ICO is a fairly new term, it stands for Initial Coin Offering and is one of the most popular methods used to raise money to help fund new cryptocurrency projects, or even other innovative projects which have a new cryptocurrency or digital token as an integral part of it. An ICO is very similar in function to an IPO (Initial Public Offering), and can also be well compared to Crowdfunding. The developing company that’s created the new cryptocurrency will set up the ICO as their launching device, and promote their project to those whom they feel would be interested in it. These are usually members of the public and even investment firms. They’ll give their money to the developing company to fund the project, and in return they’ll receive a share of the Initial Coin Offering when the cryptocurrency goes live.

This method is popular for several reasons, fundamentally it’s the fact that there is something in it for everyone. Firstly, it solves the problem of who the initial coins will be distributed to, and how that will be accomplished (initial coin distribution, a previous hurdle to new cryptocurrencies). Secondly, it also gives those who are giving their money to the project a chance to invest, and the possibility of making more money if the project goes well. Thirdly, it allows the project to raise enough money to launch.

ICO’s can be described both positively and negatively. On the negative side of things, ICO projects are well known for failures, either because it just doesn’t take off in the market for one reason or another, or because there’s another project that’s just too similar to it, that’s already well established. If this happens, then everyone that’s invested money will lose out, as the initial coins they’ve received won’t be worth anything.

However, on the positive side of things, there have been a great many successful companies that have used an ICO to initially fund themselves. Some of these are Ethereum, Iconomi, Augur, and others. Successful ICO’s often yield a high ROI because of their volatile nature — big potential for losses, high returns on successes. Here’s a list of The Top 10 ICO Campaigns of 2016, some based on their profit revenue, others from their innovation:

Golem is an example of an extremely successful ICO, having raised about $8.6 million in just a couple of hours. Its main aim is to build a P2P computing network that reaches across the globe. Blockchain data will handle the payments, and the currency is GNT tokens, the sole means of payment.

vDice used the already formed cryptocurrency of Ethereum, and is essentially a gambling platform. While funding for the project, the company raised over $1.6 million dollars. Players send ether to a smart contract, and then the smart contract pays out the rewards which are based on random numbers. The company claim to have processed over 6,000 bets to date. They are selling vSlice tokens.

The Wings ICO is now complete, but at the time of closing, they had raised an incredible $2 million dollars. The use of the platform will be to plan, launch, and manage DAOs.

Although Branche only raised $6,000 at it’s close of sale, the idea behind it is very clever. The project aims to expand banking services to communities in the US and Canada that are underserved. B2P and P2P payday lending using cryptocurrencies and smart contracts, anyone can become a payday lender.

This project earns a place in the top 10 ICO campaigns of 2016, as it strikes out as being different from other projects. Overall the project raised over $300,000 and is an online real time computer game. Players can control space craft and battle other players to have control of planets. The form of currency is Nexiums and these can be used to buy things in the game.

This crowdfunding project was started in 2016 but is ongoing, and currently has raised over £2 million, which shows it is going to be an extremely successful project at the end of the sale. Chronobank will be a platform where people can buy and sell labour with a focus on E-commerce support, cleaning, warehousing, industrial work, construction, and freelancing.

This campaign raised over $300,000 at the close of sale, and as the name suggests, is a content distribution network with a built in training platform. It is built on the Ethereum blockchain which allows for direct payments.

Ark almost made it to a million dollars and is a Lisk-forked cryptocurrency. It has the ability to track across blockchains, use a smartcard as a means of payment, and IPFS (the The InterPlanetary File System) integration.

The ICO of this company was set up to help raise the funds to build a platform that will allow developers to build customizable SQL database dapps that they can use for their companies. Their first product was dappsheets, and will eventually be built on several blockchains including that of the popular Bitcoin.

Arcade City is a blockchain based sharing economy that raised an impressive $635,000 at the sale’s conclusion. Although currently the service they provide is ride sharing, they hope to soon move to delivery services, and short term home rentals.

There are many ICO’s that have appeared over the few short years that they’ve been around, many of which have been extremely successful and helped their company/project become what it is today. In the future it’s likely that many more ICOs will be set up to help fund projects, as they have a lot of potential in the digital world. This style of traditional funding is showing no levels of stopping as the blockchain space is evolving quicker and quicker. There may be some exciting things on the horizon!