The problem with ICOs is that they’re called ICOs
What do you think are the main misconceptions about ICOs?
The problem with ICOs is they want to ride two horses. The use of the word “coin” implies that the tokens being sold are money. The phrase “initial coin offering” is deliberately evocative of “initial public offering,” which is about a company selling shares to the public. They want to ride the Bitcoin horse by saying, “We’re not a security—it’s just money,” but they also want to ride the “You’re buying into a future enterprise that will be worth a lot of money” concept that’s inherent in the sale of shares. That’s one of the big tensions with ICOs, that lack of clarity, and that’s something that needs to be fixed.
... On the supplier side, if you see that you can write a white paper, put up a website, put up a Bitcoin address, and people will send you millions of dollars, that’s a very big temptation. You can essentially get the exit before you’ve built the product. ...
What would you rather call it?
When I think about how to apply this technology in the future to make a better system, I think about shares. The term IPO is perfectly fine for me. But IPOs are only for very big companies right now. The question is how to get the barrier to an IPO down much further. ... This is almost like going back to the past, of local exchanges and the buttonwood tree [where the New York Stock Exchange was formed]. That’s the sort of world I think we should be aiming for. The whole ICO craze at best is a catalyst; at worst it’s a really deliberately misleading concept and phrase.