By Benjamin Barraza

Summary:

Each ICO has an associated white paper that describes the firm's business model, market, cryptocurrency, the team behind the project, and the technology. Then investments are made in the startups. The white papers differ in scope and detail. Comprehensive white papers describing technologically-sophisticated details raised more money than superficial ones simply making claims. Examples of ICO successes and failures are described.

General Take-aways:

• Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are important to understand because startups play an important role in the global blockchain landscape
• ICOs resulted in $14 billion invested during their first five years
• Insights about the processes involved in ICOs shed light on the relationship between technical white papers and the amount of money raised
• Detailed and comprehensive white papers were most successful
• This paper follows the "conversation" model, where Barraza's research is explored
• Insights from history are augmented by insights about changes in the market since his analysis