Even though, blockchain has gained recognition and hype because of bitcoin and many startups has praised the idea of having an initial coin offering (ICO) after Ethereum’s success. Back in 2014, Ethereum launched world’s first ICO to raise funds that went successfully with funds equal to $18439086 in 2014. Today, after bitcoin, ETH is the most hyped and used cryptocurrency in the world. Ever since then, many startups launch their ICOs but the problem is many of these ICOs are fraud. So, how are you going to know which ICO to opt to get a good return on your investment? Well, in this article, I am going to reveal some secrets that you need to know about ICOs before you engage in any or invest your money. Let’s first start with the basics!

Before we jump into the details and swim through the technicalities like what makes an ICO successful and how it works; it is crucial that first, we learn what it is basically. An ICO or Initial Coin Offering is a way that startups using blockchain technology use as a mean to raise funds to start their project development by selling their special crypto tokens. The ICO led by startups has become an eye-catching way for investors to bag profit, however, many people are not truly aware of the mechanism of ICO and other misunderstood crypto market as something just like the stock market. However, they both are different at their very core.

How an ICO Works?

If you are reading this article, then you are either an individual seeking guidance to start his ICO or one willing invest to get rich. Whatever your reason may be, gaining knowledge about the latest There is no rocket science behind how an ICO works, you share your idea, investors start investing, you initiate project development and investors start to get a return. Too simple! Isn’t it? however, there are some preconditions that must be met in order for your startup to be eligible to start its ICO.

Pre-Conditions for ICO

Following are the crucial points to take into consideration while preparing to launch your initial coin offering and convert your dream project into a reality:

1. Present Project Blueprint

First of all, in order to start your own ICO, you must have at least ten to thirty pages whitepaper that is concise and clear. The whitepaper must present your idea of the project with full transparency including your planned token distribution and token acquisition details. Make sure, you state your softcap and hard cap that you are targeting to achieve while your token sale lasts. Be as transparent as you can to reflect a positive image through the whitepaper.

While you are at preparing your whitepaper to make sure, you do your complete and in-depth research of the competitive market that you wish to enter in because in order to have a successful ICO you must disrupt the current trend. If your project is innovative and acknowledging a shortcoming and failing of your current competition, then you will have a good chance to have a successful ICO. People love innovation and want to have something new, therefore it is optimal that you work on these points.

Furthermore, when your writing and technical team is busy preparing the whitepaper to keep a close eye on the facts and answer the objections to your features and project that can be raised by the reader. When you answer the potential objection yourself then the audience see through your eyes and doesn’t have any other reason left to defy you.

2. Choose Co-Founders, Team & Advisors

Having a great and experienced team onboard is a plus point beyond your imagination. Make sure you choose your co-founders wisely, that believe in the idea of the project and are equally driven to put their effort to make the project a success. You along with your co-founders will become the brand image for your initial coin offering, so you all must be prepared to stay on the same page and present a positive persona to the audiences.

Similarly, you should also invest some time while hiring your team members as they will be under a close scrutiny from experts and investors alike during the token sale. Having an expert team that is comfortable and know the drill of their genre perfectly will present a strong brand image backed by equally strong team players. All your team members should be equally excited and willing to work their best to make not only the token sale successful but also be able to gain faithful supporters as well as connect with the audiences. Their communication skills will come to the ultimate test once your token sale starts, so make sure you give them any needed training to understand and gauge the project’s essence completely.

Besides your co-founders and team players, it is vital that you look for expert help. Choose good advisors who are expert in their field. You must have a blockchain expert, cryptoanalyst, financial expert etc. Don’t just take these people on-board with the intention to put an illusion in audience’s mind that you are a strong and legit startup but actually become one by taking their advice throughout your token sale and project development. Moreover, try not to attract advisors by luring them to give them a decent amount of your tokens instead persuade them by sharing your vision and project innovation because it will go a long way.

3. Roadmap & Social Footprint

Your roadmap is another important part of your project. People like projects that plan and strive to achieve their goals with full swing. If a startup does not know what are their timelines to achieve certain milestones, then how can they initiate a complete project? Answer this question and you will be good to go. However, while preparing your roadmap, make sure you keep your timelines realistic and try to stick to the planned dates. If you keep your dates and goals unrealistic then you will end up getting devastated by the constant failure. As a result, you will also receive negative criticism and your overall capability to complete your project will become doubtful.

Besides your roadmap, your social appearance holds great value. In order to gain a good amount of supporters, make your startup’s account on all major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, Reddit and Twitter. Keep your social platforms active and reflect a decent image through your posts. You should also start your startup’s Medium publication and publish quality and value-driven content there to spread brand awareness. Bitcointalk forum is another crucial platform where you will be able to attract the most targeted audience to your ICO as most of the crypto and blockchain enthusiasts stay active there and follow new ICOs.

Use the social media platforms for not only spreading brand awareness but also helping to clear out people’s uncertainties about your project, a certain feature or team member. It’s a golden platform for you to turn cold leads into hot leads, so use it wisely.

4. Website Dedicated to Token Sale

Once you have a good team, advisors, and co-founder ready to represent your project, the next step is to have a transparent and smoothly working website that is dedicated solely to token sale. Some key points that you should take into consideration while designing your ICO website are as follows:

Have an explainer video presenting your project idea and unique selling propositions in less than three minutes. It will help you a lot because there are many people that don’t bother to read your whitepaper in complete but instead try to have an idea of the project by watching the video. Therefore, make sure to have an impactful video made by the experts.

All important documents must be easily accessible on your website including your business presentation and whitepaper.

