The Current State of ICOs

It is no secret that the biggest financial gains in crypto are seen in ICOs. It is not uncommon to see 5–10x investment turnover in the more popular projects. As of the time of writing, Zilliqa has returned over 12.5x on a USD basis since its ICO in early January 2018. Even in a sluggish market, these success stories are all too common.

So you might be thinking, why doesn’t everyone just throw money at ICOs and token presales? Why would we wait for coins to hit exchanges if we have to pay huge premiums once they are listed?

The answer has two parts. The most common reason is that there are an overwhelming number of scams in the crypto space. People are afraid of moving their Ether out of their own wallet and into a project’s contribution wallet because they don’t know if they can trust the team or they are unsure of how to verify that they contributed to the correct public address. The other reason, which is becoming increasingly more common, is that projects are moving away from public sales and looking toward private institutions for capital. So even if you believed in a project’s team and had the technical chops to contribute safely, there is a fairly strong chance that you would be cut be from the fund raising process anyway.

Both of these reasons are valid, and small investors should begin to wonder how exactly they are going to adapt to this critical shift in the ICO process. Luckily, ICO Pools offer an easy solution to the masses.

What is an ICO Pool

ICO Pools are managed by partners that organize the syndication of many different investor contributions. When an investor joins an ICO pool, they are allowed access to the group’s research and fund pools. An investor can decide to contribute to pools corresponding to projects that they are interested in and invest the amount that they are comfortable with.

By aggregating funds from a large group of investors, the pool will hold significant negotiating power in presales. This could potentially lead to large bonuses that often come with large contributions. Additionally, the centralization of ICO data within the group cuts down on the research load on each individual investor. Most ICO Pools charge a small management fee for each contribution (2–3%). However, the management fee pales in comparison to the opportunity cost of waiting for coins to hit exchanges. Without a doubt, ICO Pools are the strongest chance that small-time investors have to ensure their position in hyped ICOs that promise big returns.

Are ICO Pools Safe

ICO Pools solve the participation issue for every-day investors, but what about the safety issue? The truth is, there are countless numbers of ICO Pool managers that would do anything to turn a quick buck on a rookie investor, but there are a few hidden gems that take extra steps to ensure that each investor feels safe when joining their pool. When evaluating an ICO Pool, the investor should look at their group’s quality of research and whether or not the ICO Pool is Trustless or Non-Trustless.

Trustless Pools utilize smart contracts to ensure that the contributions are aggregated safely. In a Trustless Pool, management’s involvement is completely transparent and minimal. All investors place their Ether in a smart contract that displays the ICO payout address, which can be verified with ease. After the pooling process is complete, the funds are sent to the project directly, and the resulting tokens will be automatically distributed to each investor’s individual contact address. This entire process is done publicly on a blockchain and can be tracked for security/regulatory purposes.

utilize smart contracts to ensure that the contributions are aggregated safely. In a Trustless Pool, management’s involvement is completely transparent and minimal. All investors place their Ether in a smart contract that displays the ICO payout address, which can be verified with ease. After the pooling process is complete, the funds are sent to the project directly, and the resulting tokens will be automatically distributed to each investor’s individual contact address. This entire process is done publicly on a blockchain and can be tracked for security/regulatory purposes. Non-Trustless Pools do not utilize smart contracts. Instead, investors contribute directly the group’s contact address and hope their funds make it to the ICO payout address. Although you might trust the management team, you have no idea how they are handling the pooled funds (or even taking the ICO bonus for themselves).

Getting Involved

ICOs and ICO pools have a bad name, and because of this, we have decided to take matters into our own hands. Our company, Lash Pool, is a Trustless service that aims to provide ICO exposure to anybody that is interested in the area, no matter the size of their contribution. To make the process completely transparent, we decided to make our information completely available to you, and we are working tirelessly to ensure all rules and regulations are being followed.

We are currently targeting a few potential ICOs for our group’s participation, but we would love to hear your input. Join us on Discord to learn more about our community and operation.