## ICO
*Initial Coin Offerings* for new BlockChain projects have come in for some high profile criticism lately and investors high on *Ethereum profits* seemed to be pouring billions into record CrowdSale fundraising in an attempt to get in on the ground floor. Prices often spike then tank a as soon as the token allocation completes and exchange release happens, so quick bucks can be made by those with a very keen eye for timing and detail but often this is not the case. Time will tell whether any or all of these projects take off and / or survive. Like the *dot.com* bubble of the millennium, many did not survive, huge investment was made, some people made massive amounts of cash, walked away rich.... and lots, lost a lot of cookie dough in the process / wrote off huge sums to tax.
https://media.coindesk.com/uploads/2016/02/Screen-Shot-2016-02-24-at-10.42.13-AM-e1456328600212.png
[image source coindesk](https://media.coindesk.com/uploads/2016/02/Screen-Shot-2016-02-24-at-10.42.13-AM-e1456328600212.png)
### Survivors
Some of those projects did survive and continue to survive as thriving companies, pioneers of the internet economy. My favourites among them are still going strong today including firebox.com (great online toy shop), shootingpeople.org (the original film and TV community) Mandy.com (freelance media jobs board), lastminute.com and of course the original behemoths of *Google* (set up in 1998 on a Stanford server by Larry and Sergey,) *Paypal, Amazon & Ebay*. Would you have liked to buy shares in those companies 15-20 years ago? You'd be rich now and probably be giving workshops on investment entrepreneurship, if you could be bothered getting up off the beach.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/EBay_logo.png
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/PayPal_logo.svg/2000px-PayPal_logo.svg.png
http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/17/176060/img/logos/amazon_logo_RGB.jpg
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/google_2015_logo_detail.png
### Back to the Future, where were we, oh yes >>>
Many other more novice and part time investors have been disappointed as their 4 digit ICO investments in valuable Ethereum and Bitcoin have suddenly slumped to 3 or even 2 digit figures, rather quickly as the ICO hype and excitement dies down and one more coin is added to the thousands indexed (meanwhile the coins they spent have continued to soar in price.) That's annoying isn't it. Wouldn't it be good if there was a better way of ensuring investment had better long term ROI potential ?
There is, keep reading.
Sites like [icocountdown](http://www.icocountdown.com) can help refine the process for the smaller investor and Alex knows a thing or two about due diligence. Yes, projects do pay to be featured but ( have you seen how much they spend on banner advertising) but importantly if a project is a total donkey or Alex discovers there's reason to think it shouts **Scam-ICO*, they will flag it and that's a great contribution in the right spirit to a burgeoning sector. It's useful work and although there is some criticism thrown at them and their cohorts, it's helpful in way; providing a free and useful service for small investor / analysts to make better choices.
https://www.altcointrading.net/img/trading/icowatch.jpeg
### Throwing Money away ?
Some people reason that bitcoin profit is *easy come, easy go*, other are keen to *sell high and re-invest*, yet others are looking for a *profit share* similar to investing in stocks and shares.
### No Dividend ?
Nobody would buy stocks & shares without a dividend payout to look forward to would they ? Yes actually they might, just for the capital gain on the price. People who invest their hard earned money in places like the London Stock Exchange want a return they can bank on (in addition to the price rise) like buying and renting out a property !
https://www.stockmarketclock.com/img/exchanges/lse.png
*BrewDog's* very successful CrowdSale investment model (which was laughed out of the financial press as a novelty investment at best) proved to be a very wise choice for devoted *craft(y) ale drinkers*. The earliest investors saw BITCOIN type gains on their shares when TSG bought a 22% share in the company this year for £213m / $273m giving the investors a whopping return on their intial shares and valuing the company at a *Mike Myers, Doctor Evil* figure of **ONE BILLION DOLLARS**, even the ones who had bought in at the last round looked to triple their investment. The financial press had Royal Egg all over it's face. These shares, pay no dividend and are not openly tradeable, except once a year in a special Brewdog official share-swap period.
