IAN BALINA

HACKING
VENTURE
CA PITAL
MAKING MILLIONS

W ITH I N IT IA L C O I N
OF F E R I N GS
( IC O S )
#Hustle2Greatness
 IAN BALINA

I
t’s said that savvy entrepreneurs see opportunity
where no one else does. Then, why do so few of
them pay attention to a new form of investment
that is taking the world by storm? A better ques-
tion would be: why do so few of them know that startups
have raised more than $220 million in the past three
years through a new financial instrument that has noth-
ing to do with the traditional venture capital method.
A lot of you struggle to make ends meet, working long
hours and building side hustles that will eventually earn
you money. But, what if I told you that we are living in
one of the best times to make money right now?

In this overly competitive economy, I hear you cry. I

don’t think so, you say, raising your brows in disbelief.

You better believe it and take action soon because

we’re going through the biggest and fastest transfer of
wealth in human history and it would be a shame not
to take advantage of this new golden age.

It’s a bold claim, I know, but let’s take a step back and
see the big picture.

Do you remember the late ‘90s when the word “dot-

com” was on the tip of everybody’s tongue? Those who
were savvy enough to invest at the beginning of the dot-
com boom became millionaires and billionaires over the
years. Think about companies such as Google, Amazon,
eBay, and Cisco who rode the dot-com wave and made
a fortune. The early employees and investors in those
same companies also made a fortune.

Well, there’s a new boom happening and, unlike the

dot-com era, it’s largely flying under the radar. I’m
talking about Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a way to
raise funds for Blockchain projects, one of the most dis-
ruptive innovations in technology since the invention of
the internet itself.

No, you don’t need a Ph.D. in this to understand it or

make money from it! In this guide, I’m going to teach
you everything you need to know to understand how
ICOs work and what you need to start making money.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: What Are Initial

Coin Offerings (ICOs)? 7
Chapter 2: What Are Initial
Public Offerings (IPOs)? 10
Chapter 3: What Is Crowd Funding? 14
Chapter 4: How ICOs Are Disrupting Venture
Capital and Crowd Funding 17
Chapter 5: The History of Initial Coin Offerings 24
Chapter 6: How ICOs Can Make You
a Millionaire 27
Chapter 7: Is It Safe to Invest in ICOs 30
Chapter 8: How to Invest in ICOs 33
Chapter 9: Conclusion 36
 1
CHAPTE R

WHAT ARE INITIAL

COIN OFFERINGS
(ICO S )?

I
nitial Coin Offerings are similar to a crowdfund.
Blockchain startups offer investors the opportuni-
ty to invest in their projects by purchasing a part
of their cryptocurrency in advance. In exchange
for financing the project, investors receive digital tokens

7
 (cryptocurrency) at a very low purchase price. The inves-
tors expect the value of the received tokens to rise over
time, with the option to sell the tokens on online ex-
changes like Bittrex or Poloniex at a higher price than
the initial purchase price.

ICOs usually take place in the early phases of a project.

The entrepreneurs use the funds to continue developing
their products and launch it.

Nearly all funds come in the form of Bitcoin, although

Ethereum, Bitcoin’s main competitor, is starting to get a
considerable size of the ICO market.

Here’s how Initial Coin Offerings typically work. Let’s

imagine that a Blockchain startup creates a new product
(application) on the Ethereum Blockchain. The Block-
chain startup determines the value of the product, based
on what they think the product is worth, and how much
money they need to raise to build and scale their idea
(proof-of-concept / MVP). This value, however, doesn’t
remain fixed and changes according to the dynamics
of the market. In other words, the market supply and
demand set the price instead of a central authority or
government.

To get a better understanding of how ICOs works,

imagine that I propose creating a competitor to Netflix
called Webflix. It does everything Netflix does, except
it’s open source and decentralized, meaning no compa-
ny or central authority controls it, data is peer-to-peer,
similar to BitTorrent. At Webflix, membership can only
be purchased using tokens I create called Flix Coins. To
fund my Netflix competitor, I pre-sell these tokens to
the public. People buy them because if they jump on the
bandwagon early, they can either resell the tokens for a
higher value or trade them for membership at Webflix
for pennies on the dollar. That’s if my Netflix compet-
itor takes off. If it doesn’t, they end up with a bunch of
worthless tokens.

