On the Trail of Ethereum – Which Coins Can Come to the Very Top?

cex image

Of the top 5 cryptocurrencies, it is fair to say that Ethereum has had the most turbulent time. Heralded as the Bitcoin beater on its arrival to the market, it looked like the sky was the limit for Ethereum. Then things began to falter and the once stable wheels began to wobble.

Last year, the currency was in a fight for survival and was trying to rally against a resurgent XRP. Its long-held number two spot was under real threat, and worse still, the gap between the remaining chasing pack and Ethereum was narrowing with each passing day.

Although the Ether price has recovered now, whether the coin will be the second-to-the-king for long remains to be seen. But if you’re looking for an attractive prospect to diversify beyond Ethereum, here is the list of its main contenders.

Litecoin
It hasn’t always shone, but has always offered a viable alternative to the big three cryptocurrencies.

It has also been going for a very long time as it was first released in 2011. Technically, Litecoin was a fork (one of the first) on the Bitcoin blockchain and it is no surprise that it operates in almost the same way as Bitcoin.

It tends to do as well or as badly as Bitcoin. The price of Litecoin is almost always linked to the fortunes of its bigger brother. Currently though, Litecoin is far cheaper to buy than Bitcoin or Ethereum. That doesn’t mean it is as cheap as chips, Litecoin holds a fair amount of value per coin and normally operates around $100 per LTC.

If you’re looking for a friendly cryptocurrency to use, trade or invest in, then Litecoin offers this and a great deal more. Like Bitcoin, its usage is being implemented in the real world too, so it might be a matter of time before you’re shopping with Litecoin.

Stellar Lumens
If Litecoin is the same as Bitcoin, Stellar Lumen represents something completely different, although the Stellar Foundation have made use of the Bitcoin brand and even dubbed the Stellar prototype “Secret Bitcoin Project”. After getting a lot of funding from security tech company Stripe, the cat was out of the bag and Stellar was released.

Since then it has plodded along, gathering traction in spurts and its functionality has been lauded as its major strength in the market. Essentially, Stellar Lumen facilitates payments across borders even if the payment is across two currencies. This means it has gained a lot of traffic in the African market and has a large user base.

Today the coin enjoys a relatively comfortable place in the top 10 cryptocurrencies although it holds promise to break into the top 5.

For traders and investors, Stellar Lumen offers a very attractive coin price and market share with positive projections from its fans and developers. So far, Stellar Lumens are mostly present at non-fiat exchanges, but there are a few platforms that will allow you to buy it for fiat money. One such platform is CEX.IO. Here, you will be able to buy XLM using both euro and dollar. So you will have no problem trading Stellar Lumens at the exchange. Another clear advantage of CEX is that it supports multiple payment options for it — credit cards (both Visa and MasterCard), as well as wire transfers.

Dash
Many altcoins are Bitcoin forks. Dash is in the same boat except it has travelled in a very different direction to most Bitcoin forks. Bitcoin is notoriously slow for processing transactions which has led to many coins being created to offer a faster payment solution, but still use Bitcoin’s blockchain technology.

Dash goes one step further and not only provides faster transaction times, but also the transactions that are very difficult to trace. It is one of the cryptocurrencies along with ZCash that aims to provide anonymous transactions. This system is great for users who wish to hide their identities or conduct business in complete privacy, but it has also raised a lot of red flags with regulators and law enforcement agencies.

Dash operates around four times faster than Bitcoin. But despite its ‘speedy’ name, it isn’t the fastest coin on the market. What it does offer new users is an accessible buying price and the potential for plenty of growth. This makes it a viable and well-respected altcoin.

There may be trying times ahead, with transparency of transactions likely to be scrutinized a lot more closely, but this intense focus extends across much of the cryptocurrency market at the moment.

To Sum It Up
Hopefully you have enjoyed looking at the other options to Ethereum, and there are many altcoins that sit lower down the food chain that offer real opportunities. Be careful when selecting cryptocurrencies that seem to promise something too good to be true, especially if they are very new to the market. Sometimes, it is best to let these coins ‘marinade’ a bit and see how they develop before taking the plunge and backing them.

Remember to always stay safe and protect your cryptocurrency investment.

This is a paid for article by Mary Ann Callahan from Cex.io

Three Bitcoin ETF decisions postponed by the SEC

sec logo

As expected, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has again postponed their decisions on proposals of an exchange-traded-fund(ETF). An ETF is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds and generally operates with an arbitrage mechanism designed to keep it trading close to its net asset value, although deviations can occasionally occur. Most ETFs track an index, such as a stock index or bond index. ETFs may be attractive as investments because of their low costs, tax efficiency, and stock-like features.

