3 Signs of an ICO You Can (Probably) Trust

As removing bottlenecks and middlemen makes Blockchain more relevant to many platforms and the herald of democratizing the world around us, we see the natural rise of ICOs to fund this paradigm shift which is not easily absorbable by traditional investors, at least not yet! With ICOs cropping up daily, it’s important to define the hallmarks of a trustworthy ICO to “Cross the Chasm” and encourage the mainstream investors to take part in this transformation.

Having two hats of investor and entrepreneur helped our CEO, Susan Akbarpour to quickly develop an eye for spotting legit ICOs, based on what she and her team learned in the process of introducing the mCart token. mCart Token can be the benchmark of a token with a clear utility for three main reasons:

1. Years of R&D. The Blockchain buzz has been in swing for a couple of years now and since then, we’ve seen many ICOs creep into the scene claiming to be the next Bitcoin. What makes mCart different in a sea of ICO options is the years of R&D on the underlying technology that backs the token. First developed as a common research on “New Advertising Models’ effects on User privacy” by Stanford Graduate School of Business and Computer Science PHD students Susan Akbarpour and Panos Papadimitriou, later joined by Brom Mahbod, another CS PhD, and Oracle veteran, Mavatar became a platform for consumer-centric commerce and user generated advertising. A timely vision with a solid team and execution plan which now after 7 years with the emergence of GDPR and regulations alike seems a necessary shift for the survival of advertising industry. mCart platform as-a-service closes the gap between online and offline shopping, sales and advertising and scale the effective and highly popular influence marketing to the extent of making all other phony advertising models irrelevant. Influencer marketing continues to grow becoming a primary source for many shoppers. 70% of Instagram shoppers purchase something they see crop up on the app and 96% of U.S.-based fashion brands have an Instagram account, making it the lead social sharing platform that drives shoppers to buy.
2. A token with clear utility. mCart platform established a groundbreaking momentum for influence marketing, however the scalability of this model could not fit in old models of payment systems. Adding blockchain layer and tokenization of the mCart platform was the last step and is the innovative take for removing the back office bottleneck of rewarding this next-gen sales force! An Uber for shopping, driven by mCarts that make every Instagram post, magazine article and movie shoppable. User-generated, smart, omnichannel mCarts incentives data they need to shorten their decision journey while simultaneously giving influencers the power and transparency needed to be appropriately compensated for their hand in a brand or store’s success with social audiences. And this is while they can help advertisers to track every marketing dollars to sales dollars! mCart ICO funds a token that fills a hole in the market and a disruption that solves a real problem.
3. A reputable team of innovators, investors and advisors. With so many ICOs crowding the market, with seemingly-legitimate websites and teams, sorting scam vs. legitimate seems an impossible mission. A recent supposed-ICO raised 830k under the guise that actor Ryan Gosling was involved with the project and what seemed like a healthy team of advisors. These so-called advisors ended up being lifted pics from the web with fake names. There was no White Paper for the ICO, but what raised a red flag was the fact that the advisors were not verifiable. mCart by Mavatar has a team of reputable advisors with countless years in the retail and technology sectors, bringing the best of each industry to the innovative approach for this ICO. These are professionals who’ve seen how technology has changed the landscape of commerce and advertising, creating a new space for mCart to disrupt these industries in a way that is scalable and transparent for all parties involved. The range of knowledge and innovation our board brings to the table speaks volumes of the long term power of mCart by Mavatar.

Years of research and development, a consistent ecosystem for a real product and a reputable team of innovators, investors and advisors all make for a trustworthy ICO worth being involved with. This method empowers investors and allows them to make the distinction between a fly-by-night operation and a trusted company with a high-powered innovative team. Remember that a slick website or a social media presence isn’t enough to translate to a reputable ICO that funds a legit product and vision.

Do your homework and understand the intentions of the ICO and the business plan attached for true growth over time. This is how investors treat conventional portfolios, so why not apply the same common sense and checks-and-balances system to choosing an ICO?

mCart by Mavatar exceeds these expectations and offers our White Paper in five languages. TrackICO ranks mCart a 5, the maximum rank they offer. Know what an ICO is doing and their plan of action for the long haul to maximize crypto investments. Learn more about the mCart token presale happening now — it’s ICO you can trust.

This originally appeared as a contributor post for Crypto Invest Summit on their own site.