When Publica started, an ICO was always in the plan. It’s important to let Ethereum fans get skin in the game so they can think about what it means to offer an ereader app/wallet on every app store around the world, and to talk to us so we can do an even better job in this unique kind of in-the-public-eye project, and maybe join forces in an open source ebook decryptor they can use in their own sites and projects.

Then, just as Publica’s long-planned ICO hit the ICO charts, the blockchain universe hit some rough seas. In the news — Two Bitcoin hard forks, ICO bans in some countries in contradiction to ICOs launched by other countries, confusion everywhere. ICO’s popping up at a rate of a dozen a day, and very little accredited online help to separate wheat from chaff.

StartEngine has no problem, though, they’re experts in the ICO space. Their mission is to make ICO’s a normal part of doing business. They found Publica.io, they invited CEO Josef Marc to their exclusive ICO 2.0 Summit, and Marc immediately agreed to fly from Northern Europe to California for it.

In Marc’s words, “The ICO 2.0 Summit is a very important conversation. We spent a lot of money on legal help for the Publica project, and although it was excellent help, the answers led to even more mystery in some areas. ICO’s are a great business model for companies like Publica, but they’re very difficult to do right. So I volunteered to be the poster child — or perhaps the punching bag — for the investment and legal experts invited to speak at StartEngine’s critical summit.”