ICO Watchdog Offers New Tools to Measure ICO Quality

June 7, 2018 By: Steven Anderson

The initial coin offering (ICO) is regarded by some as the greatest way to inflate your money that’s been made since the IPO back in the 1990s. For others, it’s a great way to lose whatever you invest to some kind of scam artist. While both cases have definitely happened, it’s next to impossible to tell just which is which before starting out. ICO Watchdog, meanwhile, recently dropped word our way about new tools that might help make it easier to spot a scam before it takes your cash.

The first new tool, TokenGrade, is a tool for those about to offer a new coin. Token creators can submit their whitepapers and source code for analysis, and receive reports accordingly. A token that passes muster at TokenGrade, therefore, may be able to push for higher value thanks to that pre-launch analysis. The second tool, ScamWatch, is more for the potential investor, as ICO Watchdog community members—over 50,000 at last report—report fraud in the ICO market to help keep potential investors out of such fraud.

These tools join two previous releases: a chatbot that passes on news in the cryptocurrency market and an analysis service that offers in-depth analysis on the various coins in the field as well as overall trends.

ICO Watchdog’s Shaun Newsum, its CEO and founder, noted “TokenGrade and ScamWatch are two major steps forward as we continue to legitimize the crypto space, which many people still find complex and opaque. Blockchains, along with these new tokenized economies, have incredible potential to change the way we work, play and communicate with one another — but first, people need to be able to trust the tokens they’re investing in.”

Having a safe, reliable way to spot potential problems could be a great step forward in terms of mainstreaming cryptocurrency. With scams still a risk in the field, a vetting service for crypto would certainly make it clear which currencies were comparatively safe to invest in. Comparatively, of course; anything could happen and often does. But still, it would almost be the equivalent of an Underwriters’ Labs (UL) certification on electronics; it would be welcome for the investor if nothing else.

Mainstreaming cryptocurrency requires trust in the tokens. ICO Watchdog’s plan should go quite a way toward improving that trust.