Three asses managers have applied to the SEC to list their ETF:
– VanEck SolidX
– Bitwise Asset Management; and
– Wilshire Phoenix

The SEC has delayed their decisions to October 2019. The Commission finds it appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider this proposed rule change.

These three ETF’s can fall in line with quite a few other delayed decisions and rejected ETF’s, such as the Gemini ETF by the Winklevoss twins.

An ETF is to believed one of the turning points in crypto adoption, since it would make trading against Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies more accessible to normal market investors. It appears that the crypto-community has to hold its breath for a few months longer than expected.

Polkadot Whitepaper

Abstract. Present-day blockchain architectures all suffer from a number of issues not least practical means of extensibility and scalability. We believe this stems from tying two very important parts of the consensus architecture, namely canonicality and validity, too closely together. This paper introduces an architecture, the heterogeneous multi-chain, which fundamentally sets the two apart.

In compartmentalising these two parts, and by keeping the overall functionality provided to an absolute minimum of security and transport, we introduce practical means of core extensibility in situ. Scalability is addressed through a divide-and-conquer approach to these two functions, scaling out of its bonded core through the incentivisation of untrusted public nodes.

The heterogeneous nature of this architecture enables many highly divergent types of consensus systems interoperating in a trustless, fully decentralised “federation”, allowing open and closed networks to have trust-free access to each other.

We put forward a means of providing backwards compatibility with one or more pre-existing networks such as Ethereum. We believe that such a system provides a useful base-level component in the overall search for a practically implementable system capable of achieving global-commerce levels of scalability and privacy.

Polkadot Whitepaper
PolkaDotPaper

Polkadot Lightpaper
Polkadot Lightpaper

How to research a whitepaper

Whitepaper Research

In this article I will give you some pointers in how to recognize scam coins & projects through whitepaper research. Although most projects that turned out to be a scam had a great whitepaper, some of them gave away their bad intentions in the whitepaper.

What is a whitepaper?

So what is a Whitepaper exactly? When a company intends to launch a new cryptocurrency, they usually set out all the details in a Whitepaper. This document contains the technical, financial and commercial information about the project. This document normally explains in plain language what they’re planning to build, to attract investors and other interested parties. In other words, the whitepaper explains the project’s purpose and process, the Why and the How.

Not every project or coin starts with a whitepaper. Litecoin started by giving a video presentation on ‘Creating Litecoin’ at a Coinbase event. Loom Network decided not to write a whitepaper, but immediately started developing and delivering code. Others are just forks of existing projects, like Bitcoin, so they don’t have their own whitepaper. Some projects bring out a Pink Paper, Green Paper or Yellow Paper and other projects, such as Cardano, bring out multiple whitepapers to describe every part of the tech they are building. Luckily, 99% of the cryptocurrencies and ICO’s still release a whitepaper at some point to outline their project and tech. So if you thinking about investing in a new coin or ICO (and to avoid scams) your first stop is reading the whitepaper.

What parts of a whitepaper do I need to check to avoid scams?
Although scam projects are getting better and better in not raising any suspicion, there are some sections of the whitepaper which you need to take a closer look at to filter out unreliable projects.

Technology – The most important thing is the project’s proposed (technical) solution to a real and relevant problem. It makes no difference if it’s something new or a better application of existing tech, when the problem they’re trying to solve doesn’t need solving, there’s a big chance the project will fail or is set up to raise a quick buck. This is usually the most difficult to verify, but keep an eye out for common buzzwords that are solely used to confuse u without really explaining what the project is about.

Team, Advisors & Partnerships– The people behind the project should be easy to verify. Check their Linkedin, online profiles, company profiles, any addresses you find, advisors, partnerships etc. Don’t be afraid to openly ask them if they’re involved in the project. Fitrova, a project that did an exit scam, boasted about great partnerships, but after checking with those partners they denied even knowing the CEO. Declouds, also a scam, wanted to prove his alleged partnership with a bank, by photoshopping himself into a picture of the board members of that bank. And finally I almost participated in an ICO with fake team members, but just in time the community found out that all the pictures where stolen from some Australian School Board website. So always doublecheck the information provided to you about the people behind the project and don’t forget to do a reverse image search on their pictures.

Roadmap – Technical development always takes longer than promised, but a roadmap gives you an idea if they’re realistic about their goals. If the roadmap states that a mainnet will be delivered within a few months, that would be great, but could also indicate that they’re trying to make a quick buck (unless the started the development way before the ICO of course).

