Stop spending stupid money on ICO's

Since I discovered the magical world of crypto trading I was instantly fascinated by this new financial market that was emerging. A few years back I started out with just a handful of coins in my trading bags, while I educated myself on blockchain technology and the amazing potential it had for the future. Decentralized financial systems, shared storage, anonymous payments it was an eye opener, to say the least. I started investing about 10% of my income into crypto and soon enough reaped the benefits from my long term investments, while I backed amazing projects in the process. Without “tooting my own horn” here, I am pretty amazed how I was able to turn $100 into six figures over the past years. Soon enough my friends and family joined in on the action and as time passed I started to hear more people daily talking about new “promising” crypto coins. A new era was born and virtual coin trading is nowadays attracting more investors every day.

However, becoming a crypto trader was not the only thing that grew in popularity. Behind every coin there is a project. Blockchain technology is the new kid on the (tech) block, and boy is he popular. It seems like every day new projects are launched, backed by blockchain technology. A lack in resources quickly introduced a new hype in the world of crypto; The ICO. In 2013 the first ICO was held by Mastercoin. Soon enough Ethereum followed in 2014, and many more after that. As of May 2017 there were about 20 ICO’s per month that could generate up to $35 million in funding (Brave). The peak was soon reached when Tezos reached a $232 million funding (without having a platform or any MVP)

Personally, I have nothing against ICO’s. I believe that if there is a solid idea, team to back up the project and a clear vision of the future, certain projects can definitely use the funds to realize new innovations. However, the situation is getting out of hand fast, and slowly destroying the crypto economy. The reason why is quite simple. Stupid money is being invested into ICO’s that never turn into real projects. And even if they do turn into real projects, the project itself is either not profitable, not being developed further or it turns out it made no sense to back it by blockchain technology in the first place.

Let’s be honest here, we do NOT need every industry to run on blockchain technology. Do we really need decentralized social platforms? Do we really want our dental records on the blockchain? Are we really gonna buy our products on decentralized marketplaces? Or my latest favourite; are we really gonna fund upcoming celebrities? (for those with really stupid money TokenStars is your ICO). Just to help you out here, NO we do NOT need every industry to jump on the blockchain hype. In my opinion, 95% of all upcoming ICO’s will only function as a big black hole into which your (hard earned) money will disappear. Of course, we should back great projects with funding to support innovation. But please do your due diligence! Read up on the industry in which the project will operate. Is there a need for their solution? Is the team capable of delivering the work? Does the project make sense? Is there a vision for the next 2/5/10 years to come?

So why am I writing this article? Just as a friendly reminder that ICO’s are not bad! It’s just that bad investors choose the wrong projects to back in the hopes of a nice ROI. It is those people that are causing a bubble and creating a risky market to trade in. We have a beautiful system in place to turn great ideas into real life projects by supporting hard working teams. We are the 1%, we are the early adopters, we are the ones that are supporting the organizations of the future. Let’s stand strong together and not ruin this market with bad investment choices. Educate yourself and your trading community and let us grow towards a brighter future.