Andrey Mikhailishin, CEO of Joys, shared with Forbes how to differ reliable ICO from scam. For analysis Andrey offers to use the classical model 4T: Team, Tech, Theme, Token.
Team
Make sure that the project team has people with relevant skills and sufficient experience. Learn their social media profiles: post topics, activity, friends. Make sure you are not facing a bots. If you have any questions while studying the documents and the site, ask them to the team.
Contact with the project consultants. Usually, these are people with reputation. They won’t want to lose it, so they will answer honestly.
Find out the registered address of the company, when and by whom a website domain is registered. You can also contact the partners listed on the website.
Tech
Evaluate the technology on which the project is based. If you are not a programmer, contact with a familiar developer or an independent consultant.
Evaluate the project site. The website should be convenient and well optimized.
Theme
Study the concept and define the prospects of the project. To do this, analyze:
- the potential of the idea, the economic usefulness and importance of the project;
- the market to which the development is aimed;
- the scalability of the project;
- the differences from competitors.
It’s also useful to find out how blockchain technology is used. Whether its application is useful for the implementation of the idea.
Token
The last but not the most important point is to evaluate the project tokens. To do this, you will have to read the White Paper, the investment agreement and the token distribution agreement. Find out what type of token the project offers. Best of all, if it’s utility tokens, they don’t give the opportunity to participate in the management of the company, but allow you to exchange coins for services and goods of the project. If tokens are used only for financial speculation, this is a bad sign.