ICO Due Diligence tips, part 0

I have been looking into cryptocurrencies for few weeks now and I am totally fascinated by the whole idea. I just wish I had dropped my prejudices sooner and got in earlier.

I have been gathering information about various coins, initial coin offerings, wallets, exchanges, etc. One thing i have noticed that people are quick to drop opinions on various forums without any shred of evidence behind their claims.

At least half the active population on reddit, bitcointalk, Facebook, etc. are just saying: "it's a scam, stay away" or "HODL! it's going TO THE MOON!" And they do that without presenting any evidence or source backing their claim.

I found out that it's pretty hard to come across credible sources for information.

There are projects that split for some reason and it may escalate as personal issues between project members and that can get pretty ugly.

There are also real scammers and other fishy players on the field. And then there are security holes in otherwise good products. It's a risky business.

So this is what I concluded about cryptocurrency scene right now...

After this introduction I will try to contribute to the community by writing a series of stories in which I will describe how I conduct my "due diligence" on crowdsales, cryptocurrencies and ICOs. This is to help everyone to find out fact based information on their own and not having to rely on unfounded claims of anonymous forum postings.

Here's what's to come:
Part 1 - Technical (website, domain ownership, product development, whitepaper)
Part 2 - Product (what is the service/project like, is it realistic, does it have competitive edge, is there a roadmap)
Part 3 - People (people behind the project, developers, board, advisors, registered Company/organization, location)
Part 4 - Communication (ask questions, social media, check what others think)
Part 5 - ICO participation (everything above may check out, avoid mistakes on sending the money)
Part 6 - Additional resources (links, websites)

Any ideas and feedback appreciated, thanks and stay safe!

Best regards,
safir57

P.S. This is my first steemit post so I apologize for possible technical glitches.

P.P.S. English is not my native language so I apologize for possible grammatical mistakes too.