[colordrops]

I'm sorry but this is just propaganda from people launching new alt-coins. There is essentially no difference

In fact I've never heard of a coin that was pre-mined in a sneaky way. This term was always used to describe a coin that had pre-allocations before the genesis block. People didn't like that, so this new term "ICO" is Orwellian double speak to get people to think differently about dumping their money into a pre-mined alt-coin. It's a professional sounding word for the same thing.

One of the reasons so many people avoid and have a hard time grasping the financial industry is precisely because of the obscurification of the langauge surrounding it, and I will not participate in that charade.

[EdHominem]

> In fact I've never heard of a coin that was pre-mined in a sneaky way.

Yes you have. People complain about Bitcoin for that. It's a flexible term.

> so this new term "ICO" is Orwellian double speak

If someone just uses the new term, yeah. But if there's an actual algorithmic difference...

> to get people to think differently about dumping their money into a pre-mined alt-coin.

When you buy stock at an IPO you know not all of it is up for sale and that the "value" was set by fiat.

> I will not participate in that charade.

Sorry we're oppressing you. Fight the power.

[DennisP]

Sure there's a difference. A well-publicized presale is open to anyone who wants to risk the investment. A developer'a premine only benefits the developer.

I don't really see an economic difference between putting money into a presale, and putting money into hardware and electricity for early mining.