Inspiration

Ever Wondered What Happened to ICOs?

September 6, 2020 by Ani Leave a Comment

Although I have been in the blockchain space for more than 3 years, I am not from tech, which is probably why this post will be looking more into the story and the human aspects of ICOs.

If I have to summarise what will be presented here then I will tell 3 very un-techy words – promise, greed and hope.

So let’s dive in and understand why did the ICO era end and the beautiful idea ended up in not so beautiful way…

Back in 2012 a guy on Bitcointalk published “the Second Bitcoin Whitepaper” that basically spelled out how ICOs would work … but 17 months later still no one had tried it.

Then at the 2013 San Jose Bitcoin conference that same guy (J.R. Willett) was a panelist and spoke about it publicly. He did finally launch the first ICO, Mastercoin (now called Omni) in the same year.

Little did he know it would be five years before the idea in his white paper would become a runaway trend. It would be built on Ethereum instead of Bitcoin, but would represent the same concept nonetheless.

So in basic terms what was an ICO?

Imagine if the kickstarter and the blockchain had a baby… well that’s it!

In short it’s a crowdfunding model where instead of “real money” people contribute cryptocurrency (in this case Ethereum).

What do they get in return? The token issued by the project…

So why was that good for blockchain projects?

The whole beauty of the concept was that it completely democratised funding and investments.

There were no gatekeepers and middlemen in-between – anyone from anywhere could raise money and invest in ICOs.

People with great ideas and dreams no longer had to be in Silicon Valley chasing and begging VC funds to hear their pitch to get a chance. They no longer had to give up part of their company and shares… and eventually risk losing control over their vision and the way they wanted to do business.

Now everyone had equal chances to raise money for their project by issuing their own token…

And that’s what they did, raising $2 billion in just the first nine months of 2017 and leaving venture capitalists fretting about the future.

So from the tech side of things – everything was working smoothly. You can only imagine the feeling one gets while refreshing etherscan page and seeing 1mln+ in matter of minutes… It’s just mind blowing.

But let’s look at the humans and the non techie processes.

Everything starts with a white paper… and in some cases it was literally blank white piece of paper or blank laptop screen that projects were filling up. Ideally the paper covered all the details about the project: who will be building it, what would be the role of the token, how would the funds be used, etc…

In many cases, unfortunately, it was just a wishful thinking or fiction (science fiction) writing…

But whatever it was… it was basically the promise. The white paper was the promise to token buyers about the future of the project.

And token buyers bought because they believed… Or at least that was the plan.

The beauty of ICOs from my perspective was that not only you could bypass the gatekeepers – just like self published authors are bypassing the whole publishing industry and directly selling to readers…

….but also that you could build and nurture the community of your token buyers while you were building your project and they would be with you through the journey. They would help you beta test your product, become your first users, later brand ambassadors, etc.

All you had to do as a project was keep your promises, right?

I’m often told that I’m idealistic and in cold business reality, when you look at it from that perspective – it is just a deal. The project is selling their token.. the buyer is buying it.

And from that point of view – as soon as the token hits the buyers wallet the deal is complete.

Back in 2017 the regulation was not mature enough which made the whole space a Wild West.

That led us to rely on human nature… which is where things got twisted and led to where we are.

A new character – greed – entered the story.

And this is valid for both sides… projects found an “easy” way to raise money and were ready to promise anything just to get it… money that they did not need for building the project, but money that they just thought was a nice number to have.

Token buyers no longer cared about the project and did not even read the whitepapers as long as they thought that the token would moon and make them rich overnight…

As a result it was no longer a space where ideas were competing, where the tech was competing and where teams were competing to become token buyers’ choice.

It became a space where almost 100% of the success of the ICO depended on marketing. Not even real marketing – the “marketing” in it’s worse sense – hype, exaggerations, paid fake influencers and all that stuff…

It became harder and harder to choose among projects, to see through smoke and mirrors…

That led to many scams, bad name for the whole space in general, many people who gave up investing in ICOs – the market crash

… and disappointed moon boys, who did not get their Lambos.

