This is the first of many more posts to come!
As editor of The Alternative Ways, marketing director of MLG Blockchain Consulting, and a long-time cryptocurrency investor, I believe that I have earned my stripes in the ICO industry and have built a solid reputation backed with invaluable know-how on the upcoming ICOs and the future of blockchain tech.
If you want to dish out the freshest updates on blockchain and ICOs, then keep your eyes glued. Follow my account for weekly updates on the hottest upcoming investments and general blockchain knowledge so you get to be one step ahead of the pack. If you want to collaborate or have some questions in mind, feel free to shoot me an email at joaquim.miro@mlgblockchain.com.*
Before we go over this list, let's learn a bit about what ICO actually is.
ICOs or Initial Coin Offerings work in a similar way to initial public offerings. In the case of ICOs, a firm offers “tokens” known as digital assets. In short, start-ups actively raise funds for their project through an ICO. They can either sell rights of royalties or ownership to a project on their investors, or offer a token as an incentive for miners to join the network on the blockchain. Its coins prove to be a symbol of an enterprise’s ownership and community interest.
Initial Coin Offerings or ICOs play a critical role in the blockchain start-up ecosystem, allowing them to raise money through their Token Sale. Supporters of the blockchain tech which are keen on investing in new projects will buy tokens at a discount rate during the Token Sale. Essentially, a plan is mapped out which details all information on a specific project including the amount or price of virtual tokens, funds needed for the venture, and target completion date. This is called a Whitepaper.
By investing in decentralized projects, it assures an improved and equal distribution of national wealth especially for those ICOs that are out to revolutionize the employment, education, housing, and energy industries. Furthermore, it allows investors to speculate on technologies they believe will radically change the world.
After doing tons of research, I came up with a list of ICOs I believe are worthwhile to have a look at and potentially invest in at the time of ICO. These were chosen using a set of criteria which you can find on my blog post on The Alternative Ways here.
Check out the top 6 upcoming ICO giants in September and October 2017:
1. Soma
Start Date: September 26, 2017
Price per token: 1 ETH=450 SCT
ETH Collected: 258.4
Required limit: 54 000 000 SCT
Maximum Capacity: 120 000 ETH
Supply for Token sale: 54 000 000 SCT
Maximum Supply: 60,000,000 SCT
Description:
Soma is a revolutionary decentralized social marketplace with over 111 contributors. This ICO facilitates trade inside the Soma Community via a rewarding system which enables beneficial collaboration of its community members. The Soma Community (SCT) is a class of cryptocurrency which is designed to give incentives to its members. With this system, the members are encouraged to perform value-adding activities in a fast-paced, secure, and cost-effective way and be compensated with SCT.
In Soma, the users are encouraged to be involved in directed activities that will keep its members and the community benefited through a generous rewards system. Moreover, the pre-sale bonuses, marketing, and rewards have been paid off by its 6,000 000 SCT fund. In this particular ICO, the funds are distributed as:
35% Marketing and area launches
20% Legal issues and patents
20% Product development and technology
15% Operational team
10% Community rewards
Soma also includes features such as Interactive Itemcard (IIC), Secured payments, Social Contributions, and P2P marketing. Interactive Itemcard (IIC) is defined as the digital presentation of the physical item including its condition, ownership date, price history, and genuineness. ICC’s responsibility inside the SCT is to accumulate social value through different social media interactions, which reflects on the physical item’s value. Another amazing feature of this ICO is its secured payments through Soma Rewarding System which boasts of an enhanced security in managing transactions by acting as a trusted escrow agent in every transaction.
Trading is also performed serially over varied social media platforms. The interactions take effect in a way of social liking and sharing of relevant contents which is monetized by the SCT. Also, the P2P marketing feature of Soma ICO enables users the right to gain SCT tokens through items promotions, thus expanding the community.
What people say:
Soma has a high reputation or credibility rating from people who invested in its SCT. One of the reasons is its IICs which allows the members to establish a free market making it possible for real price chains tracking in daily trade. They were featured as a potential replacement to eBay and Amazon by The Next Web. Furthermore, some people noted that Soma is an ICO which offers various payment methods such as Bitcoins, other major altcoins and SCT which makes payment incentivized freeing them from costs. Even withdrawals that are set in cryptocurrencies is made free of charge. The only cons I decipher here is what’s stated in its ICO whitepaper that specifically mentions that cryptocurrencies can be used for payment inside the platform. This may change in the future though so stay on the loop of things through their Slack channel.
