I was a very big proponent for Obama’s jobs bill part 4 because it had a clause inside it that specifically let regular everyday people invest in securities that are not being offered on an exchange. I really wanted website like kickstarter to go away and be replaced by sites that would actually let you invest in the product. There were so many times with kickstarter where people built companies off user funding and sold them for millions and the people who gave them money were never compensated. I personally think that is just plain wrong. 

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If you are giving your money to a project that might never return it, which seems to have been a large percentage of kickstarters, you should be compensated for that risk if the product does extremely well. This is where I saw a place for crowdfund investment and the normal person taking part without a middleman. Now companies could raise money at a lower price, get more to expand their business and everyone would reap the rewards. While this is actually picking up on some sites on the internet, it seems that the crypto ICO has taken over.

Where I was once extremely excited for everyone to be able to invest in a certain product, I now find myself questioning the idea. Im not a fan of consumer protection at all, I think someone should be able to do with their money what they please, but I am also not in favor of duping old ladies out o their money which was the biggest concern with crowdfund investment and now is transferring to ICOs. 

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I think my problem with ICOs is that anyone can start them up promise the world and many will be fooled into investing and then it is extremely easy for them to just disappear into thin air with no recourse. Many of the ICOs you see today are bound to fail like any new venture, but the people losing money seem to be people who don’t understand the risk. There is definitely some hype around ICOs today and every week one or another seems to raise above a million dollars. 

I actually think we should be able to invest in ICOs I just worry about people who are going to get burned by the whole experience. Weve seen it with various crypto projects and we will see it with many more in the future, many people don’t know what they are actually investing in. They aren’t technical, they are really just throwing a dart on a dart board or picking a project because it looks cool. In reality you know it as well as I do that there are people out there that would take an old lady’s pension or a child’s lunch money and feel nothing. Whether we should stop these people or test the waters on how successful ICOs will be, is what really interests me.

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I think ICOs are an experiment right now and I actually want to see them continue so we can compare what happens in 10 years. I think some loss is essential in a real life testing scenario, I just want to make sure that everyone reading this is safe. Do your due diligence and never risk more than you can afford to lose. The rules of crypto stay the same no matter how large the market cap becomes. Even if we reach a trillion dollar valuation, you still need to abide by those rules.