8 I A N BA LI N A . CO M
 So, in a way, ICOs took the best from both Initial Pub-
lic Offerings (IPOs) and Crowd Funding and created a
decentralized system that has no single point of failure
or middle man being in control.

Is that a good thing?

To answer this question, let’s try to understand how

IPOs and Crowd Funding work.

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 9
 2
CHAPTE R

WHAT ARE INITIAL

PUBLIC OFFERINGS
(IPO S )?

A
s the name suggests, an Initial Public Of-
fering, or IPO, is the process by which a
company goes from private to public by
selling stocks to the general public.

One of the main reasons companies go public is to raise

funds and have more liquidity on hand. They can reinvest

10
 the capital in the business’ infrastructure or expand the
company. Another added benefit of an IPO is that you
can increase your chances of attracting top management
candidates by offering them perks such as stock option
plans. Not to mention that being listed in major stock
exchange markets like Nasdaq or NYSE gives credibility.

Once the company goes public, the stocks the investors

bought are no longer “paper money.” They now can sell
or liquidate their stock in exchange for real money.

Let’s take Snapchat as an example since they went pub-

lic recently, and managed to raise $3.4 billion at a valua-
tion of $24 billion. They priced their IPO at $17, mean-
ing that anyone in the world can now go to an online
brokerage site, such as TD Ameritrade or ETrade and
buy shares in Snapchat under the trading symbol SNAP.

In reality, however, the IPO process isn’t very demo-

cratic, and it favors large institutional investors (venture
capital, hedge funds, private equity and ultra-rich indi-
viduals known as angel investors).

We can illustrate this by going over the Snapchat price

before the IPO.

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 11
 If we look at data from Pitchbook, we can see that the
Seed Round (Series A1) valuation for Snapchat was
only $5.3 million. Compare this to the post-IPO valu-
ation of $24 billion.

Looking at Snapchat’s cap table, we see that their pre-

IPO price for Series A1 was $0.01, and $0.21 for Series
A. Compare that versus the current post-IPO price of
$17.00!!!! This is exactly how startup founders become
billionaires, and how early investors become million-
aires!

To put things in perspective, a Series A1 investor re-

ceived a 169,900% (1,699x) return on their investment
after five years, when Snapchat had an IPO. A Series A
investor received a 7,900% (79x) return on their invest-
ment after five years.

If you had invested $100 in Snapchat’s Series A1 or

A, your $100 would now be $169,900 (Series A1), and
$7,900 (Series A).

If you had invested $1,000, your money would now be

$1.7 million (Series A1), and $79,000 (Series A).

If you had invested $10,000, your money would now be

$17 million (Series A1), and $790,000 (Series A).

12 I A N BA LI N A . CO M
 This is what Angel Investors and Venture Capital
funds do. Except instead of investing $10,000, the aver-
age Angel Investor invests a minimum of $25,000, and
the average Venture capital fund invests $3 million.

When it comes to raising money using traditional in-

vestment methods, startups are incentivized to keep the
number of investors as low as possible, resulting in only
people with the most money being able to invest.

As a result, regular people who don’t have a minimum

of $25,000, miss out on these opportunities of making
money pre-IPO and have to wait until a private compa-
ny goes public to buy its shares.

IPOs are not without risks, though. More often than not,
there is little data on the company so it can be hard for
investors, especially angel investors (rich individual in-
vestors), to predict how the stock will behave in its initial
day of trading and the near future. Add to this the fact
that most IPOs are for companies that are going through
provisional growth periods and you’ll understand the un-
certainty that lingers above their future value.

Maybe these are some of the reasons why the number of

companies going public has declined in the first half of
2016. Or maybe it’s because change is upon us.

