Should I invest in ICOs? What current studies say

Hello Steemians,

today I want to inform you about the latest studies which have investigated the success and other important details about ICOs. Maybe you already participated in an ICO or you want to but you are not sure how to start.

1. ICO-Rule #1: do your own research!

It is not good just relying on platforms like ICO-bench, because these websites earn money by giving "premium placements" to ICOs which are ready to pay much for this. There are a few bitcoin news sites who even tried to get fake reviews by the so called "ICO experts". It was no problem for them to find different services who offered to give them five stars and a long text why their ICO is the best.

2. Current studies

The next thing I want to point out is a current study from US-American ICO consultant group Satis. They found out that 54% of the total money was invested in successful ICOs (reaching their aim), whereas 78% of total ICO were Scams. This maybe sounds paradox but it means that people tended to invest less money in ICOs which they did not trust. It is important to always do your own research.

-> https://research.bloomberg.com/pub/res/d28giW28tf6G7T_Wr77aU0gDgFQ

3. Before investing in ICOs, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is the page I visit trustful and serious?
• Is the page original or just a fake site?
• Can I trust the team?
• What do other users say about the ICO?
• Is the whitepaper really individual or just copied from another ICO?
• Is there already a working product?
• Are there ICOs which want to reach the same?
• What sums of money were already invested?
• Is the roadmap realistic?

4. Don't invest money that you can't afford to lose

Keep in mind that most ICOs fail in long term. It's a high risk investment. In the end it's the 1% that go to the moon where you can really get a big return on investment. Do never invest in ICOs you don't understand and inform yourself very well. A good point to start is at bitcointalk.org, where most serious ICO-projects are posted and other users can comment, so you maybe find arguments that did not come to your mind before. Don't forget that every tool or platform can be manipulated with fake accounts so always look up if the opinions are serious and trustful. If there is not any criticism, it's very suspicious.

5. Be patient

When an ICO starts, always wait a few days and check if other people have already invested larger sums of money. If there is no dynamic situation and you see that the ICO will fail it's better to not invest because you have to wait many months to get your money back (if it's no scam in the end...).

6. My personal investments

I invested in MinerOne (mining company), Gimmer (AI-bot trading platform), Sharpay (share button technology) and AffiliateCoin (affiliate platform) in the last months.

Did you already invest in ICOs? Share your experiences here :)