Token Allocation & Price – Things to look at are the amount of tokens they are going to bring out. It’s a difficult factor, but it might give you an idea if they’re realistic about the project or just want to make a lot of money. If their total token supply and pricing results in a really high marketcap, you should be suspicious about their intentions. Other thing to look at: Will the tokens be locked up (vesting) for team members? Will they burn unsold tokens? Can they bring out extra tokens whenever they decide to do so? Normally the best token allocation for investors is projects with a low token supply, so you get a bigger piece of the pie when you invest, but this strongly depends on the other factors.

The Rest – There are so many things that could be red flags. Make sure to also verify the information on their websites and social media, does it look real or are they just using empty words, fake testimonials and social media bots. It wouldn’t be the first time that you are let to believe they already have a nice User Interface for their wallet, but in reality that are just stolen pictures from another project. Also beware of dubious statements, like stating they’re SEC-compliant or already have secured listing on big exchanges. Or things like saying their product can be used in any store or with every bank. Watch out for Ponzi Schemes like Bitconnect, with promised returns on investment for holding their coins. Sometimes they bloat with big whales who have invested already. Always check out the contribution address and try to trace back those big whales, to make sure it’s not the team contributing to itself faking that they already have landed investors.

Conclusion
In the end, you must feel safe about the project’s intent after reading the whitepaper. A lot of projects that turned out to be a scam had a legit whitepaper at first sight. But after looking closer into the promises they make in the document, how they’re going to build it and with whom they plan to make it a success, it should’ve been possible for investors to pick out the red flags. Of course there are many other factors that could lead to the conclusion that the project is a scam, but researching the whitepaper is one of the most accessible ways for you to verify it yourself.
Fortunately, www.allcryptowhitepapers.com has the largest whitepaper database in the world. With almost 1700 projects in our database, it’s the best place to start your research. Also don’t forget to check out the Whitepaper of the Week and News section, so you don’t miss out on anything. Knowledge is power!

The SEC also has made a great website to warn people about risky ICO’s and scams and they also included a whitepaper about their fake-scamproject, in which you will recognize many of the pointers I brought up in this article, You can check that out here:Howeycoin.

Header image by https://photos.icons8.com/

5 things you need to check before buying crypto

Whitepaper Research 5 things you need to check before buying crypto

Read more below:

In this article I will give you 5 pointers on how to recognize scam coins & projects through whitepaper research. Although most projects that turned out to be a scam had a great whitepaper, some of them gave away their bad intentions in the whitepaper. So before investing in any cryptocurrency, you should always check the whitepaper!

What is a whitepaper?
So what is a Whitepaper exactly? When a company intends to launch a new cryptocurrency, they usually set out all the details in a Whitepaper. This document contains the technical, financial and commercial information about the project. This document normally explains in plain language what they’re planning to build, to attract investors and other interested parties. In other words, the whitepaper explains the project’s purpose and process, the Why and the How.

Not every project or coin starts with a whitepaper. Litecoin started by giving a video presentation on ‘Creating Litecoin’ at a Coinbase event. Loom Network decided not to write a whitepaper, but immediately started developing and delivering code. Others are just forks of existing projects, like Bitcoin, so they don’t have their own whitepaper. Some projects bring out a Pink Paper, Green Paper or Yellow Paper and other projects, such as Cardano, bring out multiple whitepapers to describe every part of the tech they are building. Luckily, 99% of the cryptocurrencies and ICO’s still release a whitepaper at some point to outline their project and tech. So if you thinking about investing in a new coin or ICO (and to avoid scams) your first stop is reading the whitepaper.

What parts of a whitepaper do I need to check before investing in a cryptocurrency?
Although scam projects are getting better and better in not raising any suspicion, there are some sections of the whitepaper which you need to take a closer look at to filter out unreliable projects.

1 – Technology
The most important thing is the project’s proposed (technical) solution to a real and relevant problem. It makes no difference if it’s something new or a better application of existing tech, when the problem they’re trying to solve doesn’t need solving, there’s a big chance the project will fail or is set up to raise a quick buck. This is usually the most difficult to verify, but keep an eye out for common buzzwords that are solely used to confuse u without really explaining what the project is about.

2 – Team, Advisors & Partnerships
The people behind the project should be easy to verify. Check their Linkedin, online profiles, company profiles, any addresses you find, advisors, partnerships etc. Don’t be afraid to openly ask them if they’re involved in the project. Fitrova, a project that did an exit scam, boasted about great partnerships, but after checking with those partners they denied even knowing the CEO. Declouds, also a scam, wanted to prove his alleged partnership with a bank, by photoshopping himself into a picture of the board members of that bank. And finally I almost participated in an ICO with fake team members, but just in time the community found out that all the pictures where stolen from some Australian School Board website. So always doublecheck the information provided to you about the people behind the project and don’t forget to do a reverse image search on their pictures.

