<story><title>Beyond the boring blockchain bubble</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/06/beyond-the-boring-blockchain-bubble/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sillysaurus3</author><text>One interesting aspect of ICO&amp;#x27;s is that the owners don&amp;#x27;t necessarily need to build a business. It&amp;#x27;s far less work to skim the money and say the business failed. And until anyone goes to jail for doing that, it remains a lucrative opportunity.&lt;p&gt;Raising $120M in an ICO isn&amp;#x27;t the same as raising $120M from a VC. In the latter case, you get nothing if the business fails.&lt;p&gt;The big question is, why are people dumping so much more money into ICOs than into Kickstarter projects? Why does an ICO seem so much more legit? It&amp;#x27;s mostly the same thing. Yet ICOs are somehow raising 10x more than the most-funded Kickstarters without breaking a sweat.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>anovikov</author><text>That is a gross understatement. Vast majority of ICOs are deliberate scams, not just they aren&amp;#x27;t building a business, they have no idea how to do it, have no relevant skills, and whole &amp;#x27;idea&amp;#x27; is lunatic and would be laughed off by even a beginner angel investor if pitched to him. In many cases, an idea is also technically unworkable due to scaling limits of blockchains used. It is just that: a scam. Not a bubble as in: 1990s tech bubble, or subprime mortgage bubble. There, you got something which didn&amp;#x27;t follow the profit curve you predicted. Here, you get nothing for your money.</text></comment>
<story><title>Beyond the boring blockchain bubble</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/06/beyond-the-boring-blockchain-bubble/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sillysaurus3</author><text>One interesting aspect of ICO&amp;#x27;s is that the owners don&amp;#x27;t necessarily need to build a business. It&amp;#x27;s far less work to skim the money and say the business failed. And until anyone goes to jail for doing that, it remains a lucrative opportunity.&lt;p&gt;Raising $120M in an ICO isn&amp;#x27;t the same as raising $120M from a VC. In the latter case, you get nothing if the business fails.&lt;p&gt;The big question is, why are people dumping so much more money into ICOs than into Kickstarter projects? Why does an ICO seem so much more legit? It&amp;#x27;s mostly the same thing. Yet ICOs are somehow raising 10x more than the most-funded Kickstarters without breaking a sweat.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vit05</author><text>I do not understand your comparison with Kickstarter. You never invest in a company or project using Kickstarter, you will not earn anything in the future if the project succeeds. If you buy a shirt, you will only get that shirt, even if the company sells millions. You can not pass your position on to someone else. The comparison could be with stock exchanges. So the answer is simple. The barriers to starting an investment in ICO are minimal when compared to any IPO. And it is a global negotiation.</text></comment>