Hello everyone! As some of you may know, I wrote some articles last year evaluating some existing Lumen Wallets in detail. Those articles were helpful to many people that don't know much about cryptocurrencies but are interested in these topics and would like to know which wallets are more trustable. After seeing how these evaluations were helpful to other people, I decided to evaluate ICOs - Initial Coin Offerings - built on Stellar . First, I want to explain briefly what they are, for those who don't know anything about this topic. Initial Coin Offerings are a practical way that companies - mostly startups - use to raise money to develop a project. They are often compared to Initial Public Offerings, but one of the main differences is that ICO investors can trade not only money but also cryptocurrencies for tokens of different kinds and, therefore, give different access rights to investors. Another difference worth mentioning is that IPOs are already regulated in most countries for a long time, while ICOs are not regulated yet since they are so new. Secondly, I will explain what my project is and how it can benefit people that are interested in Stellar and would like to invest on ICOs built on this platform but don't really know how to begin, or startups that wish to use this innovative tool to raise money for their projects and want to know if it is worth to do so. I created a website from scratch to share with as many people as possible all the information needed about ICOs. This information includes: Important facts , such as what are ICOs and how they are created and released; the benefits and risks to invest on those (for organizations, investors, the market as a whole); what are the current global regulations and countries understandings regarding this matter; kinds of existing tokens and the sale models ; best practices that should be followed; finally, the evaluation of each organization that released ICOs built on Stellar. I divided the evaluation in two parts: general requirements, for example regarding the whitepaper content and primary mission, and team requirements. Each requirement from the two parts was graded (from 0 to 5) separately, and then I calculated the average for each company and gave a final grade. I needed to do a lot of research from different sources to create this material, and that is when I realized there is not enough reliable information about ICOs explained in a way that is easy to understand but also complete . The most complete and reliable source of information I could find is a whitepaper written by Stellar and LHoFT (Luxembourg House of Financial Technology) members. However, this whitepaper is quite long and a bit exhausting to read, even though the material is excellent. Because of that, I decided to read it carefully and summarize in my own words, and also include more information that I gathered in other sources to make my website as accurate, complete, updated and relevant as possible . I separated it in the different topics mentioned above to make it more practical for the readers. The reader may be interested just in a few of the topics, so instead of reading through everything she can click on each of them and be directed to the link that explains just those topics. On the other hand, if she wants more detailed information she can go through everything and even click on the external links I provided to get extra information about a specific part. In conclusion, my website is a complete source of information for anyone who wants to know: All the important aspects about ICO; which companies released ICOs built on Stellar and what are their main purposes (I went through all the whitepapers carefully and summarized); and finally, which of those companies are worth investing in and why. There is currently no website with all this information and an evaluation of those organizations, so the person interested in investing on ICO saves a lot of time that would be wasted in exhausting research, plus she gets a reliable source of relevant information to be consulted at any time. I will update the website as I learn new information about the topics mentioned and evaluate possible new organizations that release ICOs built on Stellar. Please, check the website and give me your feedback! I am also available to answer any questions about it. Link to the website: http://stellari.co/ Cheers!

That’s a very good initiative. My principal advice at the moment: web design is way too retro. This may seem superficial but that’s internet...

Thanks for the advice! I happen to like retro so maybe that is why it seems like it. Also, I am still beginning on the web development area, so as I get better at it I may change the design ?

This is quite useful, indeed. Witty domain name as well. ? Great job!

Finally an old school design for a change. It would be useful to see somewhere a section listing the "scam" coins on Stellar network, because they are plenty. But I do not know if it is feasible to name/shame them just like that, maybe giving them a low rating would be better. Scammers have already perfected their strategies, whitepapers ,social media, web site design, github repos, you cannot easily tell what is real and what is not. I hope you achieve your goals with the website. ps: Javascript on the website works when expanding the dropdowns, but not the other way around.

novalogic Thank you! Happy you liked it

ICOs built on Stellar - Facts and Evaluations

NogueiraLuisa

strasse86 I agree that giving a low rating is a better strategy! The ones I evaluated are reliable, but soon I will evaluate more and if I believe it is a scam or not reliable I will for sure not give a good score. And yeah, sometimes it's really hard to identify what is scam and what isn't.
Thank you for the feedback and to tell me about the JavaScript error! I am still a beginner at JavaScript, but I will look for some support to help me work on the expanding dropdowns.

abuiles

This is great! I was recently thinking that it would be really useful to have something like https://moonbase.center/ with more metadata about the token, for example is it usage/hybrid/work , is there some kind of rating, etc.

