Abstract

AbstractAn Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is an innovative way to raise funds and launch a startup. It is also an opportunity to take part in a project, or in a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). The use of ICO is a global phenomenon that involves many nations and several business categories: ICOs collected over 5.2 billion dollars only in 2017. The success of an ICO is based on the credibility and innovativeness of project proposals. This fund-raising tool contains however some critical issues, such as the use of tokens that have no intrinsic value and do not generate direct liquidity, and the role of investors in the management of the startup. We analyzed if the Lean Startup methodology is helpful to face this critical aspects and we examined some ICOs in which the proposing team states explicitly that a lean startup approach is used.

Highlights

  • Initial Coin Offering (ICO) are the new trend in the cryptocurrencies field

  • Investors should be able to answer two simple questions: “What novelty and what value does this project bring to the world?” And : “Does it make sense to invest in this project?” The questions arising from this premise are the following: “Can an investor monitor the evolution of the startup based on an ICO and actively collaborate on the success of this startup?” In this paper we evaluate the lean startup approach as a methodology for the implementation of an ICO based on the collaboration between all the stakeholders involved and founded on a continuous iteration process that allows investors to be an integral part in the startup’s development and to interact continuously with the executive team and product development team

  • The idea of ICO is very similar to the well-known concept of Initial Public Offering (IPO), where a company decides to place its shares on the stock exchange, to open its capital to new shareholders

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Summary

Introduction

The technology to create a new cryptocurrency is cheap: in a short time and without large investments any company can present itself to the market with its fundraising and the related token. With these premises, an ICO is the most innovative solution to finance themselves outside the traditional channels, especially for startups.

Related Work
The Main Characteristics of ICOs
How Does an ICO Works?
Overview of ICOs Phenomenon Statistics
ICOs’ Critical Aspects
ICOs as Lean Startups
Three Different Case Studies
Findings
Conclusions
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