To be honest, like most people I’m new to the world of crypto-currencies and ICOs. I’ve never invested in any ICO (except buying some EOS tokens as a trial). But I do keep an eye on many launches in this crypto-world though I hardly understand much.

Recently the FOMO factor (fear of missing out) caught me when I read about the **Best ICO of 2018 in Token Desk. And I experienced my itchy trigger fingers. But before I pull the trigger, I thought to do a little research about this Dorado (DOR) ICO.

However I don’t know what to look for in a white paper or the founding team etc., I searched for what the online media is talking about it. Everywhere I found positive reviews about it. This one declared in their title, “Dorado is setting the new standards for ICO’s transparency and reliability”. I was really impressed by the line:

Dorado commits to full transparency and states that there will be no unknowns in their business.

Transcript For My Conversation With Dorado:

So I went to their payment page and found that there is an option of some promotion code to get a higher discount than the ongoing 30% rate. This led me to start a conversation on their chat platform. Here’s how it went on”

So I think it’s not as much transparent as it was being claimed in the media. An investor should be provided the information before hand what rate other investors are paying and how much quantity is being sold at that rate. But it was taking me too much time and effort to find this simple information as they were very slow to answer my questions.

I found it funny that they have highlighted on their website that they have got SWISS BASED TOKEN MODEL. Now what's that? That's just because this company is based in Switzerland. How funny!

Then I moved on to one other query about their usage of a tradename in their punch line. They are projecting themselves as “The Next UBER on The Blockchain”:

Using a registered brand name like this is not a fair use. Many companies have invested billions of dollars in creating and protecting their trademarks. Why invite a controversy by using them when they can explain their business concept without that too. It looks like they want to take advantage of other’s brand name without any permission from them for this.

You may be aware of corporate advertising from Xerox or Ajinomoto appealing public to not to use their brand name to replace generic words like photocopying or MSG. Corporates have to spend a lot of money to protect their tradenames from infringement. Legal or not, I don’t think it’s a good business practice to start a business by riding on someone else’s name. Here is Ajinomoto’s document on Protection & Proper Use of Intellectual Property. Kleenex had also objected to the use of its name for any type of paper whether it’s a tissue paper, toilet paper or paper towel. There are several examples of trademark being used as generic terms. But this does not make the infringing action acceptable.

This is the first ICO I came across who already has a long track record of a successful brick & mortar business. It has also received Venture Capital funding earlier. However I couldn’t see any figures for these investors or current net worth of the company on its website. I was wondering why a company with a successful track record is coming to raise funds through a non-conventional vehicle like ICO when it can easily do it through traditional route of venture funding or banking.

So how this ICO is being called the best ICO of 2018?

I found out that Token Desk is listed as one of its partners. So no surprises here.

So would you like to guide me:

• Should I be investing in this ICO?
• Am I wrong to judge the ICO on the basis of character of the company? Are other ICOs too have similar issues and yet succeed?
• Would you be investing in it? Why?