3 – Roadmap
Technical development always takes longer than promised, but a roadmap gives you an idea if they’re realistic about their goals. If the roadmap states that a mainnet will be delivered within a few months, that would be great, but could also indicate that they’re trying to make a quick buck (unless the started the development way before the ICO/STO/IEO of course).

4 – Token Allocation & Price
Things to look at are the amount of tokens they are going to bring out. It’s a difficult factor, but it might give you an idea if they’re realistic about the project or just want to make a lot of money. If their total token supply and pricing results in a really high marketcap, you should be suspicious about their intentions. Other thing to look at: Will the tokens be locked up (vesting) for team members? Will they burn unsold tokens? Can they bring out extra tokens whenever they decide to do so? Normally the best token allocation for investors is projects with a low token supply, so you get a bigger piece of the pie when you invest, but this strongly depends on the other factors.

5 – The Rest
There are so many things that could be red flags. Make sure to also verify the information on their websites and social media, does it look real or are they just using empty words, fake testimonials and social media bots. It wouldn’t be the first time that you are let to believe they already have a nice User Interface for their wallet, but in reality that are just stolen pictures from another project. Also beware of dubious statements, like stating they’re SEC-compliant or already have secured listing on big exchanges. Or things like saying their product can be used in any store or with every bank. Watch out for Ponzi Schemes like Bitconnect, with promised returns on investment for holding their coins. Sometimes they bloat with big whales who have invested already. Always check out the contribution address and try to trace back those big whales, to make sure it’s not the team contributing to itself faking that they already have landed investors.

Conclusion
In the end, you must feel safe about the project’s intent after reading the whitepaper. A lot of projects that turned out to be a scam had a legit whitepaper at first sight. But after looking closer into the promises they make in the document, how they’re going to build it and with whom they plan to make it a success, it should’ve been possible for investors to pick out the red flags. Of course there are many other factors that could lead to the conclusion that the project is a scam, but researching the whitepaper is one of the most accessible ways for you to verify it yourself.
Fortunately, www.allcryptowhitepapers.com has the largest whitepaper database in the world. With almost 1700 projects in our database, it’s the best place to start your research. Also don’t forget to check out the Whitepaper of the Week and News section, so you don’t miss out on anything. Knowledge is power!

The SEC also has made a great website to warn people about risky ICO’s and scams and they also included a whitepaper about their fake-scamproject, in which you will recognize many of the pointers I brought up in this article, You can check that out here:Howeycoin.

Bakkt’s Cryptocurrency Exchange is Coming, But Will Institutional Investors Follow?

bakkt

By Greg Adams from Blokt

The Bakkt cryptocurrency trading platform is due to launch this November. Many are hoping that it will bring institutional investors to the market, but will this really happen?

Cryptocurrency investors are patiently waiting for the arrival of the Bakkt cryptocurrency exchange, with the hope that it will bring institutional investors, more retail participants, and maybe even Bitcoin availability in 401k accounts. Its launch is planned for November of this year, and it is backed by the trading titan Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owners of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), so there’s good reason to be excited. ICE has also partnered with Microsoft, Starbucks, and Boston Consulting Group.

With the SEC’s recent denial of numerous Bitcoin ETFs, the hope is that Bakkt will introduce a product which is appealing to institutional investors who have so far avoided the cryptocurrency markets, due to worries of manipulation or the lack of trustworthy custody options.

Bakkt Wants Institutional Investors
Bakkt has been touted as a potential onramp for institutional money. The company themselves revealed in a tweet this week that it is “designed to serve as a scalable on-ramp for institutional, merchant, and consumer participation in digital assets by promoting greater efficiency, security, and utility.” But are these pledges enough to attract investors who have so far steered clear of the cryptocurrency markets? Many believe that some institutional investors have already quietly entered the cryptocurrency markets, but can the NYSE owners bring them in droves?

Read the rest of this article at Blokt!

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STO Whitepaper Research – Avoiding Scams

Whitepaper Research

STO’s are expected to be the new ICO’s. But with every hype, you will also have to be careful that you are not being scammed by malicious projects and people who are trying to profit from gullible investors. In this short article I will give you some pointers in how to research a crypto project by researching its whitepaper. Apart from making sure that you invest in a solid project, whitepaper research could also help you avoiding scams.

What is a whitepaper?
So what is a Whitepaper exactly? When a company intends to launch a new crypto, they usually set out all the details in a Whitepaper. This file contains the technical, financial and commercial information about the project, such as an overview of the market, risks, and the use of invested funds. It normally sets out in plain language what they’re planning to build, to attract investors and other interested parties. In other words, the whitepaper explains the project’s purpose and process, the Why and the How.

