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One of the first ICOs, Ethereum, run by the Ethereum Foundation in Switzerland, has successfully created a platform to run ICOs. It is legitimate so long as the

by hudon 9y ago

One of the first ICOs, Ethereum, run by the Ethereum Foundation in Switzerland, has successfully created a platform to run ICOs. It is legitimate so long as there is at least 1 Ethereum-based ICO that leads to a useful product.

Waterluvian 9y ago
And if there aren't any, it's like a meta ponzi scheme. I'm optimistic that there's surely something practical out there.
- hudon 9y ago
  For something practical, I’d look at Bitcoin. It seems to be somewhat useful for routing payments around regulation. Even at that, though, it currently isn’t very good due to how inefficient the blockchain is. Maybe non-blockchain technologies like the Lightning Network will help... but if you can’t even create a successful payment network with a blockchain, I don’t see any reason to be optimistic, given that no other use cases have shown any hint of success.
Alex3917 9y ago
> It is legitimate so long as there is at least 1 Ethereum-based ICO that leads to a useful product. Not a legal standard. They took money from non-accredited investors in the U.S. and didn't do KYC/AML. It really isn't that complicated.
Xixi 9y ago
My first thought was CryptoKitties. It might be a kind of game, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's not like blockchains are proving all that useful for anything else...
- hudon 9y ago
  Is anyone actually playing? I thought that was like a short-term gimmick where people were trading cats but there is no actual game. I don’t know if I’d call it a successful use case just yet, but rather I would wait at least a year or two to see how such experiments play out before making a call.
52-6F-62 9y ago
I'm not sure about ICO's. They're pretty wantonly carried out. However Ethereum as a technology and platform has been making the odd inroads. The UN previously used it successfully in a project to help maintain ID's for refugees and dispersion of aid a few years ago. Canada's currently experimenting with using it for tracking dispersion of funding and grants by the National Research Council[0] as well as experimenting with the same digital ID's (via Accenture/Microsoft) for air travel.[1] [0] NRC Website: https://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/stories/2018/blockchains.html https://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/stories/2018/blockchains.html [0] Overview article: https://globalnews.ca/news/3977745/ethereum-blockchain-canada-nrc/ https://globalnews.ca/news/3977745/ethereum-blockchain-canad... [0] NRC Working Prototype: https://nrc-cnrc.explorecatena.com/en https://nrc-cnrc.explorecatena.com/en [1] https://globalnews.ca/news/3991496/known-traveller-digital-identity-pilot-canada/ https://globalnews.ca/news/3991496/known-traveller-digital-i...

by hudon 9y ago

Waterluvian 9y ago

And if there aren't any, it's like a meta ponzi scheme. I'm optimistic that there's surely something practical out there.

hudon 9y ago
For something practical, I’d look at Bitcoin. It seems to be somewhat useful for routing payments around regulation. Even at that, though, it currently isn’t very good due to how inefficient the blockchain is. Maybe non-blockchain technologies like the Lightning Network will help... but if you can’t even create a successful payment network with a blockchain, I don’t see any reason to be optimistic, given that no other use cases have shown any hint of success.

Alex3917 9y ago

> It is legitimate so long as there is at least 1 Ethereum-based ICO that leads to a useful product. Not a legal standard. They took money from non-accredited investors in the U.S. and didn't do KYC/AML. It really isn't that complicated.

Xixi 9y ago

My first thought was CryptoKitties. It might be a kind of game, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's not like blockchains are proving all that useful for anything else...

hudon 9y ago
Is anyone actually playing? I thought that was like a short-term gimmick where people were trading cats but there is no actual game. I don’t know if I’d call it a successful use case just yet, but rather I would wait at least a year or two to see how such experiments play out before making a call.

52-6F-62 9y ago

I'm not sure about ICO's. They're pretty wantonly carried out. However Ethereum as a technology and platform has been making the odd inroads. The UN previously used it successfully in a project to help maintain ID's for refugees and dispersion of aid a few years ago. Canada's currently experimenting with using it for tracking dispersion of funding and grants by the National Research Council[0] as well as experimenting with the same digital ID's (via Accenture/Microsoft) for air travel.[1] [0] NRC Website: https://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/stories/2018/blockchains.html https://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/stories/2018/blockchains.html [0] Overview article: https://globalnews.ca/news/3977745/ethereum-blockchain-canada-nrc/ https://globalnews.ca/news/3977745/ethereum-blockchain-canad... [0] NRC Working Prototype: https://nrc-cnrc.explorecatena.com/en https://nrc-cnrc.explorecatena.com/en [1] https://globalnews.ca/news/3991496/known-traveller-digital-identity-pilot-canada/ https://globalnews.ca/news/3991496/known-traveller-digital-i...