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 13
 3
CHAPTE R

WHAT IS CROWD
FUNDING?

I
f you’ve ever run a small business, then you know
the financial effort it requires to stay afloat. That’s
where crowdfunding can give entrepreneurs a
helping hand.

Simply put, crowdfunding is the practice of funding a

business or cause by raising small amounts of money
from a large number of people typically via the inter-

14
 net. By leveraging the power of social media and crowd-
funding websites such as Kickstarter, Go Fund Me,
and Angel List entrepreneurs scan expand the pool of
investors from which they raise capital beyond the tra-
ditional venture capitalists and angel investors.

So, for example, if you have an idea for a product, let’s

say an app that scans the ingredients in your fridge and
gives you recipe ideas, then you can go to a crowdfund-
ing website and pitch your idea. Promote it and hope
that people will be interested enough to invest and help
you get the funds you need. You can promise investors
free access to the app or other special deals.

IPO S VS. CROWDFUNDING

Let’s imagine that you have a $100 to $1,000 and would

like to invest them. Should you invest in an IPO or in-
vest in a crowdfunding deal? The answer isn’t that simple.

In the United States, the Securities and Exchange

Commission (SEC) restricts investments in companies
before an IPO to only Accredited or Sophisticated in-
vestors. The reason is understandable: most of these in-
vestments come with a risk, and people don’t have the
necessary financial background to make educated de-
cisions. So, only individuals making more than $200k
a year for at least two years or having a net worth of a
least $1 million can invest in companies before they go
public.

Things have changed.

Back in 2012, President Obama signed the Jump-Start

Our Business Start-Ups Act (or the JOBS Act) which
allows small businesses to advertise shares for sale to
anyone, regardless of their income. The Act was pretty
straightforward, but it took the SEC more than four

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 15
 years to put it into practice. They were concerned about
protecting people from scammers, bad investment ideas
or their poor judgment.

The new rule allows people to invest between $2,000

and $100,000 a year in crowdfunding projects. So, if
you’ve ever dreamt of playing real life “Shark” like in the
hit show “Shark Tank,” you now have the opportunity
to do it, but with some limitations.

16 I A N BA LI N A . CO M
 4
CHAPTE R

HOW ICOs ARE

DISRUPTING VENTURE
CAPITAL AND CROWD
FUNDING

W
e’re at the beginning of a new gold-
en era. The market capitalization of
Blockchain-based tokens is growing
at a fast pace, threatening to disrupt
the venture capital industry.

17
 The traditional way of raising money for a startup in-
volves the creation of a business plan, angel investors,
multiple rounds of funding and, hopefully, an exit strat-
egy for the investors through an IPO.

But, the growth of cryptocurrencies led to the develop-

ment of alternative financing methods, namely ICOs.
The main benefits of ICOs are that they provide funding
to the startup team to develop and launch their project
while also incentivizing the community to invest. If the
project succeeds and your tokens increase in value, you
can sell them and make a profit.

How much money can you raise through this new form
of investment?

A lot!

Just in 2017 alone, ICOs raised over $100 million in

just 15 deals. And, the entrepreneurs didn’t have to go
through rounds of negotiation and wait for months to
raise the capital they need. One Blockchain startup
raised $16.8 million in just 30 minutes.

More and more people are starting to see ICOs as a

fruitful alternative to the traditional way of investing.
The good news for you is that, in spite of its growth,
ICOs are still a new phenomenon so you can still jump
on the bandwagon before it gets too crowded.

ICOS ARE SIMILAR TO CROWDFUNDING

In a way, ICOs are every similar to crowdfunding cam-

paigns. Entrepreneurs pitch their ideas on a Blockchain
platform application or digital currency, such as Bitcoin
or Ethereum, and people decide whether they want to
invest or not.

18 I A N BA LI N A . CO M
 Similar to crowdfunding campaigns, entrepreneurs
don’t give up equity, but tokens (cryptocurrencies). In-
vestors can then hold on to these tokens or sell them on
cryptocurrency exchanges within days or weeks of the
crowdfund ending.

