Have you asked the question, “What exactly is an ICO?” recently? If so, you’re not alone. These days it’s hard to keep all the buzzwords like Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Bitcoin, AI, — the list goes on — flying around Silicon Valley straight. But as hundreds of startups have raised billions in fundraising dollars over the past two years alone, this exciting new crypto world is quickly proving itself as the future of startup fundraising and new shared-prosperity business models.
Before we get to ICOs, let’s quickly review the concept of cryptocurrency. A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency secured through cryptography, and what makes cryptocurrency special is it’s not issued or influenced by banks or government entities. If cryptocurrency had a motto it might be: ‘Just say no to the middleman’
Okay, back to ICOs. An ICO is a new fundraising method based on cryptocurrency. A few things happen when a company (or very often a non-profit entity promoting open source software) does an ICO:
- A new cryptocurrency (individually referred to as a token or coin) is introduced into the market. Our cryptocurrency is called a dubtoken.
- Cryptocurrencies are distributed to people within a company’s ICO in exchange for currencies like Bitcoin or Ether.
- Holders of cryptocurrency can then use the protocol, apps and services introduced by the ICO project and grow the ecosystem for the benefit of all participants. For example, dubtoken holders become members of the non-profit association overseeing the Interactive Video and Experience Protocol (IVEP) , which gives them the right and limited license to use the IVEP together with the underlying services offered by the community through a newly introduced decentralized application store (dApp Store). Members can then be further incentivized with additional dubtokens if they contribute to the growth of the protocol, its apps and services.
With the introduction of IVEP, we’re on a mission to fix the broken link between advertisers, publishers, and consumers by tapping into the full potential of interactive video content. If you’re new here, check out our IVEP white paper series for detailed background, and keep your eyes peeled for our ICO starting soon!
**Before contributing to dubtokens, please take the time to thoroughly understand the IVEP opportunity.**