Some projects do not start with bringing out a whitepaper. Loom network decided not to write a whitepaper, but immediately started developing and delivering code. Litecoin started out by giving a video presentation on ‘Creating Litecoin’ at a Coinbase event. And others are just forks of existing projects, like Bitcoin, so they don’t have their own whitepaper. Some projects bring out a Purple Paper, Green Paper or Yellow Paper or, such as Cardano, bring out multiple whitepapers to describe every part of the technology they’re developing. Luckily, almost every cryptocurrency and STO still release a whitepaper at some point in their roadmap, to outline their project and tech. So if you thinking about investing in a new token or STO and also want to avoid scams, your first stop is reading the whitepaper.

What to look for in a whitepaper?
Technology – The most important thing is the project’s proposed (technical) solution to a real problem, for a large enough relevant market. It makes no difference if it’s something new or a better application of existing tech, when the problem they’re trying to solve doesn’t need solving, there’s a big chance the project will fail or is set up to raise a quick buck. It shouldn’t be a ‘decentralized’ solution to a problem that has already been solved ‘centrally’, without the need for a blockchain or cryptocurrency.

Scam warning: Keep a look out for common buzzwords that are solely used to confuse u, without really explaining what the project is about.

Team – The people behind the project are essential for making it a success. Check out the team and their advisors thoroughly. What is their previous experience? What is their education? Are they involved in more projects? Ask questions if you are in doubt.

Scam warning: Scourge the internet and Linkedin for the team members and verify that they are the real deal. Don’t forget to Google their pictures, if any, to see if they’re legit and not copied from another project/website. There have been some rumors about a scam-project that copied the UI/UX imagepreviews from another company and the pictures of their alleged team members were actually some stolen pictures of middle school teachers in Australia. Also verify the project’s claimed partnerships, since some other scam-projects were suspected by the communities of advertising fake partnerships or photoshopping themselves in pictures with the board members of those ‘partners’.

Roadmap – Technical development always takes longer than promised, but a roadmap gives you an idea if they’re realistic about their goals. If the mainnet is set to be delivered in 1+ years, that might be a more risky investment considering the rapidly changing crypto environment and other (similar) projects popping up.

Scam warning: If the roadmap states that a mainnet will be delivered within a few months, that would be great, but could also indicate that they’re trying to make a quick buck (unless the started the development way before the STO of course).

Token allocation – Things to look at are the amount of tokens they are going to bring out. Will the tokens be locked up (vesting) for team members? Will they burn unsold tokens? Can they bring out extra tokens whenever they decide to do so? Or are they gradually releasing new tokens at set times? Is there an inflation rate? What is the consensus mechanism? These are all factors to take into consideration when you make an investment. Normally the best token allocation for investors is projects with a low token supply, so you get a bigger piece of the pie when you invest, but this strongly depends on the other factors.

Scam warning: this is a difficult factor, but it might give you an idea if they’re realistic about the project or just want to make a lot of money. If their total token supply and pricing results in a really high market cap, you should be suspicious about their intentions.

SEC-compliance – The SEC is going to release a guidance on security token analysis. This enables security tokens to be structured in accordance with securities regulations, so that token holders’ rights can be similar to those who buy shares in a publicly traded company. You can check with the team if there’s been a SEC-filing and read the SEC’s rules to confirm the STO is going in the right direction.

The rest – Many other things in a whitepaper could be a dealbreaker for smart investors. What are the short and long term goals of the token holders? What role do the tokens play in the project? Can you use the tokens for a certain product, or are they more like shares in a company? Are there many large private sale investors with influence on the team or are the tokens distributed to many smaller investors? What is their marketing strategy?

Scam warning: There are so many things that could be red flags. Make sure to verify any info on their websites and social media, does it look real or are they just using empty words, fake testimonials and social media bots. Are there no dubious statements? For example, IOTA (which was not a scam at all) allegedly claimed a Microsoft partnership, which actually was just an Office 365 subscription. Be aware of claims that their product can be used in any store or with every bank. Watch out for Ponzi Schemes like Bitconnect, with promised returns on investment for holding their tokens. Sometimes they bloat with big whales who have invested already. Always check out the contribution address and try to trace back those big whales, to make sure it’s not the team contributing to itself faking that they already have landed investors.

Conclusion
In the end, you must feel some form of excitement after reading the whitepaper. You have to have faith in the Why & How of the project and the team. You want to leave your money into the hands of a trustworthy project with a clear road ahead. A lot of projects that turned out to be a scam had a legit whitepaper at first sight. But after looking closer into the promises they make in the document, how they’re going to build it and with whom they plan to make it a success, it should’ve been possible for investors to pick out the red flags. Of course there are many other factors that could lead to the conclusion that the project is not a solid investment, but researching the whitepaper is one of the most accessible ways for you to verify it yourself.