There are a few noticeable differences, though.For start-

ers, because the ICOs happen on blockchains, they ben-
efit from the advantages of this digital ledger. As you
probably know already, blockchain organizes data in
batches called blocks instead of using a central admin-
istrator such as a bank or government. Likewise, ICOs
are decentralized with no single point of failure or mid-
dle man being in control.

For starters, because the ICOs happen on blockchains,

they benefit from the advantages of this digital ledger.
As you probably know already, blockchain organizes
data in batches called blocks instead of using a central
administrator such as a bank or government. Likewise,
ICO blockchain products are decentralized with no sin-
gle point of failure or middle man being in control.

Another noticeable difference between ICOs and

crowdfunding is the market value. When an entrepre-
neur pitches a product or idea on crowdfunding plat-
forms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo, you usually know
what to expect from that product. For example, when
the game Star Citizen launched its crowdfunding cam-
paign, investors were able to immediately tell how much
the product is worth by comparing them with other
games on the market.

When it comes to ICOs, however, things can get a bit

tricky since there’s no real-world market value. That
usually makes the product prone to over or undervalu-
ation of the assets. An old-school VC might get turned
off by these risks, but savvy investors might see this as
an opportunity. They won’t have to wait for an IPO to
recover their investment and make a profit. You can pull
out whenever you wish. So, yes, the value tends to fluc-

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 19
 tuate a lot, but there are also more opportunities. You
can cash out once the price increases or you can play
the game and see where it takes you. Who knows, you
might wake up a millionaire!

NO NEED TO GIVE UP EQUITY

If you’re a fan of the TV show “Shark Tank,” then you

know that entrepreneurs usually have to give up equi-
ty to get the capital they need to start or expand their
business. So, for example, someone would have to give
up 10% of the company to an investor in exchange for
$250K. Sure, when it comes to investors like Mark Cu-
ban, Mr. Wonderful or Lori Greiner, most people would
happily give 10% of their companies in exchange for
their expertise. But, not everyone has this kind of luck,
and most are forced to give up shares in the company
just to see their business grow.

The beauty of ICOs is that they allow startups to raise

money without giving up equity or stock in their busi-
ness to shareholders. So, the same startup that would
have to renounce 10% of their share on Shark Tank can
raise the $250k on blockchain while giving up 0% own-
ership of the company.

This approach perfectly describes the philosophy behind

ICOs. Why give equity to a few investors when you can
let the people who are using the network and creating
the value have stakes in your project? That way, anyone
who bought cryptocurrency is motivated to increase the
value of the project.

20 I A N BA LI N A . CO M
ICO S ARE CURRENTLY UNREGULATED
BY MOST LAWS

I’m no stranger to investing and let me tell you right

here, right now that you need the patience of a Buddhist
monk to wait for an IPO. That’s because the govern-
ment and companies heavily regulate IPOs and compa-
nies need to go through a lot of paperwork before they
can become public.

Crowdfunding is no stranger to bureaucracy either. The

final version of the JOBS Act has no less than 685 pag-
es! Fail to comply with the rules, and you must suffer
the consequences.

ICOs, on the other hand, are still rather new and, thus,
untouched by government regulation. That’s mainly be-
cause the SEC has a difficult time understanding them.
ICOs don’t account for donations because they give to-
kens to buyers and the right to vote on future decisions.
On the other hand, ICOs can’t be seen as the crypto-
currency equivalent of stocks because blockchain-based
startups don’t give up any shares in their companies.

The fact that ICOs don’t follow any regulations has cre-
ated a liberal environment. So, a blockchain-based busi-
ness can launch a product at any time and with little
preparation and people can invest in this idea regardless
of their income or country of residence.

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 21
MORE LIQUIDITY FOR INVESTORS
THAN VENTURE CAPITAL OR ANGEL
INVESTING

If until recently the venture capital industry has been

treating Initial Coin Offerings like a fad, they are now
starting to pay attention to this alternative funding
model.

