How to discern a legit ICO white paper from scam?
by SUJIT PATHAK
Published Wed, Jul 4th 2018, 17:50 | Writing
Initial Coin Offering or the ICO is an unregulated means to raise funds for a new cryptocurrency venture. Every original ICO will include a white paper giving out essential details about the technology to be used in the cryptocurrency, the future roadmap and the team that will oversee the token development. But as an investor how do you distinguish between a genuine ICO white paper and a possible scam? It is quite easy to hire an ICO white paper writer and create a compelling white paper. So it is necessary that you read the white paper before you plan to participate in the token sale and buy the tokens. Read on to know how you can differentiate a legit white paper from a bogus project.
Problem: The most genuine ICOs will come up with the most genuine problems in their white papers. The issue shall be severe enough that there would be a need to tackle it and resolve it. A fake project might however not introduce a real problem and try to get away by presenting a dubious point merely because it is not too concerned with the project and hasn’t invested enough time in it.
Vision: The vision of the ICO as mentioned in the white paper will help you comprehend how long term the project is. The most original white papers will introduce a problem and then offer solutions to it through their tokens which shall be unique in the existing marketplace. A scam will try to run through everything, and their vision will most likely seem obscure without any real-time solution of the introduced problem.
Team: If you think that the ICO has a firm idea behind it, then it is advisable to do a background check on the side. Try finding out if the team is adequately equipped to carry off a project on their own. You will know by their track record and reputation of the roles that they are supposed to play, whether or not they have it in them to pull off a project. Most investors are likely to invest in a bad idea with a good team that can pull it off.
The language used in the white paper: Most investors will put the white paper aside if it is written in poor English or contains grammatical errors. People who are genuinely serious about their project wouldn’t mind spending a few bucks on hiring the ICO white paper writing services of an ICO marketing agency.
The focus of the white paper: If the white paper consistently plays on your emotion of losing out on something very significant, then it is most likely a hoax. The team writing such a white paper is merely capitalizing on your greed to drive you to make the purchase. A legit ICO instead of playing on your fear will focus on the problem, proposed solutions and the technology involved in the cryptocurrency
Many would argue that a scam company could avail the services of a professional writer to compile an excellent white paper for ICO. While this is a possibility, the chances are that if the company would invest so much in hiring a writer or an agency, it might as well act upon the idea like a legit company. Hence, it can be safely assumed that while the risks can’t be entirely mitigated, the threat is considerably lower if you read the white paper carefully.
Bio
Sujit is a content writer at Sixpl. He has written approx 350 articles on
Blockchain, ICO, and
cryptocurrency. He is also a
ICO white paper writer and has written
ICO white paper template. He has written 20 white paper on Blockchain, and 8
white paper on ICO.
