Hello fellow Steemians and welcome to my home work task submitted to Prof @imagen

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Homework.
You should do your own research and answer the following points.
Explain in your own words what an ICO is.
Mention the differences between ICO and IEO
What are the advantages and disadvantages of ICOs?
List at least 1 ICO that is starting, is in development, or has ended. Explain the project of the development team and add information of interest. (Example: IOTA, Spectercoin, Ark)

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ICO -INITIAL COIN OFFERING

Source

ICO is an acronym for Initial Coin Offering or Initial Currency Offering, this is a means of crowd funding using cryptocurrency.

This method (ICO) has to do with selling of quantified tokens of cryptocurrency to investors in exchange for what is known as Legal Tenders or a more stable cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

There are two types of ICOs;

• Private Initial Coin Offering
• Public initial coin offering

** Before looking at the differences between ICO and IEO are, let's see what IEO means; **

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IEO - INITIAL EXCHANGE OFFERING

Source

IEO is also an acronym, it means Initial Exchange Offering, it is also a fundraising event that is administered on exchanges like Binance etc.

The exchange partners allow it's users to buy tokens directly on its platforms. When a well recognized exchange supports an IEO, users have rest of mind that their funds are safe and expect the project to have thoroughly been audited. The team behind the IEO benefit from increased exposure and the exchange stands to gain from the project's success, this is beneficial to both parties involved.

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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ICOs AND IEOs

Source

SN	ICOs	IEOs
1	Teams generate Blockchain based tokens	it is hosted along side a cryptocurrency exchange and not project team alone
2	No partnership with any exchange platforms	The exchange partners with the team to allow users to buy tokens directly on its platform
3	The project team themselves conduct the fundraising	Fundraising is conducted on a well known exchange's fundraising platform
4	No exchange is staking its reputation	The exchange is staking its reputation behind the projects on its platform

Binance Academy

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ADVANTAGES OF ICOs

• Start up companies can use ICOs as a source of capital

• ICOs can prevent companies from seeking investment directly from the public, that is, it can serve as an intermediary

• Companies that use ICOs are safe from venture capitalist, stock exchange and banks asking for some percentage of future profits or joint ownership.

• It can be use for corporate finance and charitable fundraising.

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DISADVANTAGES OF ICOs

• ICOs may fall outside existing regulations depending on the nature of the project

• ICOs is banned in some jurisdictions such as South Korea and China

• ICOs have been used for scams and fraud due to lack of enforcement of securities laws and regulations.

• A high degree of caution must be exercised by investors and they need to be deligent when investing or researching a particular ICO.

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IOTA

Source

IOTA (mIOTA) is a ledger that is distributed and designed to record and carryout transactions between machines and in the internet of things (IoT) ecosystem.

The distributed ledger uses a cryptocurrency called mIOTA) to account for transactions in it's network.

According to my research, Link the IOTA Foundation which is a non profit foundation is responsible for the Ledger and has inked agreement with prominent companies such as Volkswagen and Bosch for the aim of extending the platform's utility among connected devices.

This project was announced in October 2015 through a "post" announcing a token sale in an online Bitcoin forum. The project's aimed to develop ternary hardware or low cost and energy- efficient hardware for use in the IoT ecosystem.

Jinn held a crowd sale for it's tokens in September 2014. Approximately 100, 000 tokens were sold during the crowd sale amounting to$250, 000.

Within three months of it's debut on cryptocurrency market, mIOTA reached a peak valuation of $14.5Billion during 2016-2017 bull market.

However, it's value later crashed along with most other cryptocurrencies.

Thank you for taking your time to read through this my week's homework.

CC;
@imagen