WHAT IS ICO NAD ITS TERMS

it would help to understand these terms most commonly known to ICO-Investing

1. ICO

INITIAL COIN OFFERING is a way to crowdsource funds for brilliant projects by different teams. An investor would send in ETH, BTC or whatever crypto the project accepts and the investor receives project tokens in return. It can be viewed as the earliest time one can invest on a project. ICO can be likened to IPO or Initial Public Offering in stocks exchange, except that the investment can either grow exponentially quicker, or be lost just as quick- exponentially. Plus the decentralized nature of it of course.

2)ERC20 WALLET

Most ICOs are built over the Ethereum network, and would require an ERC20 compatible wallet. These are wallets that can be created via Myetherwallet, Metamask, Mist and Parity. I have tried both Myetherwallet and Metamask, and am a bit partial to MEW (yep, mew = MyEtherWallet) becase of its ease of use. For ICO contribution of ERC20 projects, it is a must that contributions would come from these wallets only.
Never ever ever ever send funds from exchange, unless the project specifically says it is ok to do so and would ask a manual input of token-receiving address, or if the project would have a wallet of its own that would entail investors to manually move the tokens from there.
Why not exchange wallets? Most of the ICO would have a process in place where tokens would automatically be sent back to the contributing address. Now, as this is a new token, it is highly likely, with a 99.99999999% probability, that a wallet for this token does not exist in exchanges yet. So, having an exchange wallet as a receiving address for ICO contributions would result to token loss.
In space.
Never ever ever ever send contribution from exchanges

3)WHITE PAPER

This is possibly the best way for a project to promote its product or technology- by creating a bad-ass white paper. The white paper outlines the product usability, highlights the problem it solves and challenges it addresses. This include project timelines and business model in most cases.
ICO review relies heavily on white paper review as these are designed to be able to answer any investor potential query, and would be a big factor in influencing investor decision.
White papers can be short with some having only a few pages, or extensive big papers. See ADA white paper here as an example.
Though it hurts my brain to read through massive data (note: I am as un-techy as it gets), it is always best practice to review the white paper and thoroughly assess first where your money goes

4)CAP

Cap, by definition, means a ceiling point or placing a limit or restriction.
An ICO can either be capped, meaning the project team is setting a maximum contribution amount they are willing to receive. An uncapped ICO though would welcome all the amount the investors would want to throw in. Most ICO's are capped, while a few like TEZOS and MOBILEGO are not.
ICO's would normally have a SOFT and HARD CAP as well.
SOFT CAP is speculative, some projects would measure the fundraising's success on the soft cap. Some would set this target as the baseline in deciding to proceed with the project. Contributions would still be welcome after the soft cap is reached.
HARD CAP would be the absolute upper limit for funding that the team is willing to receive. Any amount received after exceeding the hard cap would most likely be refunded back to contributors.
Within the ICO game, good projects with low cap would sell like hotcakes, as they have the capacity for quick growth

5- PRIVATE SALE, PRESALE and CROWDSALE

These three are ways to buy tokens into the ICO phase.
PRIVATE SALE would be for groups, companies, or institutions who can invest a significant amount on the project. This would entail both parties to sign a SAFE Agreement and discuss the terms such as bonuses, discounts, token lock period (if any), as well as token distribution and release dates.

6-A PRESALE can be opened both to private investors or to the general public, and would be done prior to the actual crowdsale date. Investors would send in their contributions at an earlier period, and in return would normally receive discounts and bonuses as well.

7- CROWDSALE would be the third stage of the fundraising, and investors may or may not have bonuses and discounts at this point. Crowdsale may not proceed as well should the hardcap is reached in the private and presale stages.

1. WHITE LIST

This is the elite list, the set of people who will be able to participate in the crowdsale. The team would normally set a limit on whitelist acceptance. This process started last quarter of 2017, where interested investors should first express their interest on the project by joining the white list. To be whitelisted, an investor either would enrol their email account or ethereum address, join a slack, wechat or telegram channel. The investor is usually notified via email on a successful, or failed, whitelist application.

1. KYC

KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER/CLIENT this is another process that has been in recent adoption within the ICO space. As some ICO's would have restriction on participating countries, investors would need to prove their identity and country of residence by submitting photos of accepted government IDs. Some would require for an investor's selfie photo, as well as proof of billing.

1. FCFS

An acronym for FIRST COME FIRST SERVE. This is used within crypto/ ico communities when discussion is on capped ICO's that do not guarantee a specific allocation for contributors. As the phrase itself connotes, contributions would be accepted based on the chronology of receipt.

1. GAS WAR

The phrase GAS WAR would be closely attached to FCFS. Gas war means contributors would normally increase their transaction GWEI and Gas Limit, thus effectively transmitting their contributions faster at higher gas costs.
GWEI is the GAS PRICE and increasing or decreasing this has a proportional effect on the transaction speed. Higher GWEI means faster transaction.
GAS LIMIT basicaly is your way of saying that, yeah you are willing to pay for this GWEI but only up to a certain total price limit.
Note that for FCFS ICO's, increasing the gas and gwei still does not guarantee a spot on the crowdsale, and any failed transaction would still result to gas fees.