The Vest Test Shows Which ICOs are Best

ICOBox co-founder Daria Generalova on how top ICO teams wait for their payday

Vesting is a complicated issue. ICOs generally allot a certain proportion of tokens to the founders, team and advisors. This is fair and right as the entrepreneurs who imagine and implement decentralized ecosystems which millions of people can benefit from the need to somehow be compensated for their imagination and efforts. While the principle is right, the devil is in the detail of when and how tokens are distributed. When done right, vesting ensures that the reward for being on the team of a successful ICO occurs in such a way that the project is strengthened throughout its initial years rather than risking a price drop when extra tokens flood the market. Unfortunately, such proper planning hasn’t always been the case with many ICOs.

Vesting hit the news this week with an announcement by the Nebulas project, which describes itself as ‘like Google ranking in the blockchain world’. The project’s core team have promised to wait a decade before they get the tokens for their efforts – seven years longer than originally planned. This means that if the project isn’t around and thriving in 10 years’ time then their compensation will be worthless. Brave stuff indeed!

What better example of ‘skin in the game’ could there be than waiting for many years before receiving tokens of your own project? Vesting schedules, whether time or milestone based, are powerful tools for aligning executives’ and backers’ interests when it comes to an ICO. In our experience the best entrepreneurs aren’t in an excessive hurry and have such faith in their project that the thought of how to quickly ‘cash out’ doesn’t even enter their mind. As in all areas of life, patience is a virtue.

Generally, vesting is covered in a project’s whitepaper. We strongly encourage you to check out this vital criterion when evaluating a project. As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait.