When January 1, 2017 finally found the calendar, less than 1% of the earth's population knew what an I.C.O. meant, stood for, or represented. One might say outside of head hardened hodlers and crazy christened crypto community, that it was nearly a brand new term that stood for initial coin offering (obviously similar to the initial public offering).
Before we dive into our fortune favors the bold formulated ICO rating system, we have also assembled an initial coin offering calendar list below who share new, active and upcoming token sales for all major and deserving alternative cryptocurrency coins and projects.
Now, a little judicial justice needs to be brought to the forefront by bringing up the recent past history just to put everything into perspective. Jan 1, coinmarketcap.com was a mere $17.7M and now mid-Sept 2017 it has blossomed to over $127.7M.
In 9 quick months, that's a 7x growth to date (also BTC @ $1,000 USD compared to $4,000+ and ETH @ $8 USD compared to $300+ according to coinbase.com) and has many more advancements and agendas to be fulfilled in the future.
Now, it might be one of the fastest growing search terms of the entire year as Initial Coin Offering (spin off from Initial Public Offering) cryptocurrency projects have exploded, but the real keys to make sure you pinpoint before getting big eyed and gullible profitability hopefulness.
Which ICO Ranking Factors & Features Matter Most?
There are 7 major mind opening questions to get answers for to start down a path of invest into ICO speculation or superior promise.
No matter how jaw dropping a trendy slogan or catchy proposition, these are the seven investment parameters and research initiates to make sure you follow through with:
Personnel (team, credibility, track record, history)
Whitepaper (fundamental purpose, vision, mission & story timeline)
Coin Supply (pre mined, capped, limited, what are the investor confidence metrics in place)
Thoughtout Realistic Timeline (path to the promise product, service for optimal output and growth opportunity)
Use Cases (how practical is the application to be used, its tradable value and unique selling claim to fame)
Communication Channels (social media, slack, forum, email, phone, updated blog, public events, tradeshows, advertising)
Rules, Laws & Regulations (make no mistake about it, the legal ramifications are largely in the shadows to date, so those who have the strongest chances of survival in these ICO crowdfunding game are the ones with the best legal and compliant operations running)
Why Put The Time Into Reviewing ICO Cryptocurrencies?
While this may seem like a daunting uphill task to follow through with, it can put much more emphasis on informed and educated decisions about investing fiat into what some might consider pre-done pre-setup products and services in these ICO token sales.
Hype can sell, but ultimately value-added game-changing life-altering products, programs and platforms will reap the biggest rewards when it comes to flipping these 'penny stock' equivalent cryptocurrency tokens.
In light of this new phenomena in the bitcoin blockchain currency space, there have been a bunch of new websites and services to get all of your favorite crypto news, updates and advancements.
How To Rank & Rate The Best ICO Tokens
Above we gave you the top 7 aspects and elements that need deeper examination for proper investing research. There is a lot of buzz going around these days as it pertains to Initial Coin Offerings and is easy to get caught up in "the next best thing" and the "latest greatest enhancement" but having these benchmarks and bulletpoints will help eliminate poor choices and decisions regarding investing in initial coin offering tokens.
These events are where new startup companies try to raise as much money as possible (through cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum) to get their company's concept off the ground. Many of these startups are tech companies that develop new platforms for cryptocurrencies to be used to make transactions easier and more secure, without burdensome regulation from governmental agencies.
It is easy to see where problems can arise from these Initial Coin Offerings, though. What if the people involved in the company have bad reputations? What if their business model is not sustainable? What if its all just hype and no substance? These are all very real risks that prospective investors have to keep in mind before jumping into a new company's Initial Coin Offering.
Luckily for those prospective investors out there, I am here. I utilize a very thorough analysis method to look through every nook and cranny of a company and its Initial Coin Offering to see if it is worth investing in. No stone is left unturned and if there is any indication that a company may end up failing, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will point it out.
Now, I am sure you are interested in what my "thorough analysis method" consists of. Follow me, as I give you a peak under the hood of my review process.
Determine The Coin Offering Investment Risk First
You would think that determining the risk of the investment would be one of the last parts of my analysis. Nope! It is the first. This is because it is the most important metric and I know how busy investors are.
They may not have time to dig through an entire analysis so I make sure to give the information they need the most in the beginning.
Anyways, I determine the risk of the investment by looking at various aspects of the company and its Initial Coin Offering:
The group of people involved in the business and its ICO. Most importantly, any founders, co-founders, CEOs, etc.
The ICO's White Paper - this is basically a detailed mission statement describing what the business is supposed to do and how the investor's investment will be used on the platform. This is usually done through exchanging the investor's cryptocurrencyinvestment for currency that can only be used on the platform.
Minimum Viable Product - this can often be the difference between a successful company and a failure. It does not cost much to produce the Minimum Viable Product which means there will be more supply than demand most likely. If a company fails to adjust this and has no plan to increase demand, the company itself will go belly-up.
The legality of the business. Look, no investor wants to put their money into a business that will be shut down by the government for operating outside of the law. I would surely hope that any business that does an ICO has a legal team on standby to deal with any potential legal problems they may encounter.