Which led to more regulation and search for new models of fundraising for blockchain project. We ended up with STOs and IEOs and who knows what else will be coming next …

I personally think from the logical and technological perspective there was nothing wrong with the ICO model – it has proved to work.

Unfortunately – we (the participants in the system) as projects and token buyers broke it.

We are experimenting with the new models… none of them is ideal at the moment and I don’t know which one will be the next big thing… At the moment, I personally think, all we have is a choice between options where we have to compromise.

But I am sure sooner or later we will come up with something, just like that guy did back in 2013.

So here is my version of the story of ICOs that started with a promise, got damaged by greed and left hope for the future.

… And something tells me that at some point I would probably write about the greed again, but this time probably related to DeFi, which now are representing the new hype in the space…

But I also hope that won’t be the case.

Communities Rule: What Hive vs Steemit is All About

May 4, 2020 by Ani Leave a Comment

Unlike many others, I ended up in the blockchain thanks to my passion for writing and creating online content. My writer friends recommended Steemit, I tried it and started blogging there.

Then I ended up with crypto and no clue what it was all about.

That in its turn led me to fall down the rabbit hole. Since then I read and learned a lot and have even been working in the blockchain field since then…

But this post is not about that.

It’s not about the technology. It’s not about the cryptocurrency. It’s not even about how the two that I mentioned are gonna change the world in the future.

No.

This post is about the human aspects of the story. It’s about what’s been extremely important since day 1.

And that’s the people and the communities they form.

Communities have always been at the epicenter of the blockchain and crypto. The small group of passionate rebels were the ones who set things up. We all were about creating a better, safer and decentralized space, where everyone will have a voice, no one will be dictating rules and where we would get back the control and freedom.

Steemit, like many others in the space, was always community-centric. Steemit community has always been strong and it represented the platform’s heartbeat. It was a healthy community with people who were building true friendships with each other. Place where like-minded people could speak up and get support, rant, and be understood. The community that rewarded the good quality content creators and protected it from all those toxic and crappy stuff.
Steemit had become a place where many people felt home…

And then… we all know what happened…

And I get it. At the end of the day for someone, it was a business. And when that’s the case, it’s just a matter of zero-s. So I am not blaming anyone.

What I am trying to do instead is — illustrate how powerful can communities be.

What happened next proved that one can buy the company but one can never buy its community, because communities can not be bought.
Tweet This
What many don’t understand is that the love of the community is earned… but it’s not earned only once. You need to nurture it, you need to take care of your relationship with your community… because it’s not a one-time win or a one-way street.

When things go wrong, the community will hate you with the same strength they loved you before.

What’s the beauty behind the Steemit community story is that they realized that they have reached the point where the platform does not define them anymore. They’ve got each other, so if their “home” no longer feels like home — just like with any relationship that no longer works, what you do is you leave.

Now they have a new place. Their new home looks even cozier than their old one. What I like most about the whole story is that they had the last say.

I can’t predict the future of Steemit or Hive. I don’t know how things are gonna be developed.
But what I know for sure is that any company, brand, or online platform that does not have a loyal community behind it is doomed to fail.

So don’t underestimate the power of the community and don’t treat them as numbers.

Behind each number, there is a real human being — please don’t forget that.

Be a Voice, Not an Echo

February 21, 2020 by Ani Leave a Comment

These days I am trying to get some downtime. When I get home from work I need to turn off the notifications, unplug from the internet and different apps and do my best to switch off my constantly thinking brain…It is not working that well so far and I am still experimenting.

One of the things I am exploring are cheap and dumb TV series and reality shows. And today I watched videos on Youtube featuring the best bits from The Voice audition.

