With open source software like Linux for servers, WordPress for blogs or Bitcoin crypto currencies all it takes is a slightly tech savvy person to read the instructions, host their own copy and viola! Something new exists.
With an ICO or Initial Coin Offering this is really no different than an entrepreneur with a dream to change the world downloading a copy of Facebook (bitcoin) then spamming his LinkedIn contacts to raise tens of millions of dollars all because he worked out how to setup a social network (blockchain) probably adding extra words like Facebook for cat people, runners or mexicans.
Now if you have seen the movie Wolf of Wall Street you might remember this:
This is like a new ICO or as the wolf of wall street puts it “Aerotyne International is a cutting-edge tech firm out of the Midwest, awaiting imminent patent approval on a new generation of radar equipment…”
The idea behind penny stocks and ICOs are very similar. You take something that is practically an unregulated security, sell it to whoever is willing to give you money, sell as hard as you can to make the charts look good then when you decide, sell and collect profits leaving everyone else will a broken dream of being the next bitcoin millionaire.
No some of you might be thinking “but some of them work right? I read stories about them all the time” You read stories of people winning the lottery all the time too but that doesn’t exactly help does it. Do any of these people really understand next generation radar equipment? No but it sounds good and sales men play to a buyers sense of greed.
Can you get rich with ICOs?
You can get rich walking into a casino with a dollar and finding the perfect slot machine, or with $1 million and putting it all on red. In my opinion for the average person the odds, just like in the video clip, are very much stacked against your favor.
There is no way I can recommend buying or selling for this simple reason, nobody can predict the future. Personally I think China is mostly behind the price of Bitcoin because of their love of debt due to their “do anything for an advantage” mentality and their enormous incentive to get money our of the reach of their communist overlords that in case of emergency literally ensure their own survival before that of the people who earned the money, a scary prospect to be dealing with when your grandparents experienced government caused famine.
Perhaps if you want something more solid to research, look for growth in transaction number and number of every day sized transactions. Learn how much mining power a coin needs to survive. Study events like Mt Gox shutdown and if you have not already, work out 2 or 3 ways to buy and sell on a whim for when the big obvious opportunities come along.
