
$185M in 5 days: Block.one sets new ICO record with its EOS token - redditmigrant
https://venturebeat.com/2017/07/01/185-million-in-5-days-block-one-sets-new-ico-record-with-its-eos-token/
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danr4
I was young during the dot com boom, but I would like to know from people who
weren't: Does the ICO boom resemble the dot com boom? Because this screams
bubble like nothing I've seen before.

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Simon_says
The way I see it, all asset classes are inflated: stocks are at nosebleed P/E
ratios, bonds have next to no yield, house prices are once again at historic
levels, and Silicon Valley unicorns are again getting unrealistic valuations.
There's a lot of money sloshing around the economy looking for return. It's no
wonder some of it ends up in cryptocurrencies.

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briceb8e
Wait, if everything is inflated, then really, everything is actually in
balance? But ok, so if most things are inflated, then what has proper value or
is under valuated?

Subject being blockchain, I'm pretty sure Ethereum, Augur & MakerDAO are ones
of those few rare under-valuated assets. Disclosure: I might own a few coins
of each.

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pyvpx
ethereum is undervalued @ over $200 a token because...what?

this is tulip mania. at least when a stock price shoots up over news, that
company is (generally) backed by revenue. a sales channel. assets. something.
anything.

a cryptographic signature is only worth something if a group of people all
agree it is worth something.

before someone makes the fiat argument -- the USD is worth something because
there are a lot of bullets and bombs behind it.

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Simon_says
The correct analogue of cryptocurrency is not USD (because of the bullets and
bombs you mention), but rather precious metals, particularly gold and silver.
Yes, the metals do have practical applications, but that does not account for
the majority of their price (value?).

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CraigRood
You're gonna have a bad time if you are comparing cryptocurrency to metals.
There are dozens of currencies that are widely used at the moment, and I'm
willing to bet over the next 2-4 years we will get into the hundreds. Your
cryptocurrency isn't valued because its rare, it's because everyone else is
buying into the same coin. It only takes one new currency to come in and be
better than YOURS to reduce its demand and subsequent value - no matter how
rare your coins are. It's a stock market not a gold coin collection.

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Simon_says
Well, not me, because I use the analogy to metals to not invest in crypto
currency either. They're non-productive assets. I stick to stocks, bonds, and
real estate.

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alannallama
Can someone please explain this about ICOs for me: are people investing
because they believe the company itself will create real economic value
resulting in dividends based on their coin holdings, or is it all about
secondary market gambling and betting they'll make a profit off coin
speculation?

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xorcist
There are no dividends paid on holdings. That would make it a security and
fall under regulation.

Most ICOs stipulate that in their T&C that tokens are to be regarded as
without value. Yet they put up a big dog and pony show about selling them. To
think that this absolves them of responsibility is a bit naive, in my opinion.

This particular token is a clear cut example. Block.one will build another
altcoin. There is no code yet, only a whitepaper that on the face of it seems
to promise the impossible (all the functionality you can think of at a million
times the throughput). To finance this they will sell this EOS token, which is
explicitly stated not to be exchangable for their future altcoin product or
have any other use.

It might be of interest to note that the person behind this is not new to the
game. This is his third crowdfunding scheme, and the first two products are
far from what was promised. As to why people invest your guess is as good as
mine, but the greater fool theory is a good starting point.

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dbancajas
You sound legit. Real question: I'd like to short 1000$ of this "security" or
bitcoin/ethereum, is there a way to do that currently?

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zeusk
You can short Bitcoin or Ethereum on any major coin exchange and some trading
platforms even go up to 200x leverage using margin and synthetic derivative
contracts.

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dbancajas
Can you tell me which major exchange does this? I'd like to buy a "reverse
insurance" a-la "big short" type of thing. Also, what are the examples of a
"synthetic derivative contracts"?

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kevindeasis
It's only these past few days that I've started getting interested in
cryptocurrencies. And I've stumbled across tezos and im pretty sure their ICO
is going to set a new record too. It's only been less than three days and
they're at 103million.

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Kiro
Why are these numbers so high? Why don't they set the supply to something more
realistic, like $10M? How do they justify it?

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evgen
When fools are rushing to buy your pipe-dreams what does it benefit you to
limit the supply? You are making the mistake of believing that these are not
simple pump-and-dump scams wrapped cryptocurrency clothes.

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Kiro
I thought all ICOs were fixed supply. How does unlimited supply even work?
Isn't each token meant to represent something?

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evgen
You close up shop, change the name plates on the office door, and launch your
next ICO. Investor gullibility is that of which there is an unlimited supply.