For starters, cryptocurrency investors have made huge

returns in 2016, with some blockchain startups like
NEM and Monero seeing up to 2,000% increases in
their value. For example, Ether (the cryptocurren-
cy used for the Ethereum blockchain) has doubled its
value numerous times, within days or weeks. So, those
who have bought Ether have more than doubled their
investment in just a few days. You can’t see this kind of
return with traditional investments.

Another reason VCs are becoming more interested in

ICOs is that they offer more liquidity than a traditional
investment. When a venture capitalist or angel investor
buys equity in a company, their money is tied up in the
investment. They cannot pull out or sell their share until
the company has an exit, whether through an IPO or un-
til another company buys them. And, that can take years.

That happens regardless of the size of the company.

Early investors of companies like Google, Facebook
or Tesla, weren’t able to cash out their shares until the
companies went public.

In the case of ICOs, on the other hand, investors have

more liquidity, so they can get a return on their invest-
ment more quickly or pull out when they want. All you
need to do is to convert your cryptocurrency tokens into
Bitcoin or Ether and then into fiat currency via online
exchanges like Coinbase or Gemini.

22 I A N BA LI N A . CO M
 That’s because blockchain companies can make their
tokens or cryptocurrencies available on cryptocurrency
markets in as little as one week after raising the capi-
tal they need. By comparison, it usually takes a start-
up between two and seven years to have an IPO or get
bought by another company. For example, going back to
the Snapchat example, the earliest angel investors in-
vested in Snapchat in April 2012. They were not able
to liquidate their investment until Snapchat’s IPO in
2017. That’s five years they had to wait to realize their
investment.

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 23
 5
CHAPTE R

THE HISTORY OF
INITIAL COIN
OFFERINGS

T
he concept of Initial Coin Offerings is still
new, but it has made enormous progress
since its appearance in 2013, evolving from
a mere idea to campaigns which raised mil-
lions of dollars in just a few minutes.

24
 How did we get here and what will happen next?

Let’s take a look back and then try to predict the future
of the market of ICOs.

A blockchain company that took the crypto world by

storm was Mastercoin. J.R Willett, the creator behind
Mastercoin, proposed that the existing Bitcoin network
could be used as a protocol layer to empower high-
er protocol levels and enable new rules for contracts,
thus leading to the creation of new currencies without
changing Bitcoin itself or requiring the development of
an alternate blockchain to handle the new regulations.

Willett’s idea addressed several crucial problems and

promised to improve the stability of Bitcoin and add
value to it through the creation of new currencies. So,
when he began the fundraising campaign for Master-
coin, Blockchain users were happy to contribute to its
development. Building on top of other blockchains is
commonly referred to as Blockchain 2.0.

Mastercoin raised approximately $5 million in its ini-

tial sale to contributors in August 2013. In just a little
over three months, Mastercoin grew more than 220x in
value, reaching $132 million. That was one of the first
signs that ICOs are not just an effective way to raise the
capital you need to fund your business but also a profit-
able investment opportunity.

Ethereum, the biggest Bitcoin competitor, had, in fact,

one of the most successful ICOs. Having raised $18
million, Ethereum currently has a market cap of well
over $14 billion at this time of writing, providing a sub-
stantial 532x ROI for any ICOs investors in less than
three years. That’s because the team behind Ethereum
used the funds to produce state-of-the-art software ap-
plication and a successful business that partnered with
many reputable tech companies, through the Ethereum
Enterprise Alliance.

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 25
 Unfortunately, the history of Initial Coin Offerings is
not all sunshine and rainbows. One tragic example of
ICOs gone wrong is DAO (The Decentralized Auton-
omous Organization.) DAO, an Ethereum-based com-
pany, wanted to build a model for an entity that would
efficiently allocate capital. The company was able to
raise more than $180 million dollars in just a couple
of months. But, due to a glitch in the software, hackers
were able to drain more than $50 million, destroying
the DAO project and putting Ethereum through a crisis.

