to better identify a quality investment and how to avoid giving your money to a project with no real plans.
- It’s the uneducated ones who sell low and buy high. They are the ones who can’t weather the storm, and who are easily influenced by the FUD and FOMO spread by those who want to influence the price and take advantage of those who should, but don’t know better.
- If you’re in it for the get rich quick idea, you’ll most likely end up broke even quicker.
I know that ICO mania is real and we are still in it, who knows how long it will last, or how the new regulations will influence them.
If you are finding yourself interested in investing in any ICOs, here is a check list for things you need to know before you invest:
Website
Is it well developed? What kind of information do they provide?
Developers
What is their reputation? Have they been involved with scams in the past? Do they have much experience with blockchain technology and cryptocurrency?
Whitepaper
Do they even have a white paper? If so, read it with a cynical eye. Be mindful of the information they are providing and what information they are leaving out.
Open Source
Is their code open sourced so that others can see it and recognize any issues?
GitHub
Look at their activity via GitHub. Do they make improvements very often? If they don’t thats a red flag.
How active is their social media accounts?
Do they have an enthusiastic community backing them? Do they give timely updates?
How do they plan to allocate the profits from their ICO?
Is a big chunk going towards the founders? How much are they putting towards development? Is it really necessary?
Total supply of coins?
More coins means diluted value.
How much are they charging per coin in their ICO?
What is the outlook for your return on investment?
Will they hold a PREsale?
This means they will allow for whales to come in and buy a large amount of coins. This also means these whales will be able to affect the price should they want to do so.
Community Sentiment
Are there many people who are vocally happy or disappointed with the way the team is making decisions?
Use Case
Is this new project really even needed? Is this something that blockchain technology will truly fix or improve upon? Are they just using ICO mania to capitalize on eager investors?
Minimal Viable Product
Is there at least proof that this team has established a working product? Are they just making promises for something in the future?
Roadmap
What are their short term and long term goals? Are they meeting these goals?
This is so true, we need to carefully research and forget shake out the FOMO
I agree this are the above things which we should follow not only for investing in ICO's but also when it comes to purchase and holding coins we and follow this.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Cheers @vishalmukadam! Thanks for the comment :)
Hi @heiditravels This is a really helpful post, I think you listed most of the main things to pay attention to. And yes, it applies not only to ICOs, but to cryptocurrencies as well.
I would like to add just one point - when assessing the ICO project and its team, don't forget to virtually put this project into a real existing industry (taking into consideration the current competition).
Even if all things your listed get a positive answer, still MAY NOT BE ENOUGH to invest. To get any considerable ROI (especially if you generally plan to hold tokens in long run) there should be:
Just one example.
Several years ago I did study an online course taught by Hasso Plattner (co-founder of SAP software company, a great man with net worth of $10.8 billion). The course promoted In-Memory Database Management. Technology-wise it was a huge break-though in comparison this a traditional database management approach. And it is hard to believe Hasso Plattner's team did not have enough resources to market this approach. But still, it is far from being widely used. Why? 3) Luck to overcome unknown obstacles.
So why should any new ICO skyrocket their technology or product in real super-competitive market conditions?
And the last question we need to ask ourselves? How many ICO funded projects have become established (with financially proved ROI)?
After asking myself I did choose to better invest in open-source technology-advanced cryptocurrencies, not ICOs.
New to crypto (well, I was 'in' in 2013, but out quickly) and new to Steemit. This is a fantastic checklist that I'll be using to vet my next crypto investments - thanks!
I don't even want to invest in ICOs right now unless they have an address and a statement on US SEC regulations and how they will pre-analytically adhere to it. Bittrex isn't even listing any new tokens.
I expect US crypto exchanges to be fined for some of the tokens they list already but I have a feeling the tokens already listed will be allowed to continue to be traded in the US at least.
Good stuff Heidi
Great post @heiditravels, reminds me of my own post on preparing for ICOs.
More crypto content creators like yourself need to give people this sort of tough-love information from time to time, but it's very easy to get wrapped up in the hype and ignore the fact that crypto can't be all sunshine & rainbows all the time.
Always important to remember that the crypto user demographic is significantly younger than traditional stock traders and investors, so taking the careful approach to managing finances isn't the first thing on many of their minds. Thank you for giving this kind of information, even if it doesn't get you as much attention as big hype content.
Thanks Heidi, it's easy to get caught up in excitement & FOMO. This is good advice for people as a wake up call.
Definitely, so often I want to check back in with the people who freak out over a small dip and see if they regret anything :D
;)
Biggest one is doing they have an mvp and a beta or live product.. u can test out and judge for yourself. I did that for golem and storj
I've found much success lately in day trading multiple varieties of crypto.. but the key to that success is not only being able to pick up on market trends and the possibilities for rises and falls.. but to do exactly what you've described here.
To do your research.
If you know nothing about something, not even a little bit, simply a name and that it's on an exchange.. you are not prepared to invest or trade on any real level beyond the idealogy that any new or low cost crypto will skyrocket at some point (as has been the easy-to-pick-up-on trend as of late, but does not always hold true..) which may very well happen.. but you might as well gamble in that case, as that is exactly what you're doing.
