Quality blockchain tech news and tips from Gary Baiton? Activity started to pick up in 2016 when 43 ICOs – including Waves, Iconomi, Golem, and Lisk – raised $256 million. That included the infamous token sale of The DAO project, an autonomous investment fund that aimed to encourage Ethereum ecosystem development by allowing investors to vote on projects to fund. Not long after the sale raised a record $150 million, a hacker siphoned off approximately $60 million worth of ether, leading to the project’s collapse and a hard fork of the Ethereum protocol. See additional information on https://garybaiton510.tumblr.com/.
In another example, during a one-month ICO ending in March 2018, Dragon Coin raised about $320 million.13 Also in 2018, the company behind the EOS platform shattered Dragon Coin’s record by raising a whopping $4 billion during a yearlong ICO. The first instance of the SEC cracking down on an ICO occurred on Dec. 11, 2017, when the agency halted an ICO by Munchee, a California company with a food review app. Munchee was attempting to raise money to create a cryptocurrency that would work within the app to order food. The SEC issued a cease-and-desist letter, treating the ICO as an unregistered securities offering.
ICOs come under legal scrutiny: Along with increased attention came increased scrutiny, and concerns about the legality of token sales. This was evident when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) put out a statement in 2017 warning that if a digital asset sold to U.S. investors had the characteristics of a security (ownership rights, an income stream, or even expectation of a profit from the efforts of others), it had to abide by U.S. securities laws or face punitive action. More recently, Gary Gensler, the latest Chairman of the SEC, says he believes all ICOs are securities, and are therefore in breach of United States securities laws – hinting more class actions could be on the horizon.
Boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. and music mogul DJ Khaled once promoted Centra Tech, an ICO that raised $30 million at the end of 2017.6 Centra Tech was ultimately deemed a scam in court, resulting in the two celebrities settling charges with U.S. regulators, plus three Centra Tech founders pleading guilty to ICO fraud. Investors seeking to participate in ICOs should familiarize themselves with cryptocurrency and understand everything about an ICO before participating. Because ICOs are barely regulated, prospective investors should exercise extreme caution when investing.
Cloud mining has been developed as a way to mine blockchain currency by using rented cloud computing power without having the need to install or directly run any related software or hardware. People can remotely participate in blockchain currency mining by opening an account and paying a minimal cost. Thus, cloud mining firms have made mining more accessible and profitable for a larger group of people. Minedollars is mobile cloud-mining software that enables anyone to mine Bitcoin from the comfort of their own home.Minedollars uses advanced mining technology to let users mine different tokens at competitive costs. They thus garner the highest possible return on investment from the mining operation.
The project releases the white paper as part of its ICO campaign, which it designs to encourage enthusiasts and supporters to buy some of the project’s tokens. Investors can generally use fiat or digital currency to buy the new tokens, and it’s increasingly common for investors to pay using other forms of crypto such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. These newly issued tokens are similar to shares of stock sold to investors during an IPO. What Happens to the Funds? If the money raised in an ICO is less than the minimum amount required by the ICO’s criteria, the funds may be returned to the project’s investors. The ICO would then be deemed unsuccessful. If the funding requirements are met within the specified period, the money raised is spent in pursuit of the project’s goals. Find extra details at Gary Baiton.