Most people managed to recoup their investment, but

many of them became wary of ICOs. Some even pre-
dicted the end of ICOs after this event. But, legitimate
blockchain-based startups quickly realized that they
need adequate preventive measures and self-imposed
restrictions to prevent cyber-attacks and earn the trust
of investors. People have become more vigilant. Today,
a good idea backed by a superficial whitepaper isn’t
enough anymore to secure an investment.

Right now, the number of ICOs launching increases by

the week, bringing in more money than ever before. In
the last 12 months alone, blockchain companies raised
2.4x more from ICOs than from VC investments.

Trying to predict the future is no simple task, especially

in the case of a fast-growing and ever-evolving environ-
ment like the ICO. The most likely scenario is that we’ll
continue to see rapid growth coupled with the emer-
gence of self-regulation and the development of new
tools for conducting campaigns.

26 I A N BA LI N A . CO M
 6
CHAPTE R

HOW ICO S CAN

MAKE YOU A
MILLIONAIRE

I
nvesting in an ICO might seem like too much of
a risk. But if you think about it for a second, you’ll
realize that unlike traditional ventures, ICOs give
you the possibility to invest in a disruptive busi-
ness during the early stages.

27
 Going back to the Snapchat example, ICOs allow the
average person who doesn’t have the minimum $25,000
to invest in Snapchat before it’s IPO, to invest in the next
Snapchat Blockchain startup at pre-IPO type prices.

Let’s take Ethereum as an example, the second big-

gest cryptocurrency regarding market cap, behind Bit-
coin. Ethereum had an ICO three years ago, in 2014
and managed to raise $18 million on a pre-sale of their
cryptocurrency token called Ether. They issued Ether
in exchange for Bitcoin, valued at thirty cents ($0.30.)
Although still new and experimental, users saw value in
it, and the demand increased. That led to a hike in the
price. Today, Ether trades at $160.

Now, imagine you had taken a risk and bought $2,000

worth of Ether tokens in 2014 at thirty cents per Ether.
Your $2,000 investment would now be worth $1 mil-
lion after less than three years. Even if you didn’t have
much money and only bought $10 worth of Ether, you
would have gotten a pretty sizable return on your invest-
ment, and you would now have $3,000 in your pockets.

You might think that this explosive growth only hap-

pened because at that point cryptocurrencies were
something new and people were eager to test their prof-
itability. Now that the blockchain network has stabi-
lized, you can’t expect to see such spectacular returns on
your investment.

I beg to differ.

Let’s take Stratis as an example, a blockchain compa-

ny created to provide solutions for businesses in the fi-
nancial sector that want to reap the benefits of block-
chain technology. Stratis launched last year in 2016 and
valued their cryptocurrency tokens, named STRAT, at
$0.017 per token. At this moment, one STRAT is trad-
ing at $2.81. That’s a 164x (16,400%) return on your
initial investment in less than one year. If you would
have bought $100 worth of STRAT last year, you would

28 I A N BA LI N A . CO M
 now be $16,400+ richer than you were a year ago. Imag-
ine if you would have taken a bigger risk and invested
$5,000 in STRAT. Nowadays, your investment would
be worth $820,000+ in less than one year.

That’s the beauty of ICOs. Anyone, regardless of their

income, country or education can become a millionaire,
granted they do their homework and choose the ICO
campaigns they want to invest into with great care.

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 29
 7
CHAPTE R

IS IT SAFE
TO INVEST IN ICO S

I
COs can make you a lot of money very quickly,
but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are
without flaw. Only two things are certain in life,
and ICOs are not one of them. You can make a lot
of money with ICOs, but you can also lose them fast if
you are not careful.

As with any investment, it’s difficult to predict the

success of a startup with absolute certainty. Similar to

30
 crowdfunding campaigns, companies might not com-
plete the project or trick you into investing in their
business without any intention of ever launching it. That
is not unusual for an entirely new, mostly unregulated
field. However, there are a few measures you can take
to assess the credibility of a product and avoid getting
scammed.