NogueiraLuisa

strasse86 the dropdown content about each organization is now working, I corrected the javascript

tim

Thanks for this information. I'm also analysing and try to get an overview what is happening with stellar projects.

I put this sheet together, not so much about ICOs but regarding stellar services in general. Maybe this helps:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14hs18NkgKerF47YPI0NQDX0gN2ZAN98Z0LValHGYrZ8/edit#gid=351851452

NogueiraLuisa

tim Thanks for sharing!

NogueiraLuisa

Hey, I just updated the website! I added a summary about three other ICOs built on Stellar and evaluated each of them. The companies that released those three ICOs are Pedity, HTKN and Heir. Check it out and feel free to give your opinion:

http://stellari.co

johannlilly

Hi NogueiraLuisa, I've had a look at your website and think it's a helpful resource. Are you still reviewing ICOs for publication on your "Evaluation" page?

NogueiraLuisa

johannlilly yeah, I will actually evaluate one more next week! It is an ongoing effort to keep people updated with the latest ICOs that have different proposals from the ones I already evaluated ?

johannlilly

NogueiraLuisa great! I will check with my boss about adding a link to your site for some of our visitors to familiarize themselves with Stellar. We recently decided to switch to Stellar from Ethereum to launch our upcoming ICO and it has left at least a few interested parties underprepared.

NogueiraLuisa

johannlilly great! I think this will be helpful for the interested parties

johannlilly

NogueiraLuisa the announcement for the Woolf token sale was just posted on Galactic Talk; I see you have ICOs lined up to review but would you consider and have time to add this to the list? https://galactictalk.org/d/1616-introducing-woolf-first-blockchain-powered-university-on-stellar

vpcode

Hello NogueiraLuisa, we looked at your site, what you are doing is very useful for the Stellar community so that people easily navigate in the current ICO on Stellar and more understand the benefits of Stellar Blockchain. Maybe it will be interesting for you to consider another token on Stellar https://scopuly.com/. I attach a link to galactictalk: https://galactictalk.org/d/1438-scopuly-stellar-wallet-sdex-tokenization-icos. We are always open to any questions and suggestions.

NogueiraLuisa

vpcode thank you! I will definitely take a look, until next week I believe I can finish evaluating it. I will post here every time the website is updated

Jem

novalogic Oh yeah, great domain hack! ? TBH, I didn't even notice at first.

israellevin

Wow! That's awesome! And a cool domain name to boot ?

I was very excited to see The PAKET Project listed there, even though there is no content about it yet. If I can help you with any information about the project please don't hesitate to contact @owlen and me.

Thank you and keep up the good work!

NogueiraLuisa

israellevin yeah, I still didn't have time to evaluate the Paket Project but until next week I will ?
Thank you!

NogueiraLuisa

johannlilly I need to review one more that I already included on the list, but I will try my best to evaluate Woolf next week and also include it

Unsinkamoto

Thanks for a great resource, Luisa!

It looks like a lot of time and research went into this, thank you for all your hard work.
Great domain name, very clever!

I am also working on an educational resource and would really appreciate it if anyone has the time to take a look and provide feedback.
https://www.unsinkable.io/learn-crypto

In the spirit of "pay it forward," here is my feedback for you:
When discussing smart contracts I think it is important to mention immutability. "Smart contracts" have been around for a lot longer than blockchain and crypto and I think in the current zeitgeist a lot of people assume "incorruptible, trustless, and immutable" when they mention "smart contracts."

Token types
I think it is important to clarify the difference between coins, tokens, and altcoins, although there really isn't industry consensus.
Usage - isn't it more commonly referred to as a "utility" token? Seems worth mentioning.
Equity tokens are also security tokens if they are legally compliant.

Under investor benefits, it seems worthwhile to mention the potential for an immutably fixed supply and possibility of deflationary characteristics.

I have not looked at your ICO reviews yet, I hope to soon.

Great work!

NogueiraLuisa

Unsinkamoto thank you for the useful feedback! Some things in fact are not well defined considering ICOs are a very recent thing and not regulated formally. I did a lot of research, but will update it again. I did take a lot of time to do it, but it was worth! I will also check yours this week when I have a bit more time. Cheers!

NogueiraLuisa

Hey! I just evaluated another organization issuing ICO, Woolf.
Check out:

http://stellari.co/icowebsite.html

Scopuly

NogueiraLuisa Thanks for posting Scopuly TokenSale! You are doing a great deal of lighting the ICO built on Stellar.