7 Trends shaping the evolving ICO economy

Of course, there are white papers, prototypes and theories, but on ICO ground, 2017 is mostly about one thing money and a lot of it. Entering 2018, closest to this sector, industrial areas that actively apply learning from crypto to startup models, see several different stories. White papers, prototypes and conferences, they believe, will survive. But change is also on the way. However, insiders see testnet, beta and iteration waves as the signal and noise begin to separate, and the project begins to differentiate. As the stakes get higher, CoinDesk pulls out a list of trends. we look to 2018 and contact entrepreneurs and investors to get more findings:

1. Regulatory massage will continue.

Although the debate continues throughout the world, most experts surveyed seem to argue that the global government will continue to provide the crypto community to wait for what it wants most, clarity of rules. Look at the courts to provide most of the guidelines this year, including further action on issuers. "News will be an act against non-issuers" said former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) security officer Nicolas Morgan, currently in Paul Hastings, told CoinDesk, indicating the so-called token tokens without disclosures and brokers and exchange unmatched goods. are targeted. Comers who want to play by rules need to get used to interpreting past decisions from other industries, other SEC alum, Timothy Peterson of Murphy and McGonigle told CoinDesk. He said, "ICO needs to calmly handle law enforcement questions." Like complex financial products, this is "part of doing business," he says. Even so, although the SEC or CFTC is beginning to draft regulations, it is unlikely they will be enacted this year.

2. The funding network will grow.

In particular, none of those contacted by CoinDesk seem to think that overall investment in tokens will decline by 2018. Although, it seems that the size of the round may be more varied. "Both humongous transactions and smaller and faster rounds are happening now," Wendy Schadek, VC of Northzone pointed out. Most investors predict the round will be broken down, becoming more complex, more structured agreements like traditional venture capital. "Action will continue to move increasingly into private sales and public tokens available, will be smaller or, in many cases, disappear entirely," MacLane Wilkison, co-founder of NuCypher, estimates.

3. Startup can find alternative ethereum.

To serve the general public, ethereum needs to process more transactions as quickly as possible. Kik has surrendered in December, and we've even seen the launch of $ 39 million ICO in Stellar. But generally, the founders continue to bet that the ethereum will work. "Ethereum is still a clear winner today in terms of the developer tools and community available.We strive for Plasma and the team at OmiseGO as they try and build on the first implementation," Josh Fraser of the Origin Protocol told CoinDesk.Wilkinson agreed but predicted ICO major in Stellar by 2018, as well as further development on other protocols. The principal scientist of one such protocol, Dfinity, told The Third Web podcast that the only way is unlimited transaction volume. As long as this can be done, the entrepreneur will hit it and clog the network. However, some CoinDesk entrepreneurs confirm that they have other plans if the backlog ethereum case has not been resolved.

4. Decentralized applications will be applied.

Boost VC Brayton Williams has notified its 2018 year "talent and delivery" in Medium. "Boost VC always supports the builders, but now we change it a bit and we want to support those who ship," Williams wrote. Just as, the entrepreneur will feel strong pressure to get the product into the hands of the people so that people can start using tokens for their intended use. Actually, ICO $ 100 million, Status, invested $ 5 million in New Vector, the company behind decentralization. Slack alternative Riot.im, which can signal that we will see the company integrating with a protocol that is already popular in the crypto.Alpha community and the beta release should come quickly and very upset by 2018. It will be interesting to see what happens to token price. when the user first touches them and finds them (like most initial iterations) and I'm sluggish. "I think most likely the price has made real progress," Chris Dixon said on the latest episode of Andreessen Ho podcast rowitz.

5. Confidence about token economics will be tested.

The big question for 2018 is this: how does the utility tokens behave when they actually have the utility? None of them actually do it. Multicoin's Kyle Samani wrote a post about the speed of tokens at the end of last year, arguing that tokens need to give users a good reason to hold a certain amount or its value will inevitably lead to zero. A consensus seems to have formed around the idea, but it remains to be tested in an environment where the new token actively turns on the desired usage case. We will also test other widely held assumptions in 2018: does the broader initial token distribution encourage faster adoption, as most founders believe, or does the investor and the user actually have two distinct groups? Whether it works or not, many people are telling us to look for more airdrops because the number of private sales goes out of public sales.

6. Consumer sophistication will increase.

Terminology will grow as more people understand the token economy. As industry becomes more sophisticated, its vocabulary grows. Most discussions around the ICO divide their tokens into two categories (utilities and security), informed by regulatory concerns. "This seems to be a traditional notion that is also found on the basis of collective fiction," Schadek told CoinDesk. We've even heard the opinions of other floating category leaders. Ledengoft publisher Mason Borda has spoken of "proof of appreciation," which is designed to encourage users to engage in desired behavior (such as a chastity mil). Also in Andreesen Horowitz's podcast, Nick Tomaino adds the idea of ​​a "work token" different from other utility tokens. The following token represents a bet that allows users to earn revenue on a protocol. Regarding, Augur and NuCypher incorporate this feature into their token. . "I think the most interesting work token is when ethereum shifts from work evidence to stock evidence," Tomaino said in the episode. When entrepreneurs are better at describing and categorizing their creations, the whole community will understand the industry more clearly.

7. Traditional technology companies will decentralize (or at least sell tokens).

This could be the most important theme of the year or not. Some people believe that a familiar technology company will come up with a reason to issue tokens and collect money. Mark Zuckerberg even said that he studied blockchain this year, and clearly Telegram has reportedly been looking for a billion dollars or more. "I think some big tech giants have a full-time person in the company experimenting or in research to make sure they do not lose chances," Williams said, but he also expects them to move at a slow pace. We have posed some big issues if they have ICO at work, but the answer is all denied. If technology companies are really pursuing decentralization, Schadek says it would be "good for democratizing value creation" and "developing an entire crypto cake." However, Wilkinson argues, "Large technology companies pursuing ICO will not have the right decentralization needs." On the contrary, in many cases he thinks tokens will prove to be contrary to their existing business model.
source CoinDesk

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