Crypto Academy Week 9 || Homework Post for Prof. @imagen || Initial Coin Offerings.

Hello steemians, this is my Homework task on ICO by Prof. @imagen. I hope you enjoy it.

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ICO Explained

Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a way to raise funds for blockchain based projects/solutions through investors who buys this new tokens with the hope that they will profit from increasing the value/price of the token they purchased while, the issuer raise money to fund their new project by selling the new tokens to the investors.

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Difference between ICO and IEO

ICO	IEO
Tokens are issued directly to the investors, no middlemen involved.	Tokens are issued to the investors by the exchange that act as an intermediary(middlemen)
It is not transparent and it is fraud prone, because the token issuer is not obligated to disclose all their informations. Thus, no KYC required.	It is More Transparent because the crypto exchange (middlemen) will diligently follow through with know your customer (kyc) to the point of verifying their identies.
Anybody can launch ICO	Not every body can launch IEO
Is is more decentralized because there are no third party.	It is more or less centralized because of the middlemen.
Investors money are Less secured	Investors money is more secure, thanks to the intermediary or KYC

Advantages of ICO

1. Anybody can buy the tokens, there is no restrictions.

2. It's a lucrative investment, full of promises.

3. More convenient and faster way to raise money for the project especially, when compared to traditional way.

1. It offers investors the opportunity to invest little with possible huge returns.

2. The tokens can be purchased with either fiat or cryptocurrency.

Disadvantages of ICO

1. Volatility.
   Due to government policies, market forces etc, cryptocurrencies are very prone to changes that could be very costly to the investors.

1. Fraud prone.
   Since anyone can go into ICO then, fraudsters can also.

2. Possibly, lack of accountability may exist, because the project managers reports to no one but, themselves.

3. There's strong possibility that the real intention of the project managers is to swindle unsuspecting investors.

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The Ark
Ark is a very interesting project that is a blockchain based cryptocurrency. It is a derivative of List, BitShare and Crypti with it's unique difference and improvement to the delegated Proof of Stake consensus algorithm.
The ICO started in 5th of November, 2016 and ended on 9th of December, 2016, raised a total of 22,000,000 USD.

Key Ark feature
It provides a user friendly platform to improve user's adoption of blockchain technology. They intend to easing consumers into blockchain technologies, by providing a mechanism to bridge the gap between blockchains and, this mechanism is built into the ARK core, so that any blockchain can send and receive data through custom developed Smart Bridge and Enclosed Listeners.

In Summery.
The idea behind ICO's is great as long as it's to solve a genuine problem or bring about ease of doing things. However, it's unfortunate how taking advantage of ICO for good, gets compromised/abused by fraudulent agents, who have succeeded in destroying trust.

Cc:-
@imagen
@pelon53