Fortunately, www.allcryptowhitepapers.com has the largest whitepaper database in the world. With 2600+ projects in our database, it’s the best place to start your research. Also don’t forget to check out the Whitepaper of the Week and News section, so you don’t miss out on anything. Knowledge is power!

Article by John van Rijck from www.allcryptowhitepapers.com

Header image by https://photos.icons8.com/

5 things you need to check before investing in a cryptocurrency

Whitepaper Research

In this article I will give you 5 pointers on how to recognize scam coins & projects through whitepaper research. Although most projects that turned out to be a scam had a great whitepaper, some of them gave away their bad intentions in the whitepaper. So before investing in any cryptocurrency, you should always check the whitepaper!

What is a whitepaper?
So what is a Whitepaper exactly? When a company intends to launch a new cryptocurrency, they usually set out all the details in a Whitepaper. This document contains the technical, financial and commercial information about the project. This document normally explains in plain language what they’re planning to build, to attract investors and other interested parties. In other words, the whitepaper explains the project’s purpose and process, the Why and the How.

Not every project or coin starts with a whitepaper. Litecoin started by giving a video presentation on ‘Creating Litecoin’ at a Coinbase event. Loom Network decided not to write a whitepaper, but immediately started developing and delivering code. Others are just forks of existing projects, like Bitcoin, so they don’t have their own whitepaper. Some projects bring out a Pink Paper, Green Paper or Yellow Paper and other projects, such as Cardano, bring out multiple whitepapers to describe every part of the tech they are building. Luckily, 99% of the cryptocurrencies and ICO’s/STO’s/IEO’s still release a whitepaper at some point to outline their project and tech. So if you thinking about investing in a new coin (and to avoid scams) your first stop is reading the whitepaper.

What parts of a whitepaper do I need to check before investing in a cryptocurrency?
Although scam projects are getting better and better in not raising any suspicion, there are some sections of the whitepaper which you need to take a closer look at to filter out unreliable projects.

1 – Technology
The most important thing is the project’s proposed (technical) solution to a real and relevant problem. It makes no difference if it’s something new or a better application of existing tech, when the problem they’re trying to solve doesn’t need solving, there’s a big chance the project will fail or is set up to raise a quick buck. This is usually the most difficult to verify, but keep an eye out for common buzzwords that are solely used to confuse u without really explaining what the project is about.

2 – Team, Advisors & Partnerships
The people behind the project should be easy to verify. Check their Linkedin, online profiles, company profiles, any addresses you find, advisors, partnerships etc. Don’t be afraid to openly ask them if they’re involved in the project. Fitrova, a project that did an exit scam, boasted about great partnerships, but after checking with those partners they denied even knowing the CEO. Declouds, also a scam, wanted to prove his alleged partnership with a bank, by photoshopping himself into a picture of the board members of that bank. And finally I almost participated in an ICO with fake team members, but just in time the community found out that all the pictures where stolen from some Australian School Board website. So always doublecheck the information provided to you about the people behind the project and don’t forget to do a reverse image search on their pictures.

3 – Roadmap
Technical development always takes longer than promised, but a roadmap gives you an idea if they’re realistic about their goals. If the roadmap states that a mainnet will be delivered within a few months, that would be great, but could also indicate that they’re trying to make a quick buck (unless the started the development way before the ICO/STO/IEO of course).

4 – Token Allocation & Price
Things to look at are the amount of tokens they are going to bring out. It;s a difficult factor, but it might give you an idea if they’re realistic about the project or just want to make a lot of money. If their total token supply and pricing results in a really high marketcap, you should be suspicious about their intentions. Other thing to look at: Will the tokens be locked up (vesting) for team members? Will they burn unsold tokens? Can they bring out extra tokens whenever they decide to do so? Normally the best token allocation for investors is projects with a low token supply, so you get a bigger piece of the pie when you invest, but this strongly depends on the other factors.

5 – The Rest
There are so many things that could be red flags. Make sure to also verify the information on their websites and social media, does it look real or are they just using empty words, fake testimonials and social media bots. It wouldn’t be the first time that you are let to believe they already have a nice User Interface for their wallet, but in reality that are just stolen pictures from another project. Also beware of dubious statements, like stating they’re SEC-compliant or already have secured listing on big exchanges. Or things like saying their product can be used in any store or with every bank. Watch out for Ponzi Schemes like Bitconnect, with promised returns on investment for holding their coins. Sometimes they bloat with big whales who have invested already. Always check out the contribution address and try to trace back those big whales, to make sure it’s not the team contributing to itself faking that they already have landed investors.

