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What is an initial coin offering?
ICOs are essentially blockchain crowdsales, the cryptocurrency version of crowdfunding. The ICOs have been truly revolutionary and have managed to accomplish many amazing tasks:

They have provided the easiest path through which DAPP developers can obtain the necessary financing for their project.
Anyone can get invested in a project he or she is interested in by purchasing the tokens of that specific DAPP and becoming part of the project themselves.

It was in July 2014 when ICOs well and truly came to the public's attention. That's when the Ethereum ICO raised $18.4 million and ushered in a new era of ICOs.

Since 2013, ICOs have been commonly used to finance the development of new cryptocurrencies. The pre-made token can be easily sold and traded on all cryptocurrency exchanges if there is a demand for it.

With the success of Ethereum, ICOs have become the de facto method of financing the development of a crypto project by releasing a token that is somehow integrated into the project.

Brief history of the first coin offering
Perhaps Ripple was the first cryptocurrency to be distributed through an ICO. In early 2013, Ripple Labs began developing the Ripple payment system and created approximately 100 billion XRP tokens. The company sold this token to finance the development of the Ripple platform.

Later in 2013, Mastercoin promised to create a layer on top of Bitcoin to execute smart contracts and tokenize Bitcoin transactions. The developer sold one million Mastercoin tokens against Bitcoin and received approximately $1 million.

Several other cryptocurrencies have been ICO-funded, for example Lisk, which sold its coins for around $5 million in early 2016. The most prominent, however, is Ethereum. In mid-2014, the Ethereum Foundation sold ETH at 0.0005 Bitcoin each. With this, they receive almost $20 million, which has become one of the largest crowdfunding ever and serves as a capital base for the development of Ethereum.

When Ethereum itself unleashed the power of smart contracts, it opened the door for a new generation of Initial Coin Offerings.

Ethereum – The first coin offering? ICO Crowdfunding Machine
One of the easiest applications of Ethereum's smart contract system is to create a simple token that can be traded on the Ethereum blockchain instead of Ether. These types of contracts were standardized with ERC#20. It made Ethereum host to such a wide range of ICOs that it's safe to say that Ethereum has found its Killer App as a distributed crowdfunding and fundraising platform.

What is an initial coin offering? The Future of Fundraising (ICO)

The most prominent demonstration of the potential of Ethereum smart contracts is the DAO. The distributed investment company was fueled with $100 million worth of Ether. The investors in return received Ether Dao Token, which had its own market price and allowed the holder to participate in the governance of the DAO. However, after it was hacked, the DAO failed.

The concept of financing projects with a token on Ethereum became the blueprint for a new and highly successful generation of crowdfunding projects. If you've already tried it, you know that token investing on top of Ethereum is very simple: you transfer ETH, stick the contract in your wallet – and, tata: the token appears in your account and you are free to transfer them as you wish. want to.

Before we go any further, let's first understand what tokens mean.

Tokens = ICO cryptocurrency?

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