ALERT***Urgency Of Owning Bitcoin

Everyone has heard of ICOs, but an older approach involving airdrops and hard forks is gaining new traction and holders of Bitcoin and Ethereum stand to benefit significantly if the trend continues.

In an ICO, participants contribute capital to buy tokens whereas, in an airdrop (or hard fork), tokens are allocated to existing holders of a particular chain—typically Bitcoin or Ethereum. That’s right, instead of buying tokens, they’re simply given away to the holders of another coin.

If the trend continues, Bitcoin and Ethereum are poised to spin-off dozens or hundreds of crypto-offspring. If so, this phenomenon could have significant implications for Bitcoin and Ether (the native asset of Ethereum) holders—and increase urgency for prospective holders. (Disclosure: My firm, Blockchain Capital, invests in blockchain startups and crypto assets including Bitcoin and Ether.)

Let’s dig in to understand the viability of this approach and, most importantly, its implications for Bitcoin and Ether holders.

Objectives of a token sale

Why would a project distribute its tokens for free instead of selling them? In many ways, the airdrop (or hard fork) method of distributing tokens is a better way to accomplish the same objectives of an ICO, which are usually three-fold:

Distribute the token: The idea is to get your token into as many hands as possible to build a strong early foundation of user-advocates—so, breadth of distribution is typically the important metric, particularly given that many projects are trying to jumpstart a network effect.
Raise awareness & gain mindshare: A high-profile ICO can help raise awareness among users and developers.
Raise capital: To fund the future development and build-out of the project.