Conclusion
In the end, you must feel safe about the project’s intent after reading the whitepaper. A lot of projects that turned out to be a scam had a legit whitepaper at first sight. But after looking closer into the promises they make in the document, how they’re going to build it and with whom they plan to make it a success, it should’ve been possible for investors to pick out the red flags. Of course there are many other factors that could lead to the conclusion that the project is a scam, but researching the whitepaper is one of the most accessible ways for you to verify it yourself.
Fortunately, www.allcryptowhitepapers.com has the largest whitepaper database in the world. With almost 1700 projects in our database, it’s the best place to start your research. Also don’t forget to check out the Whitepaper of the Week and News section, so you don’t miss out on anything. Knowledge is power!

The SEC also has made a great website to warn people about risky ICO’s and scams and they also included a whitepaper about their fake-scamproject, in which you will recognize many of the pointers I brought up in this article, You can check that out here: Howeycoin.

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STO Whitepaper

Security token
Security token is a type of digital asset that represents or derives its value from some other, external asset and is issued on top of third-party blockchain network. Security tokens can both represent real-life material assets like square meters of real estate or grams of gold and non-material assets like, for example, companies’ shares. The process of generating security tokens is called a security token offering. Security token offering (STO) is a type of fundraising that is performed with a company offering tokenized securities. The defining feature of security token offerings is in its definition. When ICOs are conducted with cryptocoins and IPOs with securities, STO is a combination of both.

Security token offering (STO) is a type of fundraising that is performed with a company offering tokenized securities. The defining feature of security token offerings is in its definition. When ICOs are conducted with cryptocoins and IPOs with securities, STO is a combination of both.

Development process
A company can move in two directions when developing a brand new asset for the security token offering. The first way is to issue real-life securities and tokenize them via various platforms by using the distributed network as a repository for all the transactions. Blockchain won’t allow the info about securities to become misleading and will provide it with secure and high-speed operating. In this way, securities will be more manageable to provide to the initial investors and to offer its secure exchange. Besides, the potential investors will be sure that the company is firm in its plan and has some assurance in its future success. On the other hand, this approach still requires some prominent juridical work in order to develop the securities. The other way is to issue such tokens that are securities by nature but not in the real-life representation. It means that for such assets, the value is in the encoded rules that those tokens abide by. Such STO tokens don’t require any legal work but need significant work on the technical side of development as all the rules should be defined precisely and correctly. Anyway, both paths will provide the business issuing such securities with an efficient way to gather funding. The tokens will be likely listed on various exchanges and sold during the security token offering of the company. Investors will have a robust and stable way to both store and transfer their ownership rights over the assets.

STO Whitepaper
When a company intends to launch a new Security Token through an STO, they usually set out all the details in a Whitepaper. Technical, financial and commercial information about the project is explained in this document. Normally they aim to provide a document that explains in plain language what they’re planning to do, to attract investors and other interested parties. The Whitepaper is usually accompanied by a One Pager, he project summarized in one page, and a Position Paper, which details the competition and their (better) position in comparison with the competition.

Security token offering services
Multiple companies provide security token issuance. Some of the blockchain Security Token Offering platforms are:
Polymath
ICON
Smartlands
STO is also possible to perform with some more popular and less specific blockchain platforms that support token issuance, like, for example, Ethereum, EOS, NEO, Cardano, and some others. However, this approach will require some more advanced technical work as those platforms are not as focused on STO as the previously mentioned ones.

Read more on how to research STO Whitepapers to avoid scams here

Want to know how to do whitepaper research or looking for all ico white papers? Check our cryptocurrency News section! We also have the best cryptocurrency whitepaper listed as our Whitepaper of the Week!

This post will be updated in the near future. Feel free to make any suggestions.

[Sources: BitcoinWiki]

Whitepaper Research – Avoiding Scams

Whitepaper Research

Whitepaper Research – Avoiding Scams

In this short article I will give you some pointers in how to research a crypto project by researching its whitepaper. Apart from making sure that you invest in a solid project, whitepaper research could also help you avoiding scams.

What is a whitepaper?

So what is a Whitepaper exactly? When a company intends to launch a new crypto, they usually set out all the details in a Whitepaper. This file contains the technical, financial and commercial information about the project. It normally sets out in plain language what they’re planning to build, to attract investors and other interested parties. In other words, the whitepaper explains the project’s purpose and process, the Why and the How.

