Yesterday, one of the fundamental questions an investor should face, whether it be the Crypto world or another form of investment, emerged in a conversation I was involved with.

But before I even start with this article, I want to say one thing. This article does not constitute investment advice; I leave that to the professionals, it is all about my own opinion, which has arisen from my research. Since I'm in the Crypto area with my investments, the question will only apply to ICOs. For this reason, I also use a blockchain project, the AbacasXchange. I already wrote two articles about this unique exchange, which I will link again at the bottom.

But now to the critical question that I was asked. It read as follows:

What do you personally look for when choosing an ICO to invest in?

My answer was short and sweet:

I use many factors, and these are:

1. Team experience & qualification
2. Token - Economy
3. ICO - bonus structure
4. The hype of the project in the crypto world
5. The final product of the project / What is the real use of the product?
6. How far has development progressed? When will the usable product be delivered?

The list is far from complete, and the individual items are not sorted according to their importance. They came to mind just then.

I would now like to go over this list using the example of the AbacasXchange ICO.

Chapter 1

Team experience & qualification

I start with the core team, which consists of two immensely experienced experts.

Mark VanRoon
(Https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-vanroon-2409376/)

Mark is the founder, chief executive and head of product development for Abacas.

For four years now, he has been directing the development of the AbacasXchange, helping him with 25 years of experience gained in a variety of start-ups and established companies. His specialisations lie in the development of new concepts and ideas to enable various types of improvements in companies and projects. The financial and investment sector is his career area. His ability to generate more efficiency and market share from innovative ideas earned him the high position of the President of Foreign Exchange Consulting Services International. He led this for a full 4 ½ years. Before that, he worked in two critical jobs for RBC Investor Services. For more than two years, he was Global Director of Product Development and Foreign Exchange and the Product Manager for the company.

As a serial inventor and product developer with over 20 years of experience in banking and digital banking, he also founded Midpoint, a successful currency exchange and international payment platform. (www.midpoint.com)

Vince Small
(Https://www.linkedin.com/in/leevi/)

Vince is a veteran in the financial industry. For 21 years he was managing director, senior vice president and technical director of Financial Software Systems Inc., bringing massive experience from there to the AbacasXchange project. One of them is the development of Spectrum's financial services application (http://spectrum-tech.com/index.html), a front-to-back platform used by wholesale banks, brokers and wealth management banks.

Since 2014, he is the head of the technology department at Abacas and with his wealth of experience, he is the mastermind at Abacas in this field.

The Community Manager

Close to the core team, we have the critical position of the social media specialist, because without external impact, the best product in the world gone stale, somewhere in the drawer of a fundamentally stable company. And here the two founders have found the best support one can dream of in a young man with the name Stoyan Vlahovsk. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stoyanvlahovski/)

Stoyan is an expert in this field. His specialisation is social media marketing with a focus on Facebook Ads and his extensive experience in blogging & WordPress and affiliate marketing, as an excellent advertising manager and community manager at Abacas.

Advisors

Six advisors have also surrounded the stable team coming from the areas of finance, software technology and internet security who are actively supporting the development of the project.

The AbacasXchange project has a small but excellent team, with many years of unique experience in their respective fields.

Chapter 2

Token economy

A crucial topic, perhaps even the most important thing from the entire list, is the application of the actual Cryptocurrency, be it tokens or coins.

The question here is always:

What is the application of the cryptocurrency and how important is it to the functioning of the entire project?

The issue we have to face right now is the fact that countless companies are only crowdfunding their project in the crypto universe because it is currently top notch and not yet regulated by the state. Whether a project is valuable, or rather not, you will not see in the value of the token traded at an exchange. There is so much more to look at and thus understand, which often isn't even in the details of the whitepaper. That sounds like much work, and that's entirely true, but it's also about the decision, do I invest research time into a project before even thinking about anything else after that.

So what is ABCS token economics look like?

The AbacasXchange aims to make the transaction fees entirely transparent for the user. As a result of this requirement, the functionality of the ABCS token resulted on the one hand as a utility token. In practice, on the Exchange, the ABCS token, therefore, serves as a means of payment for the fees. The ABCS Token clearly defines what the fees are.

For example, I want to buy Apple shares (AAPL) with BTC. I own BTC in my wallet and want to trade it for AAPL. To prevent payment of fees with either a portion of the BTC or the shares, the AbacasXchange uses the user's existing ABCS tokens instead.

However, ABCS can also indirectly serve as a gateway asset. If in our example not enough AAPL stocks are available in the market, trading cannot be completed. However, on the Exchange, there is then the possibility to save the remaining value in ABCS and only buy the remaining shares if they are present, using those ABCS Token.

On the other hand, the ABCS Token can also function a liquidity token representing the possibility of another asset. For example, the seller can exchange his asset in ABCS Token, and it does not always have to be necessarily sold in another, such as stocks or something physical like gold. Moreover, so it is with buying. Both functions of the ABCS Token will fulfil the purpose of the Abacas Exchange, to exchange every asset anywhere and anytime.