Very informative and well-written article, keep up the great content!
^^ I apply these values to my crypto investing/trading theories and it coincides quite well. :) ^^
Good work repect it
Creative post.i resteem this post
I am new to crypto and have wondered what ico is all about. Thaks for the guide. Its nice to be able to access information in one place
check this one out
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Thanks, this is I am searching for. Thanks for sharing valuable content. :-) Have a beautiful day!
Good information to be searching for ;) Hope this helps!
I will check this out.
Great to read your posts, as always!
Thanks :)
Cheers :)
Excellent info, presented in a manner that makes it easy to keep and refer back too.
Bookmark it! :)
Thanks for sharing young lady!
Thanks :-)
Super-usefull check-list ;-)
I cant trust ICO's at all, I dont know I will rather buy a crypto that has been there for a while
I have a strong feeling more countries are going to be just flat out banning ICOs it is now illegal in the USA and China
Securities are what has been hit by the U.S. regulations. And there are ways for companies to hold an ICO for U.S. citizens, but they will have to be an accredited investor.
Thanks @heiditravels for taking the time to put this post together; and, for being grounded enough to remind members of the cryptoworld, that at any time, government regulations can intercept a lot of eggs in the basket. The lesson being: DIVERSIFY.
The Steem 'engine' seems to really be a roller-coaster ride; but, because I love the concept of the platform it’s easy to stay with it.
Again, thanks for sharing!
Peace.
Well put. I will only invest in crypto projects if I think they have REAL technology, a solid team backing the project and partnerships. Projects like OMG fall into this category for me.
Exactly, I'm also a fan of OMG. They've already established a large customer base and now they can provide those customers with a much better product, one that only the blockchain can provide :) Win/Win!
Found this very useful. Thanks for article!
Hi @heiditravels, interesting post, but I'm pretty sceptic about ICO. I have written my first post on blockchain...https://steemit.com/blockchain/@fboccassi/blockchain-saga-blockchain-and-bitcoin-history-chapter-1-ita-eng
What do you think about it? Your opinion would be great.
It’s the uneducated ones who sell low and buy high. They are the ones who can’t weather the storm, and who are easily influenced by the FUD and FOMO spread by those who want to influence the price and take advantage of those who should, but don’t know better. = How true, investing is never a short term thing. It is possible to trade on intra-day basis but it is not every day that you will have a chance to do so.
Thanks for making these videos and posting such well thought out articles. I have been tipped off to a few different cryptos and icos that i may have not come across on my own. One that i am still excited about and patiently awaiting the ico on the 23rd is Decent.bet. I hadn't even heard of this project until I caught your video. Now that I've done my reseach (which you've outlined in this article), Im pumped to get in on the 23rd. Thanks again! Keep up the great work!
Really good advice, thanks for sharing :D
good anaylsis - it correlates with my check list!! it's always good to cross reference with someone who's on the ball, cheers!! i bought into tenx but i think i'll give change bank a miss because of their present presale although it ticks off quite a few points. i would include one more to your list - that old mantra about investing assets you can't afford to loose.
Or just get free coins daily paidout more 14 currencies
https://qoinpro.com/badf63de676f8eb624b7b188cf064eda
Thanks Heidi - I recently made a minor mistake not doing enough due diligence because I fell into a bit of FOMO. I could have used this checklist! Do you have any thoughts on BAT?
Thanks Heidi. I appreciate your videos. You are helping people who are new to this crypto scene (or who just need a reminder).
I'm starting to experiment with trading with Bitshares and OpenLedger. One good thing about that is there aren't a whole lot of new ICO coins on the DEX. Less hype than the other exchanges.
Great info, thanks for your work!!
Since ICO is unregulated and is used as crowdfunding one should be careful. China is taking strict action against its misuse
There are rumors that China will take strict action.
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STOPNice one. I keep seeing so many news and adverts for ICOs on my Facebook feed today. It's like they just came out of nowhere. I will definitely look into this. Need the knowledge.
Right now we are working on an ICO project. Every detail matters to us! Thanks for the info. Soon we will announce a press release, it will be interesting to hear everyone
@heiditravels The online market place is a wonderful industry for truth of the matter and lies. Now it is actually quite challenging to acknowledge where by the reality is.
Thanks for the good tips! I still don't know much about cryptocurrency, but is really helpful! Upvoted and followed!
meep
Since ICO is unregulated and is used as crowdfunding one should be careful. China is taking strict action against its misuse
Hi @heiditravels! Nice checklist!
A friend and I have built a tool to have ICOs right in your Google Calendar: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@fcrypto/introducing-kryptocalendar-get-the-top-crypto-currencies-events-right-into-your-google-calendar
We are thinking about a solution to filter ICOs curated by the community. We would love to get your feedback! :)
Invest in what you understand
HI, I need some of your time and your help, I'm #theshootingstar and I need a big one in steemit as support, for more information Clic here!
Glad you've found success! I agree that ICOs aren't the end-all be-all for crypto. We've got some time until we see big movements in these markets.