Some projects do not start with bringing out a whitepaper. Loom network decided not to write a whitepaper, but immediately started developing and delivering code. Litecoin started out by giving a video presentation on ‘Creating Litecoin’ at a Coinbase event. And others are just forks of existing projects, like Bitcoin, so they don’t have their own whitepaper. Some projects bring out a Purple Paper, Green Paper or Yellow Paper or, such as Cardano, bring out multiple whitepapers to describe every part of the technology they’re developing. Luckily, almost every cryptocurrency and ICO still release a whitepaper at some point in their roadmap, to outline their project and tech. So if you thinking about investing in a new coin or ICO and also want to avoid scams, your first stop is reading the whitepaper.

What to look for in a whitepaper?

Technology – The most important thing is the project’s proposed (technical) solution to a real problem, for a large enough relevant market. It makes no difference if it’s something new or a better application of existing tech, when the problem they’re trying to solve doesn’t need solving, there’s a big chance the project will fail or is set up to raise a quick buck. It shouldn’t be a ‘decentralized’ solution to a problem that has already been solved ‘centrally’, without the need for a blockchain or cryptocurrency.

Scam warning: Keep a look out for common buzzwords that are solely used to confuse u, without really explaining what the project is about.

Team – The people behind the project are essential for making it a success. Check out the team and their advisors thoroughly. What is their previous experience? What is their education? Are they involved in more projects? Ask questions if you are in doubt.

Scam warning: Scourge the internet and Linkedin for the team members and verify that they are the real deal. Don’t forget to Google their pictures, if any, to see if they’re legit. Fitrova, a project that did an exit scam, boasted about great partnerships, but after checking with those partners they denied even knowing the CEO. Declouds, also a scam, wanted to prove his alleged partnership with a bank, by photoshopping himself into a picture of the board members of that bank. Another project, during their ICO, got called out on their stolen UI pictures and images of their alledged team members, who where actually some stolen pictures of middle school teachers in Australia.

Roadmap – Technical development always takes longer than promised, but a roadmap gives you an idea if they’re realistic about their goals. If the mainnet is set to be delivered in 1+ years, that might be a more risky investment considering the rapidly changing crypto environment and other (similar) projects popping up.

Scam warning: If the roadmap states that a mainnet will be delivered within a few months, that would be great, but could also indicate that they’re trying to make a quick buck (unless the started the development way before the ICO of cource).

Token allocation – Things to look at are the amount of tokens they are going to bring out. Will the tokens be locked up (vesting) for team members? Will they burn unsold tokens? Can they bring out extra tokens whenever they decide to do so? Or are they gradually releasing new tokens at set times? Is there an inflation rate? What is the consensus mechanism? These are all factors to take into consideration when you make an investment. Normally the best token allocation for investors is projects with a low token supply, so you get a bigger piece of the pie when you invest, but this strongly depends on the other factors.

Scam warning: this is a difficult factor, but it might give you an idea if they’re realistic about the project or just want to make a lot of money. If their total token supply and pricing results in a really high marketcap, you should be suspicious about their intentions.

The rest – Many other things in a whitepaper could be a dealbreaker for smart investors. What are the short and long term goals of the token holders? What role do the tokens play in the project? Can you use the tokens for a certain product, or are they more like shares in a company? Are there many large private sale investors with influence on the team or are the tokens distributed to many smaller investors? What is their marketing strategy?

Scam warning: There are so many things that could be red flags. Make sure to verify any info on their websites and social media, does it look real or are they just using empty words, fake testimonials and social media bots. Are there no dubious statements? Like stating that they’re ‘SEC compliant’ whilst the SEC never pre-approves ICO’s, or naming big partners without having the proper agreements or claimed partnerships. For example, IOTA (which was not a scam at all) claimed a Microsoft partnership, which actually was just an Office 365 subscription. Be aware of claims that their product can be used in any store or with every bank. Watch out for Ponzi Schemes like Bitconnect, with promised returns on investment for holding their coins. Sometimes they bloat with big whales who have invested already. Always check out the contribution address and try to trace back those big whales, to make sure it’s not the team contributing to itself faking that they already have landed investors.

Conclusion

In the end, you must feel some form of excitement after reading the whitepaper. You have to have faith in the Why & How of the project and the team. You want to leave your money into the hands of a trustworthy project with a clear road ahead. A lot of projects that turned out to be a scam had a legit whitepaper at first sight. But after looking closer into the promises they make in the document, how they’re going to build it and with whom they plan to make it a success, it should’ve been possible for investors to pick out the red flags. Of course there are many other factors that could lead to the conclusion that the project is not a solid investment, but researching the whitepaper is one of the most accessible ways for you to verify it yourself.

Fortunately, www.allcryptowhitepapers.com has the largest whitepaper database in the world. With 2500+ projects in our database, it’s the best place to start your research. Also don’t forget to check out the Whitepaper of the Week and News section, so you don’t miss out on anything. Knowledge is power!

Article by John van Rijck from www.allcryptowhitepapers.com

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