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Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

nytimes.com

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Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#251

Post by realworldview »

ransom1538 wrote: post #75
vectorpush wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you turn eth into spendable money without a bank account?

It is a currency. You can trade it for goods or services. The idea of moving it into a national currency is what we do now because we are in the early stages. I see a future where you just pay in coin.

Hey Grandma... You're costing us too much so we're going to treating you as a currency. Climb into your trading shoes...

Better yet, I'll get you a printer and you can print me some transferable bills.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#252

Post by tryitnow »

influx wrote: post #130
jamespitts wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope that instead of slinging mud at ICOs, the YC community reaches out to firms like yours. Calling them all scams will not stop the next ICO from getting bigger. Note to blockchain-denialists: there are 10s of billions of capital, a deep enough pool for thousands of ICOs. Slinging mud will also not help make ICOs any safer, nor protect financial systems outside of blockchains from collateral damage should firms f…

Cui bono? In a world with ICO crowd funding, the roles of a VC firm like YC is greatly diminished. It's not surprising the buggy whip manufacturer is casting doubt on the dangers of the automobile.

Actually, I would imagine that the YC model would benefit greatly in a world of legitimate ICO crowdfunding. YC doesn't really make their money from deploying huge amounts of capital. In an ICO crowd funding world YC companies could focus more on product and sale and less on fundraising.

I seriously doubt the ICO market is going to be ready for prime time until a few years from now.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#253

Post by realworldview »

sleepychu wrote: post #151

Last month, a small team of computer engineers in Lithuania raised $14 million in 45 minutes by selling a coin, known as Mysterium, that is intended to give access to an encrypted online data service that is still being built. There has to be more background to this? Why would they ever bother building the service if they have the 14M in cash?

They can be traded at the current exchange of 1 Mysterium for 2 MumboJumbiums.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#254

Post by [deleted] »

realworldview wrote: post #148

So this is like buying food vouchers that I can redeem at a store that hasn't yet been built, if indeed it has been given planning permission and even if it does eventually get built, I have no idea how the service and product will taste. And I can't then report any irregularities. Ponzi? No. Unregulated gambling? Of course. Sign me up!

[deleted]

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#255

Post by notahacker »

api wrote: post #227
wc- wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is important to clarify that buying one of these tokens does not result in you owning a 'share' or a percentage of the company that issued them. Some lawyers are using this lack of ownership as a critical part of their argument that tokens are not a security and therefore ICO's are legal. It's complicated and a very gray area right now. In response to this gray-ness, ICO's are now requiring investors to declare th…

So it's illegal to do an ICO and offer something of actual potential value, namely shares? Seems like a serious unintended consequence of regulation.

A not unreasonable one though: a large part of why minority shareholdings have actual potential value is because of a dense network of regulation that ensures company executives act in shareholders' interests, respect their property rights and make accurate representations about how the company is performing. So shareholders have an interest in the state enforcing securities law, including how shares may or may not be marketed.

On the other hand, provided wishing wells and ICOs don't claim to be a genuine investment and aren't considered to be equivalent to securities by anyone with any common sense, it's arguably state overreach to stop people chucking their money into them.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#256

Post by sharemywin »

ailideex wrote: post #156
ashnyc wrote: post #137

ICO are the best thing that ever happened. This is no different then kickstarter.com started. People where saying the same things. People put up lot of BS project and they got funded, in time these kind of project will fail on there own. This is just the start, no government or bank would have supported such system. For once, the small guy can participate in this market. I would have loved to invest in amazon, facebo…

> I would have loved to invest in amazon, facebook, etc when they where private. I'm sure if you wen't to them then and said here is money plz give share they would have considered it. Everybody want's to have gotten into the big giants when they were small - but there are many small cap/penny stock companies you can invest in now ... yet people don't. There are even non listed share trading options. And the reason i…

- try investing in a high flying startup as a non-accredited investor.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#257

Post by logfromblammo »

epa wrote: post #118
vectorpush wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a currency that can't buy much of anything, so it's close to useless as far as paying for the needs of a typical person. You can speculate about the future of crpyotcurrencies all you like, but the future you imagine is not inevitable and certainly not the reality of today or the foreseeable future. Beyond that, if we're speculating, a world where all transactions live on a blockchain is an ideal one for a gover…

>It's a currency that can't buy much of anything, Yet. Everything needs to start somewhere.

And when faced with competition from legitimized currencies, that somewhere is black market goods and services.

Eventually, someone asks the question, "Why can I buy weed with Bitcoin, but not pizza and chips?" And delivery of munchies is a legit business that can be advertised. Once recognized as a viable model, it can then be poached by major corporate players as part of a local pilot program, which can then be rolled out to larger jurisdictions.

The problem, as usual, isn't that you can't buy anything with it--it's that you can't buy everything with it. As long as you can't pay your electric bill with cryptocoins, the business that accepts one as payment can't also pay its employees with that same cryptocoin.

Honestly, would you even apply to a job posting if it said salary to be paid exclusively in Floopcoins?

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#258

Post by pascalxus »

MachinShinn- wrote: post #132
jamespitts wrote: post #45

I would like to make an appeal to the YC community: please reach out and help guide those involved in this rapidly advancing phenomenon. There is a huge amount of instantly-deployable capital in Ethereum and Bitcoin, held by individuals now seeking ways to put it to work. Many technologists will naturally make use of this energy, but so will BS artists and people under the influence of hubris. I am making this appeal…

>Many firms funded by ICOs (or soon to be) have qualified leaders and developers and are developing great ideas, but IMO many are also raising too much money for their own good. No, there aren't. Real money has never been cheaper than it is now. Never in human history. USD, Euros, JPY, etc. Super cheaper. Low single digits to borrow. Anyone doing an 'ICO' is trying to cash out at your expense, big time.

Welcome to the everything bubble. For those of us keeping a list, here it is:

- Government spending/borrowing bubble

- Education Loans bubble

- Housing bubble (at least in CA, but also worldwide to some degree)

- Bit coin, Ethereum, Coin bubble

- Stock market looks a bit frothy too - all the leading technical indicators show things won't be too rosy for the next 10 years.

Did I miss any?

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#259

Post by EGreg »

realworldview wrote: post #148

So this is like buying food vouchers that I can redeem at a store that hasn't yet been built, if indeed it has been given planning permission and even if it does eventually get built, I have no idea how the service and product will taste. And I can't then report any irregularities. Ponzi? No. Unregulated gambling? Of course. Sign me up!

How do you know it's unregulated?

What if it turns out te SEC issues a statement saying that all these ICOs were illegal because they were selling unregistered securities?

Does ex post facto apply here?

Can any lawyers chime in for those of us who are thinking about ICOs?

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#260

Post by Spivak »

programmarchy wrote: post #122
kim0 wrote: post #100

Can someone in the know shed some light on why does every project need its own currency?! Why isn't a standard coin like BTC or eth good enough?

Why does every company need its own stock certificates? It's a token representing ownership.

They are not. Any company that claims this is on the fast track to getting an unwelcome visit by the SEC.
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