Chapter 3. The Potential of ICOs
Whether or not you believe that history repeats itself, there is no denying that there are patterns. Patterns affect other patterns (like a kaleidoscope), patterns are found within patterns (fractals), or are hidden (the value of pi). Much of what we see today, in this new world of cryptocurrencies, blockchain technologies, and the new token economy, can and has been compared to various historic events of the past.
In this chapter, we will take a look at the potential of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) by taking a step back in time, before zooming into the future by looking at the following topics:
- What is an ICO?
- The difference between coins and tokens
- The dot-com versus dot-coin bubble
- Risk in ICOs
- A new era of ICO innovation
We will start by explaining what an ICO is and all the associated terminology, before interpreting the days of the dot-com bubble back in the late 1990s/early 2000s and comparing them to what many now call the "dot-coin...