Top 5 Upcoming ICOs to Look Out For

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are becoming an increasingly popular medium for startups to fund their business, at the same time providing investors with potentially lucrative returns on their investments. Most ICOs are based on Ethereum because it offers Smart Contracts, a feature allowing a startup to distribute its earnings to investors. It must be noted that there are an equal number of real and fake ICOs sprouting up. In other words, some ICOs intend to steal investor money without establishing any business in reality. Therefore, to protect our reader’s from such ICOs, we have created a curated list of the latest ICOs you should probably bet your cryptocurrencies on.

Note: The following recommendations are those of the author and do not reflect any official guidance from Crypto-News. In addition, neither Crypto-News nor the author can be held liable for any losses incurred due to investing in the following start-ups.

1. EncryptoTel

“Encrypto Telecom offers radical new solutions for communication, contributing extensively to the ongoing global debate around privacy and civil liberties. Encrypted communication is the logical future for all traditional telecommunications.

Your privacy is in good hands with EncryptoTel. Our company offers a full range of telecommunications services based on an innovative cloud PBX. We use cutting-edge solutions in the sphere of digital technologies, including encryption through open, proven algorithms and the use of blockchain technology.”

ICO Details

Sale period: April 24th, 2017 to May 31st, 2017
First price: 0.37 BTC per 100,000 ETT
Token distribution date: One week after crowdsale
Minimum investment goal: $100,000
Maximum investment cap: $3 million
How are funds held: Escrow Wallet
Mainnet release date: Summer 2018

1. Giga Watt

Giga Watt is a specialized cryptomining facility with 5 Megawatts of power dedicated to running pure mining equipment. An additional 50 Megawatts is being added to the facility. The facility is located in Washington, USA and accesses cheap, eco-friendly hydropower at only 2.8 cents/ kW. At these low costs, the company only pays around $500 per Bitcoin mined.

The ICO sale is distributing ERC20 tokens called Watt (WTT) which uses Giga Watt’s mining infrastructure as asset backing, and represents a single Watt of mining power. As the facility adds more power, it distributes an equal number of Watt tokens. Token holders can use their WTT tokens to set up independent mining operations, and each token corresponds to 1 Watt of the supply for 50 years. Token holders can also rent their Watt tokens to other miners using a smart contract rental agreement (based on Ethereum), which will be available on Giga Watt’s website.

ICO Details

Sale period: June 2nd, 2017 to July 31st, 2017
First price: $1.00
Accepted currencies: BTC, ETH, and Fiat wire transfers
Investment Round: First public offering
Token distribution date: One week after token sale ends
Min investment goal: None
Max investment cap: $30 million
How are funds held: Escrow account managed by Cryptonomos
Minimum Viable Product: Facilities already operational

1. 21 Million

21 Million is an independent media production company that works through the Ethereum blockchain. The first project they are raising funds for is an action-thriller mini series about the rise of Bitcoin titled “21 Million”. The token sale further serves to finance the development of smart contracts used for budget accounting and royalty payments.

The usage of blockchain technology for media financing will bring a high level of transparency to the inner workings of the production of the “21 Million” series. All expenditures made against the “21 Million” budget will be viewable on the Ethereum blockchain.

Its 21Mcoin token will be an ERC20 token that gives investors the right to receive royalty from the sale of “21 Million” content. Investors do not hold direct copyright of the content but own a share of the future income stream. Royalty payments are distributed by Smart Contracts.

ICO Details

Sale period: June 12th, 2017 to July 28th, 2017
First price: $1.00
Accepted currencies: ETH
Investment Round: First public offering
Token distribution date: Right after purchase
Min investment goal: $500,000 USD
Max investment cap: None
How are funds held: Multi-signature escrow by Token Market
Minimum Viable Product: Unclear

1. Compcoin

Compcoin utilizes a distributed network of global trading computers to privde ordinary investors, regardless of their investment potential, the opportunity to access financial trading informed by an artificial intelligence. Invested funds are managed using blockchain technology which means that the investor has complete control over his/her assets.

The Compcoin tokens are used to tap on the self-learning investment technology ART. Its analytics algorithms make predictions on high probability trades on the foreign exchange market. Compcoins themselves are not used to fund FOREX trades. Investors will need to create an account with a brokerage and link it to ART. The more Compcoins are spent, the more money the investor can leverage for trades using ART. At the end of every quarter ART returns the invested Comcoins to the investor’s wallet, after subtracting a small transaction fee. Gains (or losses) from trading a credited to the users FOREX account.

ICO Details

Sale period: June 14th, 2017 to July 31st, 2017
First price: Unclear
Accepted currencies: BTC, ETH, LTC and Fiat
Investment Round: June 14th, 2017
Token distribution date: Right after purchase
Min investment goal: 1 Million USD
Max investment cap: 45 Million USD
How are funds held: Unclear
Minimum Viable Product: June 14th, 2017

1. FundYourselfNow

FundYourselfNow is an Ethereum based crowdfunding platform designed to enable greater accountability and transparency using smart contracts.

Milestone triggered payments: Smart contracts can be written so that distributions of crowdsale proceeds are conditional on the development team meeting the goals outlined on their roadmap.
Voting: Crowdsale participants can vote to change when and how funds are distributed.
Identities and social ratings: Project creators and contributors will have public profiles. Users will be able to rate the quality of their interactions with each other through a social reputation system.
Coin marketplace: A built in marketplace will facilitate the exchange of project, crowdfunding, and reward tokens.

ICO Details

Sale period: June 13th, 2017 to July 31st, 2017
First price: 0.01ETH:FNY
Accepted currencies: ETH
Investment Round: First public offering
Token distribution date: Tokens unlocked 1 week after sale ends
Min investment goal: $1.5 Million
Max investment cap: None
How are funds held: Smart Contract
Minimum Viable Product: Quarter One 2018