2. BitJob
Start Date: September 12, 2017
Price per token: 1 ETH=888 STU
Crowdsale: 128 000 000 STU (64%)
Maximum Capacity USD: 40 000 0000 USD
Maximum Capacity ETH:** 100 000 ETH
Total Supply: 200 000 000 STU
Description:
BitJob is an Ethereum powered decentralized platform ICO. It’s a global, decentralized marketplace for student employment. It’s a semi-developed smart contracts platform which works on the Ethereum blockchain network (ERC20 Token). The Ethereum’s transparent properties allowed the bitJob team to set up the platform with strong authentication, verifiability, identity, voting, offer micro-transactions and build the strong reputation.
BitJob is a highly professional ICO that is built and designed by professionals. It guarantees optimum levels of transparency and openness at all stages of its marketplace transactions whether it is made with students, employers, or freelancers. Each participant will be assigned of a reputation score enabling them to access a specific remuneration rate that is appropriate to their skills level. The price to be paid largely depends on the level of their reputation for specified hours of work.
Additionally, bitJob has a unique awesome team, partners, and backers who all care about providing incentives for students who has had a stellar performance and increased reputation score. BitJob just recently launched their affiliate marketing plan to reach as many students as possible. Plus, they keep a Dynamic Portfolio Resume of students placed on a personal domain which can also be used as a reference for the students’ future employees.
What people say:
Many people like the concept of BitJob’s project because it caters to the needs of students globally, letting them earn extra money to support their academic expenses. At the same time, students will have an advanced knowledge of the flow of blockchains, bitcoins, and digital currency; among others. They believe that bitJob does not only exist to generate revenue but also to help people realize their potentials around the world. The concept is likewise strongly believed to help students get jobs even if they do not have as much experience as the pros. The opportunity will also let them gain work experience and beef up their portfolios which can be used for future collaborations.
3. Atlant
Start Date: September 07, 2017
Price Per Token: 1 ETH=505 ATL
1 BTC= 7146.49 ATL
1 LTC= 111.75 ATL
1 ZEC= 359. 36 ATL
1 ETH= 505 ATL
1 BCC= 931.51 ATL
Total USD: 1 913 286. 79
Total Coins: 3 246 297. 31
Description:
Atlant is the world’s first real estate blockchain platform with 2198 total investors as of today. Its platform focuses on addressing two among the major problems in real estate: Tokenized Ownership and the global P2P Rentals. The Tokenized Ownership contains the listing of real estate tokens which represents the shares of the individual’s real estate assets. This further extends to the liquid trading of those individuals that are set in a transparent and orderly way of the market along with price discovery. Meanwhile, the P2P Rentals is concerned on the reduction of fees both for the tenant and the lessor. This also minimized forged ratings and fake reviews that plaque the web.
Atlant has six major features which include assurance, price discovery, accessibility, liquidity, low fees, and immutability. The blockchain technology provides guarantees on rental agreements and asset ownership thru tamper-proof decentralized store of records. More so, one great thing with real estate assets that are tokenized under Atlant, is that all are freely tradeable and ready for digital asset exchanges. Every investment in Atlant is denominated in divisible tokens which allow users to diversify their holdings as well as invest with modest portfolio size.
Another amazing feature of Atlant as an upcoming ICO is its liquidity which allows buyers and sellers to trade property tokens without resulting to any substantial changes in the prices of each asset. Additionally, smart contracts eliminate overhead costs which allows users to pay substantially lower commissions on rental and purchase transactions. Lastly, blockchain confirms all transaction settlement and ratings which cannot be modified by anyone for the purpose of eliminating disputes and improving market efficiency.
What people say:
Many people praise the services of Atlant for helping them invest, rent, and trade at the same time in the real state. Further, this allows them to buy and sell parts of a company by trading stocks with transparency through a decentralized exchange. Even if they don’t have enough money, Atlant allows them to diversify their investment portfolio in buying a house along with an office building at any parts of the world. Atlant had been also quoted and praised by people regarding its stellar team who make sure that businesses happen in real-time.