AVOID ANONYMOUS TEAMS

Be wary if the developers of the project are either anon-

ymous or unknown to anyone in the community. Sure,
there might be instances when the developers are just
new to the concept, but if they are not willing to put
their reputation on the line, then it’s best to keep your
money in your pocket.

ONLY INVEST IN ICO S

WITH ESCROW WALLETS

One of the ways legitimate companies have managed to

regulate ICOs is through the use of escrow. Therefore,
if the developers don’t have an escrow wallet for invest-
ments, then nothing can stop them from running away
with your money.

BE SKEPTICAL OF LOFTY GOALS

Another red flag you need to pay attention to is the

goal of the project. If the developers have set unrealistic
goals, it usually means that they don’t know what they’re

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 31
 doing. Or, worse, they don’t care and are just looking for
a way to make a quick buck by scamming people.

DON’T INVEST IN JUST WHITE PAPERS

Legitimate businesses often show the status of their

project, keeping investors in the loop. If the developers
don’t release any proof of progress, such as beta code
snippets, behind the scene documents and videos or
beta/MVP versions, then most likely they don’t have
anything to show.

ICOs investments, as with any investment, for what

matters, aren’t risk-free. The fact that the government
doesn’t regulate ICOs can add to the feeling of uncer-
tainty. However, things have changed dramatically since
the inception of ICOs. Nowadays, blockchain startups
impose restrictions on themselves and can provide suffi-
cient transparency to earn the trust of investors.

As already mentioned, contributions are stored in es-

crow wallets, and developers need several keys, includ-
ing some from trusted third parties, to access the money.
Moreover, companies need to provide comprehensive
documentation to back up their projects, such as defined
goals, recommendations from independent experts, and
so on, to prove the legitimacy of their campaigns.

32 I A N BA LI N A . CO M
 8
CHAPTE R

HOW TO INVEST
IN ICO S

I
COs can be easy money for startups. They’ve
raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the
past three years, so there’s no wonder that more
and more companies are trying to leverage the
power ICOs hold.

As an investor, though, finding a successful ICO can be

a bit challenging, especially if you are not very tech-sav-
vy. That’s where this guide can come in handy.

33
 First things first, if you want to invest in ICOs, you
need to monitor Initial Coin Offerings calendar lists
that show current and upcoming ICOs. Some of the
best platforms that make the process of finding ICO
campaigns simple include:

DD ICO Rating

DD Ico Alert

DD Smithandcrown

DD TokenMarket

These markets work similarly to Kickstarter or Indiego-

go, where companies present their ideas to the public,
hoping to get enough support to fund the development
of their projects.

Go to these websites and look through the list of ac-

tive or upcoming ICOs. Some of the calendar sites, like
ICO Ratings, even provide free detailed reports on
ICOs, and whether they’re worth investing in. When
you find something you’re interested in investing, go
to the developer’s site and ensure they are a legitimate
business. A good sign is if the developers link to their
LinkedIn or Twitter accounts. Research their creden-
tials and try to learn as much about their professional
experience. Then, have a good look at their white paper
and make sure it includes a description of the project,
realistic goals, the costs, and a clear roadmap of how
they plan to turn their idea into an actual product.

Next, go to BitcoinTalk.org, find the ANN thread

about the cryptocurrency you’re interested in, and gauge
community opinion on the ICO. Pay careful attention
to the questions that the developers themselves an-
swered. Did they address all of the users’ concerns or

34 I A N BA LI N A . CO M
 gave vague answers? Moreover, you can search the name
of the ICO you’re interested in along with keywords
like “scam,” “con,” or “MLM.” If you see any posts men-
tioning those keywords, then that’s a potential red flag,
and it would be better to keep searching.

Once you’ve found an ICO campaign that you are con-

fident is legit and think has enormous potential, send
Bitcoins or Ether to the project’s Bitcoin or Ether ad-
dress in exchange for tokens. Store these tokens in the
ICO’s campaigns escrow wallet.

After a week or month or so (it usually depends on

the project,) the tokens get listed on cryptocurrency
exchange markets, such as Bittrex and Poloniex and
became available for buying and selling to the general
public.

