It can happen to anyone, you have a great idea. An idea, that could change the world..

Inspired by its world-changing potential, you set out to realize your dream, with the intent of making the world a better place of course. While dreams may be free, for the realization of those dreams you might need a team, a product, and office. And these come with a price — A price that you may not be able to pay yourself. In other words, you need to acquire some funding…

Funding brings together ideas with the means to realize them: money. It is the backbone of progress and innovation and ultimately improves our daily lives.

Like many things, the process of funding has undergone a dramatic change in the last century.

While once exclusive for banks and the elite, the 20th century brought venture capital firms that made funding available to a much larger audience.

Venture Capitalists

Financing and nurturing startup companies in exchange for equity quickly lead to large returns. With public successes such as Apple, Google and Facebook, the VC industry experienced dramatic growth. The increasing popularity of the internet caused venture capital to reach its peak in March of 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble.

Crowdfunding

Mainstream internet usage also allowed another type of funding to thrive, crowdfunding.

Funding was now made available to anyone with access to the internet, through platforms such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe. With hundreds of new campaigns being launched daily, the trend resulted in numerous successfully completed fundraisers.

And with good reason! In addition to access to low-cost capital, crowdfunding provides direct feedback from potential customers and increases marketing exposure.

Perhaps one of the most important crowdsale campaigns to ever be completed took place between July and August 2014.

ICOs and The Blockchain

An idea that was proposed in late 2013 by Vitalik Buterin, a cryptocurrency researcher and programmer, would completely change the crowdfunding landscape.

The Ethereum network, which went live in July 2015, enabled anyone to create and sell their own value tokens within a secure blockchain environment.

A token is a transferable unit of value, managed by a piece of code called a smart-contract. It can represent equity in the company or allow the owner of the token access to a system for example.

This new type of crowdfunding is referred to as an Initial Coin Offering, or an ICO. With no requirement for a middleman, a platform, or even a care for national borders — ICOs have quickly grown to account for more startup funding in blockchain-based companies than all of Venture Capital.

Venture Capitalism in The Blockchain?

A great opportunity for investors and startups! And scammers..

While the absence of a middleman or a platform reduces costs, it can also take the professionals out of the equation. Where a Venture Capitalist looks after its investment and makes sure that a plan is executed, an ICO startup does not always have as much oversight. This could leave investors unprotected and can expose them to unforeseen risks and financial losses.

So What is The Next Innovation in Funding?

How about a Hybrid that combines the best parts of crowdfunding with Venture Capital, while at the same time leveraging blockchain technology? Learn more at https://www.dcorp.it

With much appreciation and special thanks to Ruben Stranders and Mike Balagna.