In theory, there is no valid purpose for ICOs except for legally
regulated companies to violate the law, which is clearly asinine.
A regulated ICO is an oxymoron and in practice is impossible to
guarantee full compliance. So, it is simpler to make ICOs illegal
for businesses, than to attempt to regulate them, since they by
design, facilitate no other function than noncompliance.
IMO, ICOs are only beneficial for the funding and creation of
illegal markets or illegal software. Of course, when this occurs,
majority of those project will be scams as well, but at least
those ICOs are not legal oxymorons like today's version.
Wow. What a horrid outlook.
ICOs allow autonomy of money. They allow decentralized participation.
The average person can get in on an ICO, the same way they can go to a casino. Where as securities require archaic framework, muddled with endless corruption, short sellers, etc. You may not even be able to buy into them, depending on who you are and who they are, and it'll cost you money.
An ICO also allows funding without a change in ownership. Unlike a traditional security where public stock offerings may kill the company under new ownership, thereby screwing the small investor, an ICO doesn't relinquish control to penny pushers. Another way to see them is they allows the mission statement to continue without intervention.
IMO ICOs are amazing, many of their attributes will be found in the future of investing.