Founder of the first ICO platform here (April '14, SWARM) and early contributor to the Ethereum project. I half-left the industry for a few reasons: (1) Curre

Founder of the first ICO platform here (April '14, SWARM) and early contributor to the Ethereum project. I half-left the industry for a few reasons: (1) Current crypto-markets highly favor "smoke and mirror" hype-driven approach to product as opposed to a user and product centric approach. (2) Most "businesses" in the space are basically about skimming money off the top of a frothy market and effectively encouraging the scammy parts of the system. I suppose I could be making a lot of money this way right now but would highly violate my personal ethics to do so. (3) It is exceedingly difficult to tie any sort of standard value to a blockchain-issued token, partially because of the complex regulatory framework around such offerings (4) The libertarian bias of the industry effectively forces a massive head on collision between the incumbents (e.g. the SEC) and folks trying to circumvent their control, also effectively guaranteeing some version of "blood on the streets." That said, as someone who founded the first platform dedicated to these topics I obviously think there are a lot of positive elements that are possible. Including: (1) Streamlining and adding efficiency to capital markets by removing middlemen (2) Funding novel highly sophisticated technological projects that would be difficult to get funding for in the VC world (Ethereum, DASH) (3) Creating broader incentivization than exists in traditional funding models such that users of a product are directly incentivized by its success (4) Allowing for novel forms of governance and organizations that are not bound by the legal system of any specific legal jurisdiction (e.g. DAOs) All of these ultimately have high value. However, I think what we are likely to see is a major phase of consolidation after the current hype cycle wears off (much as what happened with "the DAO"). The reality is that ICOs are mostly scammy and useless projects at the moment with a few shining examples. DISCLOSURE: I don't mean to critique any particular political philosophy in this post. If I have criticism it is more directed to tactics and strategy.