Quote from: nikolaich on September 30, 2017, 01:11:16 PM

What do you mean when you use the word scam? Speaking about ICO, it`s when somebody collects money, closes the project and just vanishes in the air with millions in a pocket and a crowd of deceived investors. That`s what is a scam for me.

As an example of a good project, I also forgot to mention Waves as a perspective platform with Russian developers (#17 on coinmarketcap).

Could you please name real scam projects from Russia? I don`t know any.

Do you agree that any project needs in-depth research before making assertions and 5-minute quick glance on the website is not enough?

You can see lots of scams from all over the world here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0 (Search for russia)

Yes, there are scams from countries that are not corrupt and successful projects from corrupt countries. What is important is the probability and if you are willing to take the extra risk.

In corrupt countries, ethics and honesty are more lax. Does this mean that the likelihood of exaggeration or dishonesty to be greater? If you do not think so, then go ahead and invest.

In non corrupt countries, people grow up with lots of regulations and enforcement. Though there are exceptions, the people feel that the way to get ahead is based largely on merit. In corrupt countries, there is less regulation, less enforcement and more people trying to find ways to get ahead by working around the system. In fact, they see that the most successful people in their country, usually in their government, are those who get ahead by lying, cheating or working around the system, instead of based on merit. If you do not think this is a risk, then go ahead and invest.

ModulTrade
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2240518.0

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While the number of MTRc is limited the increase of trades pushes the demand for MTRc and its valuation

This means that they are selling a security and will be on regulators lists. Maybe ModulTrade doesnt care about regulators because Russia does not have extradition agreements with other countries, but what happens if regulators ban their token in Europe or North America?

Countries without extradition agreements make teams feel more invulnerable. Therefore, they are more likely to lie and cheat investors from other countries, because there is little to no recourse from the other countries' governments.

I watched a video of a conference. Consensus was warning about selling securities. Waves CEO debated this and shrugged it off.

Just because the ICOs coin is on Coinmarketcap, it does not mean that they will execute. On Coinmarketcap, Gnosis is ranked 52, Qtum is ranked 14 and Augur is ranked 28.

Gnosis raised $12.5 million and their website says:

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The Hunch Game is nearly ready and can be launched in the first half of 2017 as an example Gnosis app.

No app yet.

Qtum raised $15.6 million. I don't see anything produced on Qtum's website.

Augur had Vitalik Buterin on their team. After Satoshi Nakamoto, Vitalik is the most desirable person in the universe to have on an ICO team. After raising multiple millions and after two and a half years, all theyve released is a simple beta that is barely usable.

Even if there are no obvious scams from Russia, it doesnt mean that most of them are good ICOs.

Is the Russian government funding Russian ICOs to help them maximize the money that they raise? If so, you should be aware of this risk. Though there are exceptions, in the far majority of time, when a government tries to pick and choose companies, its not a good idea. The U.S. government forced taxpayers to give $535 million to Solyndra. It looked great at first and then it went bankrupt. Governments are not educated nor skilled to be Venture Capitalists, investors or stock pickers. Their money is often spent on policies to further their political or social goals.

In the extreme cases when the government tries to centrally manage the economy, they create socialism, or communism which is the extreme form of socialism. Every government that centrally manages their economy have always made their economies poorer in the long run. Think of Cuba, Venezuela, when Russia was communist, when China was communist, etc. The people who are best at picking which business will succeed or fail, are those in the free market.

Yes, of course, investors should spend more than 5 minutes looking at a website. The problem is that many do not and if they do, they do not understand technology, blockchain or business sufficiently. In which case, they can reduce their risk by using filters: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2243157

Quote from: Alt.Estate on October 10, 2017, 06:13:53 PM

Well, yeah, I got your point, but to be fair, if Paris Hilton and Floyd Mayweather can afford to pay websites for listing their projects - we know they can - then they also can afford to hire real masters and experts to elaborate on their ideas and transform them into, like, a real project.

As mentioned already, just because they can afford to hire people, it does not mean that its a good idea or that they will execute. When the U.S. government threw $535 million at Solyndra, they raised more than any ICO and I can guarantee you that they had a much more impressive team than any ICO. But they still went bankrupt.