What are ICOs and how can I get involved?

ICOs are the latest crowdfunding campaigns, enabling cryptocurrencies to raise a reasonable amount of money before hitting the market and becoming mainstream on exchanges. This article aims to shed light on a couple of ways that a layman could get involved in ICOs for long-term investment.

What does ICO stand for and what do they do?

According to the gist of the ICO definition, an Initial Coin Offering is an essential fundraising strategy for new projects built on blockchain. The funds are collected in digital currencies from several participants who are then rewarded by being offered a share in the project; they can also hold the coins for trading purposes and sell them at a profit when the prices go up. These projects are mostly built on the Ethereum blockchain.

So in simple terms, it’s just a transition to the already available crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter.

The project is developed by using the funds collected in an ICO and the fate of these newly created digital tokens is decided on the basis of its performance after being listed on an exchange.

If you want to get involved by investing in an ICO, it could be risky if you don’t research the project well enough. Some ICOs are vulnerable to scams, with some traders having lost their money to ponzi schemes, but it must be noted that not all of them are alike.

It takes research to differentiate between a valid token and the sugar-coated one. Investors should first thoroughly read the white paper and analyze if their business model satisfies the logic and basic principles of wealth creation in the modern economy. The second important aspect is to see if their team consists of reputable professionals by going through their social media profiles.

It is worth noting that there are no checks and balances on the ICOs because cryptocurrencies are not regulated in most of countries; people take advantage of this by simply creating an attractive website, collecting a few dozen Bitcoin or Ethereum through ICOs and disappearing from the scene. Evaluating the roadmap of the project is also an essential point in the checklist before making an investment.

Where to buy ICOs

At the stage of an ICO, you cannot buy the token directly from an exchange. In fact, you need to have any of the two major cryptocurrencies, ETH (Ethereum) or BTC (Bitcoin). Once you have that in your wallet, just go to the ICO’s website and determine the amount it costs in BTC or ETH to get a particular stake in the project. If you already know which ICO to buy, you can directly visit the project’s website and buy it from there, or you can visit any ICO token exchange if you don’t have a clue as to which coin to invest in.

How to buy ICO tokens

Even if you are a newbie, the procedure is fairly simple. The first thing is to get yourself registered on the website of the project you want to invest in. Every legitimate and high profile ICO has a website where they state their objective, vision, crowd-funding details and roadmaps. Once you are registered, you need well-established digital currencies—like Bitcoin or Ethereum—to buy the ICO tokens. We advise that you buy ETH or BTC from reputable exchanges to avoid any loss. After purchasing these currencies, it is recommended to store them in your private wallet rather than the one provided by the exchanges. Your tokens are only secure if you keep them under your own control, and private wallets are the best place to do that. Now that you have registered yourself and own the required digital currency, you can simply trade them for ICOs.

Digital currencies can’t be recovered once lost, so make sure that you register on the same website and send your money to the exact wallet address. Once you are done with the process, you will receive your newly purchased ICO directly to your wallet address in a few days, depending on the procedures of the ICO.

Are you ready to start investing? Take a look at this latest initial coin offering list to view some of the best upcoming ICOs.

References:

https://cointelegraph.com/ico-101/how-to-buy-ico-tokens-beginners-guide#1-register-for-an-ico-through-the-projects-website