[hw]

Quite a few companies have gone down the crypto ICO route to raise funds instead of dealing with traditional investors / VCs, which I think is a great (albeit unregulated) way to raise some money without giving out a huge chunk of your company. It's also an easier way to raise money without having an actual product in hand.

It's just unfortunate though that ICOs have a bad rep due to greed and the fact that a lot of the ICOs that happen are scams and will never deliver an actual product.

[ttul]

ICOs are hot because they haven't yet been through the full hype cycle. Some time in 2018, there will be an ICOpalypse, and investors will run for the hills. ICOs will then no longer be hot.

[huangc10]

It happened today unfortunately. Confido ended up scamming early investors almost $400K. Like you, I like the idea of ICOs but it definitely is a risk.

Ink, which was created by Listia (YC alum), is actually trying to help those users who got scammed: https://medium.com/@PayWithInk/ink-airdrop-for-confido-token...