Hello to all current and (future) cryptoinvestors, this guide will teach you everything you need to know about an ICO and why you should capitalise on them in the future. Many of you are probably accustomed to the cryptocurrency market already and are reaping massive rewards which is great, however there are so many hidden opportunities to benefit you all.

Fiat Real World IPO's

If you are familiar with the stock/share market that operates in major countries, you will know that these stocks started somewhere, whether it was in a small office or through a mobile application such as Snapchat. An IPO or Initial Public Offering is when a company such as Snapchat transforms from a private company into a public one and creates shares (a piece of ownership of the company) that are offered to people like you and me. In exchange for these shares the company expects capital (money from us to begin their operations and grow) to be invested. The company's shares are then put onto the stock-market at a predetermined price, which can then rise or fall through open trading.

 

What is an ICO then?

Much like an IPO, an ICO is the initial coin offering, a basic opportunity for early adopters to invest in a new startup coin. Sometimes people are only invited to these things, they're not necessarily available for anybody to find and to buy in to. Over recent times however many of these coins have allowed and have even advertised public involvement and are known as crowdsales when this occurs. 

When a cryptocurrency startup firm wants to raise money through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), it usually creates a plan on a whitepaper which states what the project is about, what objectives the project will fulfil upon completion, how much money is needed to undertake the venture, how much of the virtual tokens the pioneers of the project will keep for themselves, what type of money is accepted, and how long the ICO campaign will run for. During the ICO campaign, enthusiasts and supporters of the firm’s idea buy some of the distributed crypto-coins (which start off as tokens) with fiat or virtual currency. These coins are referred to as tokens and are similar to shares of a company sold to investors in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) transaction.

How to Find an ICO Opportunity

The best way to find out about upcoming ICO's is to do your own research. Most of the information is out there in the open market. Keep an eye out on social platforms such as Twitter where founders of ICO's are likely to inform people about them. If you simply search "ico" into google you will find hundreds of articles. There is also a great Facebook page called "Cryptocurrency Collector's Club" where there is ongoing discussion about cryptocurrency and of course upcoming ICO floats.

How to Buy into an ICO

Firstly I would not recommend investing in an ICO if you are not already familiar with cryptocurrency operations such as wallets, exchanges, fees and encryption. If you are okay at basic crypto procedures, then once you have found an opportunity simply head to that coins website. Yesterday I invested 2 ethereum into "Status", a mobile application that integrates ETH technology. There was a large green button on the homepage which said "contribute", once I clicked on that link an individual address was created for me to deposit funds into. You simply cannot however deposit funds from wallets such as coinbase or Poloniex. A supported wallet was needed such as MyEtherWallet or Mist. For 1 eth invested you receive 10,000 SNT (status) tokens. I essentially received 20,000 tokens, therefore worth about 3 cents each. I am now patiently waiting until the coin is released into the market which may take a few months.

Benefits:

• Gives you the opportunity to buy the coin before the general sale. So normally you buy a cryptocurrency by going on one of the exchanges such as Poloniex or Bitrex. This is the general sale, when its available to the open market. But in an ICO you are essentially buying it pre-sale, before it is offered on the open market. It gives you the opportunity to get the coin at the cheapest price as it hasn't been put on the open market and it hasn't been speculated or bought and sold (pumped and dumped). 
• Generally once the coin is released onto to the market its price will increase dramatically due to flocks of purchasing by speculators late to the party and news articles that will further bump it up. I'm talking 3x to 10x in value, so get in early folks!!

Drawbacks:

• ICO's can be very risky, some coins that undergo the ICO process are never even released into the open market as the project or startup has failed, normally due to a lack of interest or issues in development. You are therefore essentially buying it on a complete punt, however most ICO's will have a vision behind them and if you see that vision becoming a reality, thats when you should invest in the ICO. In other words only invest if you passionate about the idea. If you are in it just for the greed, you will only feel even more regret and hatred if the project fails.

Thats my 2 cents everybody. Feel free to contribute by leaving me your opinion in the comments :) Also feel free to follow me for more content.