4. Etherparty
Start Date: October 01, 2017
Price Per Token: 1 FUEL= $0.10 USD
Description:
Etherparty is a user-friendly smart contract compiler and a wizard that aims to remove the complexity of creating, managing and executing smart contracts on any blockchain. It’s a legitimate ICO opportunity which can make a lucrative return on investment. Etherparty is originally a product of The Vanbex Group, which is a member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance or EEA that connects to Fortune 500 companies.
Etherparty’s ICO will be more robust starting this month and up until October. Etherparty will be beneficial on peer to peer escrow contracts, sports wagering, token creation, supply chain management, real estate agreements, and contractor agreements. Indeed, there’s no limit on what you can do to explore on smart technology.
Etherparty has four admirable features such as a template library, continuous security testing, drag and drop contract builder and a fully managed platform. With the use of the template library, users are able to create customized contract templates along with a guided contract wizard. Additionally, Etherparty has an advanced security protocol in place which enables the ICO to perform security tests on all contracts before putting it out in the template library. This becomes fully functional with the help of source security experts who fully audit Solidity code on custom contracts. Plus, Etherparty features a drag-and-drop functionality from the side panel toolbar. Moreover, the fully functional platform gives users proper monitoring on the entire process.
What people say:
Among the advantages of Etherparty includes having partnered with Enterprise Ethereum Alliance that has a solid team and vision. Likewise, the FUEL of Etherparty had been priced more than $0.10 on exchanges. There are also products already in place as well as it offers an excellent investment opportunity where a token is to be sold at a minimum of only $1 USD. Just like other ICOs, Etherparty has its disadvantages and that is having a short presale period that ends on the 15th of September.
5. Science Blockchain
Start Date: September 11, 2017 16:00 UTC
Price per Token: $1 USD= SCI
Soft Capacity: 50 000 000 USD
Hard Capacity: TBA
Total Maximum Capacity: Unknown
Total Tokens in Circulation: Unknown
Description:
Science Blockchain is one of America’s most successful incubators with a vision of providing benefits to token holders from access to a stream of new tokens from the carefully incubated portfolio companies. Science Blockchain started in 2011 where it invested and co-founded more than 70 companies. Blockchain wants to use their expertise to help the best blockchain entrepreneurs in building the software giants of the future.
Science Blockchain believes that blockchain is the next major platform of the future and has the ability to change social and business structures. Thus, they are helping many of the companies’ long journey to success through setting up their businesses. This all happens through the goal of Science, Inc. in launching a fund for blockchain startups which aims to raise money through an ICO for up to $100 million worth, and here it is, the Science Blockchain.
What people say:
Science Inc. is one of the most successful companies with a proven track record that is expected to carry on its legacy for years to come. Many people believe that Science Blockchain will reach the same success with its founding company and get back 10, 50, or even more than 100 times its initial investments. More so, blockchain is far way better than traditional investment making the realization of gains much lower in the blockchain space. Science targets ICOs with the highest percentage of profits making it one of the most lucrative investments of the year. Meanwhile, the only negative aspect of the Science Blockchain as per observation is that their ICO blockchain project is solely for their company which precipitated doubt and uncertainty in the market.
6. LAToken
Start Date: (Round 2) September 5-12
(Round 3) September 19-26
Price per Token: 1 LAT=0.0011 ETH (Round 2)
1 LAT=0.0013 ETH (Round 3)
Maximum Capacity: 1 000 000 000 LATO/LAT
Description:
LAToken is an ICO which makes use of cryptocurrencies in the real economy through making real assets that are tradable in crypto. This allows for the diversification of cyrptoholders’ portfolios in such a way that it gets exposed to real assets. The cryptoholders buy real assets using cryptocurrencies, while the asset owners then unlock the asset’s value through selling their tokenized fractions to the cryptoholders.
LAToken is otherwise called as LATO or Liquidity Asset Token. It has a unique marketplace which allows people to take a liquid asset and at the same time sell fractional ownership over the blockchain. LAToken has four core products such as the marketplace, LAT Wallet, Liquidity Token, and the Token Assets Exchange.