One of the traits of a successful ICO is to target a global market. If you are one of them then you should have your website and all documents available in all major languages such as Japanese, Vietnamese, Russian, English, Arabic etc.

Present all your team members along with their updated LinkedIn profiles, because it is very much a possibility that your audience will do a background check of all your team players prior to investing.

Your website should be optimized with respect to the latest search engine standards and the load time should be less than 3 seconds. Moreover, your website should be able to handle the mass traffic.

Last but not the least, have a bar on your website reflecting the token sale. People love transparency. This act will boost the trust among your ICO and the potential investors.

5. Set Attributes & Create Hype

Before you start your ICO, there are a few attributes to set. These attributes include the number of tokens that you will generate. This quantity usually varies from ten to hundred million. Similarly, you must also decide what rate per token you will charge during the ICO, and what discounts you will offer to attract the investors as they are interested in acquiring the maximum return on investment.

You must also focus on creating the hype in the crypto interested market for that why not you target the crypto websites such as ICObench, TrackICO, and ICOholder to review your ICO. A good rating by these websites is a credibility in itself. Moreover, you should also start your bounty campaign that is all about incentivizing the bounty participants your crypto tokens for talking you’re your project on social media and forums.

How is ICO Different from IPO?

A common misconception is that many people think that the crypto market is just like the stock market and crypto tokens are like shares, however, it is not true. There are many factors that make the crypto market different from the stock market. First, let’s understand how the initial coin offering (ICO) is distinct from initial public offering (IPO).

The main difference between the IPO and ICO is that IPO is usually initiated when the organization is already profitable or near its success. In contrast, ICO is initiated at the start of the project by presenting mostly the idea of the project through the whitepaper. Another major difference is the regulatory requirements required by both the ICO and IPO; IPO is very strictly regulated by the government at every stage which in turn make the IPO start after completing many legal procedures whereas, an ICO is not regulated by any government and is self-regulated. For investing in an IPO a special dematerialized or DMAT account is compulsory to set up KYC whereas for investing in ICO, KYC is not mandatory since cryptocurrencies were meant to be anonymously.

However, one point to take notice, to counter money laundering following the ban in many countries, the ICOs are now adopting a new practice while launching their ICOs i.e. KYC. Before accepting any investment small or big, they do their background check to make sure they are not allowing any black money into their ICO funds. GigTricks is also one of such ICOs that are promoting the KYC practice and enforcing trust in the community by not allowing any kind of a safe haven to people with black money.

Another major difference is in the account that is required to hold the assets. For the crypto tokens, you need to have a crypto wallet (either hot or cold) while for purchasing the shares of a company a bank account is needed.

Beware — Spot Scam ICOs!

As much as the idea of investing in the initial coin offering attract everyone, there is a potential risk attached to that you might end up investing your money in a scam ICO. Are you thinking about why it is so? According to the Wall Street Journal’s report, more than 200 cryptocurrencies available belong to scam ICOs. Mind boggling figure isn’t it? Many experts say that around 80% of the ICOs that launch is a scam or don’t have proper security making investor’s money as well as their personal information prone to breach. With the crypto market crowded with scammers, it became more important to keep an eye and do research prior to associate in any ICO.

In order to stay protected and investing in only the legit ICOs, there are some key points that you should take into consideration. Read along to uncover the full information:

1. Always see the idea and vision behind the project. Any project with a shady profile has a very big chance to be a scam. Therefore, always invest in an ICO with a strong profile and innovative idea.

2. Look for the transparency if you are eyeing any ICO to buy crypto tokens. Are they transparent about the investments they are receiving? If yes! Then it’s a good sign, however, if they are reluctant in sharing details about their raised funds then chances are there may be something fishy going out there.

3. With so many scams out there, checking the legal status of the ICO becomes essential. I will advise all of you to not that 2-page legal disclaimer in the whitepaper for granted. Read it thoroughly and do your research to make sure the ICO is regulated and does not pose any threat to your assets. GigTricks ICO is registered and regulated under the laws of Gibraltar.

4. The team member of any blockchain based project is an ultimate reveal about the project’s potential and legitimacy. Check the LinkedIn profiles of team members, see their pictures and try to track them down on the social platform to see if they are actually associated with the project or not.

5. Next, check the roadmap and the whitepaper of the ICO. Any ICO that has an incomplete whitepaper and vague roadmap must be avoided.

6. ICOs that promise early ROI and guaranteed ROI, just at the start of their ICO can be a spam alert for you, so beware! Why? Because while any ICO is running their value, in general, is zero, the actual ROI that people may be subject will be reflected after the ICO when tokens list to the exchanges.

Successful Startups After ICO

The reason why it is important to research, analyze and then decide whether to invest in a particular project’s initial coin offering is that many startups fail even though they successfully raise enough funds. There are many reasons for bringing this misfortune for a startup and some of them are listed below:

1. After the token sale ends, the project founders and the team are successful in following their roadmap.

2. The Project is implemented with success.

3. The successful implementation of the project under the predefined roadmap led to the token price rise.

4. Investors are happy because the token demand has increased that is they can have a higher return on their investments.

GigTricks is a project beaming with green lights for investors. It has a clear & concise whitepaper and roadmap, an enthusiastic team, good advisory panel, an innovative project idea that has the potential to disrupt the gig industry and bring a positive revolution. It has already achieved 56% of its softcap by raising 1.39 million USD. If you want to associate yourself with a good project then buy GBTC tokens. And if you want to avail 50% discount on the GigBit Tokens then buy token before the Pre-Sale ends on 30th July 2018. Time is ticking, take action now!

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