Not only it did not turn off my brain, but those video compilations brought a chain of different thoughts and I ended up typing this post… (watching The Voice is now successfully crossed off my “brain switch off” experiment list).

The first thing I thought of was how stressful and even humiliating that might feel. Standing there, singing and looking at the backs of jurys’ chairs and being at their mercy… Doing your best to impress with your voice and performance.

Those singer wanna be-s are trying to prove themselves. Justify their right to sing. Seek permission and acknowledgment. Get verified. Be accepted…

Will they like it? Will they turn? What will they decide?…

You don’t even know who are you competing with… were the ones before you better?

Then I realised… hey, that’s exactly what happens in life too… we all are trying to impress someone. At a job interview, our boss, that girl in the pub, our friends… we all have people who we’d like to turn around and accept us.

And then, just like all those singers, we fall into the competition trap. The trap, where there will almost always be someone who is (slightly) better. And then just like in life some of the competitors are way better than the jury that chooses.

And probably that is not fair at all…but then life is not fair either…

Have you noticed who in the Voice does best?

Who are those who get the “wow” from the audience? The standing ovations, the admired looks, and the dropped jaws?

Yup… those who are waaaay better than everyone else. Waaay better than everyone before and after them… than the jury… than most of the singers we keep hearing on Spotify… than anything we’ve listened to lately…

In life, it is the same… if you’re THAT good in whatever you do, no one will care if you’ve got a diploma or not and the potential employers will be on the stage trying to impress you so you choose them……

but then if you are THAT good, probably you won’t need an employer either. You’ll just go ahead and do your own thing in your own terms.

When you are THAT good — you won’t have a competition.

Your only competition will be the better version of yourself.

Have you noticed what many on that Voice stage do wrong?

Nope, it has nothing to do with the voice pitch, how they sing or how they move on stage. In fact, it has nothing to do with music or singing at all.

They chose the wrong as we call in marketing “target audience”. What I mean is they are trying to impress the wrong people. They focus on the jury… and what they should do instead is…get under the skin of the main audience…

Because if they manage to provoke their tears and have them mesmerized it would not matter what will the jury do. Even if they do not turn around the singer has already won. Jury’s reaction will be already irrelevant at that point!

So be true to yourself, don’t even get into competing with others, be amazingly good at what you love doing and wow the right people… and then you’ll have others compete for you!

Ode to all misfits

January 8, 2020 by Ani Leave a Comment

Just like in that famous song, I was born in the USSR.

Yup… I am THAT old and yup… that country no longer exists.

The Soviet culture had strong imprint in many people’s mentality and lifestyle. If you were born in those years too but in any capitalistic country, then I am sure you think that things back in the Soviet Union were way worse than they were. To be fair that is exactly what we thought about your country too…

But that is not what I was going to write about.

Among many different memories from my childhood I remember what I disliked most… standardization. We all were raised to think alike, to behave alike and to look alike. There were very few choices and we all could do nothing but chose among that scarce variety only.

Well, USSR was extreme case… but even later, when I ended up living in different countries, I realized that the whole concept was very similar, simply the scale was different.

And that brings me to the main topic of today – the “weirdo”s and misfits.

No matter where one lives being different is not always easy. One ends up bumping into walls of misunderstanding, the feeling of not being appreciated and the backlash of criticism. One is considered to be “crazy”, “a creep”, “a weirdo”, etc…

Even my mum, who I know loves me, in many different occasions described me as “very original”. In reality she did mean crazy, but since she’s always been very “politically correct” that’s how she phrased it. And to be honest I wasn’t even THAT different… simply I did not look at life the way others around me did. My only issue was: I did voice my opinion and it was not a popular one… that’s all.

And although I myself have never been extremely differ or as mum put it “original”, I always admired those who were. To me all those “misfits”, “creeps” and “werdo-s” were extraordinary. They always intrigued me. They were the ones who have chosen “the road less travelled by and that by itself made me envy their courage.