The LAToken ICO marketplace processed more than 1000 home equity loans after its launch date in 2013. While LAT Wallet had been launched June this year, the Liquidity Asset Token is still on the testing phase on Hyperledger and Etherum. Lastly, the Token Assets Exchange is still undergoing a development process.
What people say:
LAToken advantages include having smaller transaction fees and costs which seem to attract small investors. Its processes are fairly unique and easy to adapt into such as enabling the investors to sell the asset-backed tokens even on the secondary market, etc. Moreover, LAToken offers a wide and unique variety of options in buying and selling real-life assets leaving people with many options and allowing them to choose the best fit for them. The options do not just cover real estate but also publicly traded shares and works of arts.
However, some recognizable disadvantage of LAToken is having too many unanswered queries and the company does not hold any liability if in case something goes out of place. More so, LAToken does not specify any requirements to be approved as a LAToken- custodian.
To amplify the excitement, here's another ICO coming in October:
HireMatch
Start Date: October 01, 2017
Price per Token: 1800 HIRE Per ETH
Description:
HireMatch ICO is your best bet if you’re on the lookout for speedy acquisition, lower costs, top matches for hires, and a better overall quality of an application. It’s the first ever decentralized application that is developed to remove the costs and friction of third party intermediaries. These third party intermediaries include expensive recruiters and agencies which serve as the middlemen in searching for talent.
You can keep up and cope with the raging war of talents with HireMatch specifically for its being cost-effective in line with the recruitment process - prospecting, interviewing and acquiring new employees using the what the company calls “HIRE” or ERC20. They have a system in place wherein you receive remuneration for helping others find jobs in the platform as well as paying the companies who hire employees inside HireMatch.
HireMatch has four incredible features such as being smart and contract-powered, as well as having an open API, indirect profit sharing, and crowd power value. Each posted job has the right to be published as a Smart Contract which awards the final bounty to every agent who helped the applicant land the job. Meanwhile, the open API will enable them to use innovative applications and processes in order to deliver the topmost candidates via referrals and validation. Once a year, HIreMatch ICO buys profits from the last financial year and sell its tokens to companies and recruiters. Crowdsourcing is used to harness the creativity and competitive spirit of all people through HireMatch that takes part in lowering the acquisition costs.
What people say:
HireMatch ICO is a great company with a definitive goal. For most people, HireMatch is a valuable entity as it lowers the fees in the recruitment and selection process by getting rid of third party agencies. The search interface is also pretty customizable, interactive, and user-friendly. The use of blockchain also allows them to have a large database of skilled individuals allowing employers wide range of options in a highly competitive and robust market. This is definitely a win-win setup for both job applicants and employers who are groping the marketplace for the right match. Plus, the overall site design and functionality is neat, clean, and seamless.
HireMatch also has highly reputable supporting parties that are dubbed as A-listers in the industry. It also has active social links, which keep their investors in-the-know of the latest trends. The only downside of using HireMatch is its limited payment options.
ICOs Are Here To Stay!
The whole pyschobabble regarding the ICO mania is real. The coins on top of all other coins are some concept you can bank on these days.
What is it with this new bank concept that fuels the ongoing madness on ICOs? Unboxing the power of ICOs has revealed its unrivaled significance in business and the global economy now and in the coming years.
The core of ICO is to level the playing field and keep it all competitive yet fair. Businesses like the idea of an economic facelift that also guarantees major uplifts on their investments. With that in mind, the pressure is mounting for ICOs to keep up with the demands and meet expectations as they move past the hype of things.
Yes, it’s an entirely new ballgame indeed with the arrival of Cryptocurrency and blockchain – especially because it comes with an epic tagline of being the “currency of the future.”
The crypto world has expanded and it has become the fastest funding slingshot for many businesses today. It’s a cycle but it's all in for the long haul. There is a reason for the crypto mania indeed. Calculated investments make up that ideal passive income or "making money even while you are in snooze".
Think about this - Why should you remain to be a hamster on the wheel when you can in fact be your own bank and boss your finances around.
Why wait? Just do it.