You have a few options now: you can hold on to your

cryptocurrency and hope it will further increase in value
or you can sell it for Bitcoin or Ether and convert it to a
fiat currency like dollars, euros or yen.

Just like with any other investment, don’t put all of your
eggs in just one basket and hope the cryptocurrency will
skyrocket in a few months. Find about five ICOs that
you think might have potential, do your research, and
then narrow the list to the top three. That way, if one
fails, you won’t lose all of your investment.

I invest in numerous ICOs a month. I dedicate a part

of my crypto portfolio to investing in ICOs. I started
out putting in $100 in each ICO to first learn the ropes,
and then after getting more comfortable, scaled it up to
$500, and then $1,000 and so on.

If there’s an ICO you like, but are hesitant to invest in

it, or you don’t meet the ICO investment requirements,
you can always just wait for the tokens to get listed on
an exchange and buy them then.

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 35
 9
CHAPTE R

CONCLUSION

W
henever a groundbreaking new
technology emerges, it creates both
disruption and opportunities on a
global level. It happened with auto-
mobiles, film studios, computers, and dot-coms. Now,
the history repeats itself with blockchain.

This new technology is taking the VC landscape by

storm, creating millionaires right before our eyes. Not
only that ICOs give startups the possibility of funding
their companies without having to take the tradition-

36
 al route of searching for angel investors and venture
capital and having to go through endless rounds of fi-
nancing, but regular people like you and I have the op-
portunity to invest in profitable businesses early in the
process. Imagine if you had the possibility to be one of
the first investors that invested in companies like Goo-
gle or Amazon. You would be a millionaire right now!
However, with the way the traditional financing model
works right now, that scenario would be impossible for
the average Joe or Jane. But, it becomes a reality with
Initial Coin Offerings.

That’s not to say ICOs are perfect. They sit outside of any
traditional legal framework, and there aren’t too many
regulations to protect you from scammers. But, here’s
the thing: ICOs wouldn’t work if contributors wouldn’t
trust them. So, more and more startups are implement-
ing self-imposed regulations that make it easier for peo-
ple to spot fraudsters and avoid losing their money.

In the end, you still need to figure out if a project can

generate real value and if it’s worth your money. And,
that’s true for any investment, regardless if we’re talking
about IPOs, crowdfunding or ICOs. What makes ICOs
unique, though, is that it allows you to hack the VC
ecosystem and become a millionaire fast.

Hopefully, this guide will provide you the tools to get

you started or at least get you interested in learning
more about ICOs.

But, you should hurry and reap the benefits of ICOs

before everybody else learns about them.

Get started investing in Initial Coin Offerings now!

Get $10 of free Bitcoin when you buy your first $100
of Bitcoin here.

H AC K I N G V EN T U R E CA P I TA L 37
 Thank you!

I know reading this entire guide in its entirety wasn’t easy.

But the good thing is you took action and finished it.

The number one thing that stops people from not creat-
ing a six figure career and lifestyle is that they don’t take
action. They don’t start and finish things.

You have just separated yourself from 95% of people in

the world by seeking this information. Now the ques-
tion is will you separate yourself from the 95% of people
that read this guide and execute on everything in here
and create the six figure lifestyle you desire?

By definition, not everybody can be great. Great things

will always remain for the great. To achieve greatness, you
have to go out and take it. It won’t just fall in your lap.

I hope I have inspired you to work on creating a six fig-

ure lifestyle actively.

Be sure to follow me on social media, where I’m ac-

tive daily . Especially on Instagram and Twitter, where
I share my live crypto trades, portfolio, and thoughts.

Instagram: @diaryofamademan

Facebook: facebook.com/ianbalina

YouTube: youtube.com/HackingTheSystem

Snapchat: @diaryofamademan

Twitter: @diaryofamademan

Quora: quora.com/profile/Ian-Balina

Thank you!

Ian Balina

#Hustle2Greatness

38 I A N BA LI N A . CO M