http://ledomestiquetours.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Brewdog-Logo-1024x478.jpg
So Crowdsales are not always to be sniffed. I must admit, I was introduced to Punk IPA by a friend at his housewarming party. I didn't (think I) particularly liked ale but this stuff was delightful and lacking the huge amounts of gas generated by lager (an important factor for a gentleman of my vintage) I found it a very satisfying drink. I thought, this stuff will do alright, so when 6 months later I got a random email asking me if I would be interested in *Brewdog*, I couldn't resist. It was that classic *Braun Shaver* moment. It was so good, I bought the company. I was so sure that it would be a rip-roaring success that I went back in for a second dip in.. oh yeah, who's laughing now ! Boom
### Anyhooo
Back to profit share models. This is what really interests me. If you make a lot of money on coins, and yes they are volatile, surely you want to invest into BlockChain projects that at least have a good idea or service behind them. When I first got really interested in coins, I used my experience as a business mentor to segueway into coin analysis. I developed a points based process to weed out the *shisters, the charlatans, the sick and the weaklings* and that way I could at least give myself justification for various choices I made. If they fell flat, I could reflect. If they did well, I knew my analysis was working and I could refine the process as I went on. I didn't particularly know who the players were in the BlockChain community, so had to rely on my own deduction based system to find the rough diamonds and as long as I was most of the time, I knew I could trust my choices.
### Analysis Model
To determine whether a coin was a good projects I would first do some research, read a white paper, do a quick SWOT analysis, then ask some searching questions. Does it have longevity potential ? what would Joe Public think, is it truly disruptive; can it undercut existing players, is there innovation in the code or construction, which branch of blockchain is it utilising; can it utilised smart contracts and a handful of other interesting aspects indicating potential for success, like does it already exist, what's the capital spending plan, are they in profit, etcetera, etcetera ... then came along the add on analysis.
http://2xxibf2a6osoa4h3v1w7wl63.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/pestle-and-swot-analysis.jpg
[image source](http://2xxibf2a6osoa4h3v1w7wl63.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/pestle-and-swot-analysis.jpg)
### Does it have a profit share ?
Here's a short selection of ICO crowdsales from this year with varying levels of capital raised and profit share. For me this is one of the most important diversification elements for a *coinfolio*. Prices cannot keep soaring and I feel that unless there is a dividend process, a lot of investment will go into the back pockets of sharks.. it is, it does and always will. It's an unregulated market so coins are getting pumped and dumped at a phenomenal rate. I hope this eventually becomes outlawed as it's destroying the ecosystem's trust basis. As the sector matures, it will undobtedly undergo reform and regulatory powers will get involved. The Wild West profits will subside but it will become a respectable sector.. Profit is a must for the future and smat cookies have realised this. Scarcity is the only real factor for a coin.. like gold or diamonds. profit share (once proven) will make tokens investable, like shares and when the hedge funds and pension funds start to *diversify* (get involved) they will want reliable and stable coin prices. profit share businesses will be the ones with long term value. biffcoin, boffcoin and sniffcoin will all but disappear. Like the poor, Ethereum will always be with us, because of the technology relying on it and bitcoin will probably always be attractive.. it's a powerful entity, but perhaps on a global scale, one day NEO the rebranded antshares will indeed steal it's crown.. Bitcoin Cash, probably not ! Thank you for reading this very detailed in depth analysis. Remember this did not write itself and has taken a long time to accumulate in my mind. I never ask for upvotes because it's crass, but if you enjoyed it, please feel free to write a comment longer than one line ! and I think if you add a comments, it's a bit rude not to add an upvote. mwah X
* MOBILE GO gaming platform raised $33m + for a fully functioningplatform & 300 + games to go **NO SHARE**
* POLYBIUS raised $25m + (enough to realise all their dreams of a fully regulated altcoin bank ! **20% PROFIT SHARE**
* SONM raised $42m + for fog computing network which can utilise a phone or console for computational tasks **PROFIT SHARE**
* CryptoPing raised a modest $2.5m to develop it's subscription intelligence signalling bot **NO SHARE**
* EthBits raised 13,786 ETH for a de-centralised trading platform **PROFIT SHARE**
* Bitdice currently in ICO stage (first week bonus = 20%) tokens **PROFIT SHARE** 70%
#### gifs from giphy.com
other images are cited where placed