The businesses and individuals they are partnered with. If a company is affiliated with any business or individual that has a notoriously bad reputation (no matter the industry), that definitely makes the investment more risky.
The individuals that they receive advice from. I take a good look at who the company says are their consultants and advisers. The same principle for partners applies for advisers. If the advisers are notorious for bad business practices - that could definitely reflect on the new business and it certainly makes the investment a bigger risk.
If all six of these facets of a company and their ICO check out without any issues, I would conclude that there will not be a whole lot of risk involved in contributing to that company's ICO.
Of course, there is risk involved with any and all investments, but if the company passes my test, then any risks involved would be market-based risks that can't really be avoided or predicted. If the business does not pass my test, said business is most likely fraudulent and you should not invest a single penny in it.
Listen To The Buzz Surrounding The ICO Second
After I determine the investment risk involved with a business, I look at how much buzz their ICO is generating. If they are generating a lot of buzz and have a lot of people on social media talking about them, it indicates an effective marketing campaign.
In addition to that, it indicates that they have an idea that a lot of people would be interested in. And of course, those interested people would most likely include some very wealthy investors looking to get a piece of that pie.
When you have more investors interested in a business idea, it makes the idea look better and more profitable, which drives more investors to invest in it. If an idea is getting no attention from investors or the public, it is in the indication that the business did not have an effective marketing campaign and that people are not sold on whatever idea they are trying to pitch.
When I determine how much buzz a business is getting, I look at the following things:
How many followers that they have on their social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
How many times their business has been featured in the media (such as a tech startup being written about on a tech media site like TechCrunch or Gizmodo)
Can I search for their business and find it easily on Google?
How many hits their main website receives
The most desired outcome for a business would be if they are able to check all four of the above boxes. They would need to have a large social media following, receive plenty of attention from relevant media publications, be easily visible on search engines like Google, and receive plenty of daily hits on their website.
Look At The Business Idea First And Potential Last
This is where I determine if a business and its idea will continue to be profitable for a long time. This is a very important thing to discern because not a lot of people want to invest in something that will have a quick boom and then fade into obscurity.
Thankfully, you can prevent yourself from falling into a trap like that by taking a look at how I determine the long-term profitability of a business and its idea. This determination is based off of several conditions:
Does the business have the right model to be able to sustain growth over time?
How well thought out is their financial strategy?
Does this business have any competitors? If so, how have they set themselves apart from the competition? Do they have a plan to adapt for future competitors as well? If a business cannot be competitive, it will not last long.
Again, I take a closer look at the individuals involved in the business to see what experience they bring to the table. If the group is full of people who have no business experience, it could definitely hinder the long-term performance of a business. Being a good software engineer does not necessarily translate to being a good businessman.
These are four very important facets of a business that any business should consider before kick starting their ICO. Initial Coin Offering raters like myself will definitely scrutinize these before giving our stamp of approval.
Investors will also look at these before deciding to pledge their money to the project, especially now that I am telling them that it is important to do so.
Initial Coin Offering Calendar List Ranking Sites
We wanted to take some of the search guesswork out of your way and compile a list of the top ICO websites to follow and keep tabs on for future references and bookmarking.
As of right now, these initial coin offering websites are in no particular order but in due time will be reexamined and ranked accordingly for timeliness, appearance and how frequently updated (as we are in a rapidly evolving space).
Most Popular Initial Coin Offering List Services:
TokenMarket.net
CoinSchedule.com
ICOrating.com
FoundICO.com
ICOAlert.com
ICODaily.net
ICOTimeLine.com
ICO.info
That is a solid list so you don't ever miss the next big ICO or the latest greatest initial coin offering investment opportunity.
Things To Remember
We are just one team who happens to deeply analyze businesses who are looking to launch an Initial Coin Offering. Biases aside, we like to think that our process is pretty thorough and does not leave a lot of room for debate or complaints about being unfair from businesses.
That said, if you do disagree with any of standards and researched reviews (we have 1,000s now), please feel free to voice it below in the comments. And for investors who do not think we are thorough enough in the analysis provided, suggestions are always welcome. We read and reply to every email that warrants one as well as commenting back on opinions and statements left below.
What we have assimilated here today is to install confidence and a semi-structured cryptocurrency checklist and curriculum of necessary components and features/factors a solid and sound investment should have. Everything we find is consolidated to help the search process become faster, and advice for prospective investors should be taken as a stepping stone and not a final verdict when attempting or choosing to buy into a new initial coin offering, no matter how proven or exciting it may sound on the surface.
ICO Rating System Conclusion
While rules, regulations and near-inevitable 3rd party oversight looms in the background of uncertainy, one thing remains, initial coin offerings are rivaling the traditional methods of crowdfunding and fundraising tactics and is showing no signs of slowing down especially when they should be adaptable to whatever new laws and legal obstacles ultimately get handed down.
This guide is far from done, as we will keep chiseling a final sculpture for how to best invest into ICO opportunities and which initial coin offering tokens actually past the test to stand above the rest. For further reading, please make sure you read our Bitcoin Fundamental Analysis, Technical Analysis and Technical Indicators here.