If one does things the way things have always been done one will get the same outcomes as always. If we keep doing things as they have been made just because that is the “right” way – we will never come up with different and in most cases better ways.

Do you think innovation and creative ideas can come from ordinary and common people?

Yes?

Then think again!

This is the ode to all who’re questioning the society norms and challenging the status quo. The ones, who are not afraid to be themselves and tap into their superpower. Their superpower of weirdness that many perceive as weakness… To all those who prefer to make their own path and not to drive the highway…

People obsessed with their ideas and dreams…

To all those who change our world one step at a time, one dream at a time, one idea at a time…

Cheers to misfits and all those crazy ones, who think they can change the world.

It always seems impossible until it’s done

January 8, 2020 by Ani Leave a Comment

Today I wanna talk about something that crossed my mind a few times yesterday. I mean if you have similar thoughts a few times a day provoked by completely different things, it’s worth writing about, right?

These days everything rotates around the World Cup so the initial thoughts came from football… after the Croatia vs England match. Since London was the place where I finally was able to find myself and feel happy there was no question about who I rooted for… and we lost. But that’s irrelevant at this point.

After the match, I watched a very short interview with Modric. He mentioned English journalists and said

they underestimated Croatia tonight and that was a huge mistake

I realised that not only English journalists underestimated them. They had so many doubters… so many people who were sure they would lose. Now for the finals, it’s the same… almost everyone believes France will crash them…

How many times you’ve been in Croatia’s place? How many times people who were around you did not believe in you? How many times they were certain you would not make it? How many times they were hoping that you would not make it, so they could turn to you and say “I told you so…”?

And what do you do then?…

All of the above thoughts led me to recall the flea experiment. Have you heard of it?

For those who haven’t let me tell about it.

So scientists placed a number of fleas in a glass jar. Obviously they jumped out of it… So scientists placed a glass lid over the top. Fleas kept hitting the glass and falling back to the bottom of the jar. It took a while, but eventually, the fleas, conditioned to the presence of the glass lid, began jumping slightly below the glass lid so they would not hit it. That is when the scientists removed the glass lid…

Do you know what happened?

The fleas had learned to limit themselves from jumping beyond the height of the lid. So now even when the lid was removed they still believed they could not escape from the jar and kept jumping just below where the glass lid was before.

Here look:

That’s all it takes… and unfortunately the same happens with people. We tend to believe the limitations others artificially impose on us.

Often we are told that we can’t make it because

“no one was able to do it before”

Complete bullshit!

As Mandela once told

It always seems impossible until it’s done

And when it’s done… there’s someone who did it first, right?

Usually, those first people are those who did not lower the hight to jump at even when the glass lid was on. The first people are those who don’t look for people to believe in them in order to try. They try and fail… and then learn how to do it better and try again… and fail again probably. But they don’t give up and they don’t care if all the others around them have either discouraged them or tried too and gave up.

Because after all that matters is not who believes in you but what YOU believe in. If you believe that you can do it then most probably you really can.

After all, it took Edison 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb.

But guess what? The 1001th bulb was the one that changed the world.

And when it happens, when you get where you wanted to be, when your goal is no longer an impossible dream and when you make the impossible real you will look back at all those with the limited believes and be the one this time who’ll say “I told you so!”

So I don’t care if France plays better and I don’t care what others think Croatia’s chances are… I will be rooting for the later tomorrow!

As for you… don’t set limits – especially don’t let others set them for you!

Those singer wanna be-s are trying to prove themselves. Justify their right to sing. Seek permission and acknowledgment. Get verified. Be accepted…

Have you noticed who in the Voice does best?

When you are THAT good — you won’t have a competition.

Have you noticed what many on that Voice stage do wrong?

So be true to yourself, don’t even get into competing with others, be amazingly good at what you love doing and wow the right people… and then you’ll have others compete for you!

Would you like me to help your tech project with marketing?