Chapter 3

ICO bonus structure

It may be beneficial to offer a token bonus of 100% on all purchases during your first ICO round, but it can also be a huge problem. It is advantageous if the project urgently needs funds and has to sell many tokens as fast as possible. The resulting disadvantage is an almost guaranteed massive sell-off by the initial investors, who have taken precisely this bonus. In my opinion, a bonus of over 50% in the short term is more of a problem for a token with an excellent token economy but does no damage in the long run. Here, of course, the respective point of view is crucial from the one looking at the whole thing. For a pure ROI hunter, the 100% bonus is precisely what he is looking for, for a technology investor who is interested in the long term for the success of the project, he does not care.

The AbacasXchange example now looks like this.

The highest bonus in the pre-sale of the AbacasXchange ICO was 40%, and even if the private pre-sale investors got a higher bonus, I am sure that the token will hardly lose value. I'm also convinced that the ABCS Token will be in high demand in the future. Due to its strong application constraints on the AbacasXchange and the resulting cash flow, it will be held sooner than the investment will speculate. The bonus that the team has set for the ICO is, in my view, very healthy.

Chapter 4

Project hype in the crypto world

Why is that important? I talked about it in the first chapter when I discussed the position of Community & Marketing Manager. Marketing always accounts for 80% of the success of a project. Even the best product will not help, because if nobody knows it, nobody will buy.

T.Harv Eker said in a seminar I participated in: "To have the best possible product on the market is a basic requirement and not at the same time a guarantee of success."

The hype is a product of good marketing, but if the best product is behind it, too, the success comes over time.

In the case of Abacas, it now looks like this.

With a telegram group that has a strength of 9553 members, Abacas is in the midfield of crypto projects. On Twitter, they follow 10,500 people, and the Facebook page has 6605 likes, 4000 emails have also been registered through the page. That does not make Abacas a typical crypto hype, and usually, I'd want some more activity here. However, if I look at the project as a whole, so the target audience, the appearance of the team, the Internet presence, then it fits perfectly together. In the telegram group, for example, there is no "When Lambo?" or the annoying "When Moon?" sayings. Spamming of all sorts of "funny" messages and GIF images is also in vain. So here, too, is a modest demeanor that appeals to the serious user of the unique AbacasXchange and not the "I'm going to be a Crypto Millionaire" with $ 200.

Chapter 5

The end product of the project / What is the real-life application of the product?

In Chapter 4, I just talked about the best possible product, but how is it defined?

I would like to quote T.Harv Eker again, who said: "A good product solves ONE problem for MANY people."

So I also evaluate a project according to which problem it ultimately wants to solve in the world. Does this problem exist for a few or many?

What does this mean in relation to the Abacas project?

There is a big problem throughout the investment sector, and that means time! It's not about money in the form of fees or managing a portfolio, because there are people who can do it for you. Money is time, and also employees are in the end only time that you do not have and in turn pay with your money. With their platform, Abacas will provide a solution to a problem no one has ever dared to tackle before.

"How can I buy and sell all the world's assets on one platform as simple as possible? Moreover, all in a single transaction."

The AbacasXchange thus delivers probably one of the hottest products for millions of investors. An exchange for all assets, anytime, anywhere.

Chapter 6

How far has the development progressed? When will the usable product be delivered?

This point is the one that often falls under the table and is paid too little attention. If a project for the ICO start has not even begun with the development of the product, then a very long development time is certain before a result can be expected. This is very often reflected in the rapid decline in the price of tokens after listing at exchanges. On the other hand, if a project already has something to show, a test network or a beta version of the upcoming platform, the interested party can already test what the company is doing and thus has an idea as to when the finished product will be launched.

The announcement of the best car in the world quickly becomes unimportant when the company declares that it will be available in 20 years time. Nobody will be interested any longer.

The Crypto world is even faster, and so it applies to me, a project that requires more than 1 ½ years of development time after the ICO is completed, is only observed by me nothing more. 1 ½ years in the crypto world may be five years in the rest of the world.

Moreover, what does this look like in my example?

Abacas has already released the alpha version of their platform in the ICO phase, the beta version will be released in August, and the final AbacasXchange will be launched in January 2019. Meaning they already have a testable version and the final product will be ready in just six months time. The roadmap is a fantastic schedule from my point of view.

I'm sure I gave everyone an insight, through the AbacasXchange, as I decide for myself, whether I would invest in an ICO or not. There are many more factors that can and ought to be considered, so the well-known tip remains:

"Do your own research on a project BEFORE you invest your money!"

If you want to find out more about the AbacasXchange project, please use the links listed here:

Website: https://token.abacasexchange.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/ABACASXCHANGE_ABCS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AbacasXchange-174858729748558/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AbacasXchange
Medium: https://medium.com/me/stories/public
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AbacasXchange/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWxGQkioSolQD_t6RhONFkQ
Whitepaper: https://abacasexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Abacas-Protocol-Dec-2017-WP-VLSMV-v1.3.pdf

My first AbacasXchange Article can be found here:
https://steemit.com/blockchain/@desposyni/abacasxchange-a-boerse-fuer-alle-vermöegenwerte-jederzeit-und-ueberall-teil-1-ueberblick

My second AbacasXchange Article can be found here:
https://steemit.com/blockchain/@desposyni/abacasxchange-a-boerse-fuer-alle-vermöegenswerte-teil-2-abacas-liquiditaet-and-ico