Thread by @bierlingm

1/ The bad news: #ICOs are dead. The good news: their rebirth is just around the corner. Safer, cheaper, legal. Most importantly: healthier.

2/ Let’s start with the death notice, especially since it seems like ICOs are at all time highs in every imaginable measure.

3/ In a newsletter (that I didn’t sign up for), it was claimed that past week alone more than 400 ICO projects were launched. That’s crazy!

4/ The numbers for total funds raised exceeded $ 1.5 bln for last quarter alone, far exceeding the total sum of VC funding.

5/ And don’t forget: investors receive neither stake in a company nor full legal assurances when hitting send on that ETH transaction.

6/ What’s even more worrying: big VCs DO receive stakes in exchange for their funds (and expertise - don’t forget!), but the masses don’t.

7/ If you look at econ. inequality here, the Gini coefficient for many, if not most projects is far higher than that of the broader economy.

8/ For example, take a look at @BancorNetwork’s distribution (images attached), which is still one of the least inequitable ones.

9/ But the trouble doesn’t end there. There’s a shady, intransparent cottage industry that’s sprung up around Initial Coin Offerings.

10/ From failing PR agencies rebranding as crypto boutiques to scam artists manipulating greedy buyers. From Russian bots to Facebook ads.

11/ Telegram groups pump ‘n dump #shitcoins. Fake followers. @SlackHQ phishing. Bought advisors. Paid social media propaganda. Email scams.

12/ Sometimes I long for the good old days of Nigerian princes & heart aching single women from Russia. Even they now want my crypto tho...

13/ You can see, this is very much still a wild west. And of c. it won’t completely disappear: where there’s easy 💰, there’s fraudsters.

14/ This will never go away completely. But there‘s proven ways of mitigating risks & increasing access for your average gal on the street.

15/ Any healthy industry consists not only of buyers & sellers, but also watchdogs, industry associations, certifications, and auditors.

16/ The reason for this is simple: price communicates a binary spectrum of information (h/t @matthewjosef). See

17/ To supply the public with sufficient information about a given company to make a sensible investment choice, more context is necessary.

18/ Luckily, companies like @santimentfeed are slowly but surely building those “information fountains”. projecttransparency.org

19/ At @neufundorg, we’ve tried to help develop this nascent scene with the @blockpolicy Initiative and ICO Monitor: icomonitor.io

20/ In principle, developing these soft institutions should not be a problem, especially in #crypto land.

21/ Crypto has some of smartest people on the planet that would have gone to Wall Street, had they been offered better opportunities there.

21/ But healthy nonviolent regulation requires more of each individual to bear the load of distributing useful information. YOU included.

22/ Some of our favorite people doing an awesome job at this are @aantonop @Falkvinge, @feindura @fredwilson @ebit4u & @prestonjbyrne.

23/ The same goes for people like @leashless and @artbrock. Their posts and activities in my view are properly considered a public service.

24/ But what does the future of ICOs look like? Will they be regulated to death or become a mainstay in the next gen founders toolkit?

25/ Personally, I believe that governments are waiting for private industry to fund development of crypto into maturity before intervening.

26/ This generally has held true, with exceptions. China’s ban, the SEC announcement – these are matched by positive ones like @estcoin.

27/ @MaltaGov, @govsingapore, and @CryptoValleyZug are spearheading one of the most important trends of 21st C.: jurisdictional competition.

28/ Even Silicon Valley VCs and crypto experts like @naval are explicitly recommending startups to engage in geo arbitrage and go to Berlin.

29/ Simply put, today’s most valuable resources are #1: human capital and #2: superior rule sets for arranging and developing that capital.

30/ But in order to prevent unproductive inequalities from growing, we should think long and hard about how to distribute the proceeds.

31/ One 💡: basic income. Some hate it, some love it. It’s even more controversial when combined w/ AI, as e.g. @trentmc0 imagines.

32/ Good friends are activists for it, but I don’t buy it. Only compelling variants to me are @atphyses’ dividends & @resilience_me taxemes.

33/ But I think until those are implemented, we can start with upgrading a proven model: let’s tokenize equity & democratize access to it.

34/ While legally hard and technically tricky to get right, this would put the engine of capitalism and its benefits into welcoming hands.

35/ Done well, it might prove a viable way for transitioning the economy away from jobs and back to historical normal: opportunity foraging.

36/ & the crypto community has a not so secret but badly understood & heavily under appreciated Weapon of Mass Attraction: crypto economics.

37/ For the first time in history, we have the tools for constructing & maintaining entire economies in the hands of private individuals.

38/ As I’ve pointed out in my last tweet storm, there’s still lots of unexplored territory with token sinks, mutual credit currencies, etc.

39/ So let’s make sure we treat these subjects with the seriousness they deserve. Small decisions have outsized consequences in these times.

40/ And f*** lambos! Where we’re going, the biggest status symbol will be the size & health of the economy you designed, not some supercar.

41/ Addendum: marmots allowed. 😜