A Noob's Guide to Researching New Coins and ICOs

Here are some research techniques I use when looking into new coins or ICOs. In coming posts I will give some coin reviews on projects I find promising and others I feel should be better left alone. Please let me know what you think and if you have any questions or suggestions!

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Read the white paper! This may be boring, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. You may not understand everything in it, and that is fine. Google is your friend. Often the more technical and hard to understand, the better, however this is not a hard and fast rule. Many white papers are turning into glorfied marketing docs, and this is a slight red flag, but as so many are shifting to this approach, it within itself is not a red flag
Lots of buzzwords can be a red flag. Little technical or mathematical documentation to back up what they want to do, or a github that does not reflect their aim is a red flag.

That leads us to #2 Check the github.

See how few commits and devs are “working” on Verge, and compare that to the robust amount of commits and pulls on PIVX.
This is an easier thing to gauge in more mature projects such as these examples. With newer coins or ICOs, the main thing to look for is that there is more to to their github than how to run a token sale. Do they have any working pieces yet? How often are the commits? How many of the team members from the site are working on it? You don’t have to be the most technical person to evaluate this, vaporware teams often don’t put the effort into making their git seem complicated. If it looks like a lot of work, it likely is.

Research the team. Have they worked on other projects before? Are they active in the open source community? Do they have a LINKedIN? Make sure they are real people! Sounds like a joke, but look at Confido. We are in the wild wild west still, and this is a part of due diligence. It may not be the easiest to evaluate, but should still be on your to do list when researching an ico or new coin.

What is their market cap? Who are their competitors? What are their marketcaps? How do they use the funds? IN an ICO, what is the cap? How much room for growth does this leave? Is there a bonus? Did you miss it? If so, realize that you may get dumped on by those with a hefty bonus and may be worth waiting for said dump on ED or small exchanges.

On a project that has been up and running for a little bit, a big factor to look into when researching is how have they done with their road map? Evaluate the roadmap, and then check to see if they have delivered on time, or close to it. Hitting your roadmap goals is an important way to make sure the team is on pace to deliver the product they have promised. If they have been late or missed a target, but you are still interested , you can ask why in our next step.

Join the telegram/slack/discord for the coin or ico

This is the best way to get a feel for the community. Community is huge in crypto. When hype dies down the two main drivers of a coin are first and foremost its tech and secondly its community. Often you will get the chance in these chats to speak to people on the team, and sometimes the devs. Ask the community and team all the remaining questions you have. Hang out there a bit and read, click around. You may even end up finding a community you really like. There are some really great communities out there where you will learn so much and network with other enthusiasts, and find projects together.