As the cryptocurrency industry is booming financially every day, and lot of investors and traders are making profit day-in day-out taking advantage of the digital asset volatility. Many have poured out their savings to invest in one or more coins or ICOs. I have discovered that new investors in the ICOs world are still need to be educated on how to contribute in then Initial Coin Offering (ICOs).
As a new investor or potential investor that want to invest and seize the advantages in any Initial Coin Offering (ICOs), you have to know the dos and don’ts of it. So let gets started!
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Getting Started
What is ICOs?
An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a public blockchain event where anyone can invest on a particular projects through the exchange of approved cryptocurrencies by the particular ICO management e.g Bitcoin, Ethereum. Litcoin, Zcash among others for a token provided by the ICO which will be distributed to you according to your investment based on agreements. The new token to be generated by the platform represents the new platform. For example APPICC ICO which will distribute XAP token at the end of the ICO. Just as SBD and STEEM represent Steemit. Therefore the new token will represent the plaform with is applications, community, smart contract and any other activities stated in the ICO.
Numbers of ICOs are growing day to day, but not all of it are good for investment, and that is why should not just jump into investing in any ICO. Before you invest in any ICO make sure you read through what is all about and what they are out to achieve so that you will not fall a victim.
Participting in ongoing ICO is very simple, if you follow instructions given by the platform. The EThereum smart contract network has been the major platform that houses many decentralized project, but in few months after EOS has kicked off, let see which of the two will be the number choice for hosting smart contract. Recently, the first choice is still Ehereum Network.
One of the best and the easiest way to contribute to ICO is to Ether, Bitcoin or Litcoin to participate in ICO. One of my main method is contributing to ICO with Ether. That is why you need to get your hand on Ether if you want to participate in any of the ICOs. Virtually, all Initial Coin Offering accept Ethereum and Bitcoin for participation in their events.
Purchase ETH from Coinbase or exchange any other you have to ETH through exchanger like poloniex, bittrex, blocktrades.us. You can check 
Use ECR-20 Ethereum Wallet that Support ICOs (MyEther Wallet)
This is a very important point you need to understand, so that you will not lose your money. It is wrong to send ETH, BTC or LTC from an exchange wallet to participate in ICO. The reason why it is wrong is that, immediately you send your ETH to ICO address given, the ICO’s token will be assigned to the exchange ETH address private key you have used to send ETH, which will make you lose your tokens when it is time for token distribution because you would not be able to move the tokens when it I time. That means you are given out your token investment to the exchange platform that is already rich.
To save yourself from loosing your ICO token plus your investment, you need a proper Ethereum wallet that you have control over the wallet private key. I will recommend MyEtherWallet which is an open source web app, free to use. Create your Ether wallet on It and follow all security information as instructed by MyEtherWallet to secure your wallet from hackers . After you have created and secure your ETH wallet, send Ether from exchange platform to your MyEtherWallet. It will take few minutes before your ETH will appear on your wallet due to high traffic on Ethereum network, transaction is a little bit slow these days.
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How to Participate in ICO
For you to be able to participate in any ongoing ICO, you need the ICO Ethereum smart contract address. Verify their contract address on MyEtherWallet under “Send Ether and Token” section of my MyEther Dashboard after login. Then input the smart contract address of the ICO you want to participate , and indicate the amount of ether you want to spend on the ICO, and leave other fields, unless instructed by the ICO teams. That is why I said you have to follow instructions. Check your investment transaction with Etherscan or other Ethereum block explorer with your Ethereum transacton ID to verify your transaction progress.
Conclusion
It is very wrong to participate or send Ether to contribute to Initial Coin Offering through exchange wallet or unsupported wallet. The most recommended Ether wallet for smart contract for ICO contribution is MyEtherWallet. Always read carefully the instruction on every ICO pages before you participate. Know what their project will contribute and read meaning to the future of the project as it is very important.
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