I just found out about
Overstock:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2324406.0This project makes a lot of sense. They were the first major merchant to accept Bitcoin back in 2014, which the crypto community was very happy about. I still remember the announcement and we all hoped for more merchants to do the same. Now, they accept 40 altcoins as payment. So they have a lot of experience with cryptocurrencies. They're one of the most crypto friendly companies in existence.
With this ICO, they're not going to do crazy things like put large files, 3D or VR data on the blockchain. They're going to put stock related data on the blockchain. If they've already bought a Wall Street firm that is approved by SEC to trade stocks, then one would assume that their tokens will be legal owners of the shares of the companies that they entitle you to. There are several ICOs that claim that their tokens will entitle you to ownership to real estate, USD, gold or other coins without giving detailed, convincing explanation of how the tokens will have legal ownership.
They're going after a huge market and opportunity, much bigger than Ripple or most other markets that I can think of. This is the best ICO in a long time.
However, we'll need to see if a retailer can transition into a stock exchange operator. The other drawback is the size of the ICO, which is expected to be $500 million. That's a very high price to pay and you can end up overpaying. It's possible that investors throw even more than $500 million at Overstock and increase the risk of losing money in the short term.
Stockbet also makes a lot of sense. They won't be as big as Overstock, but their tokens will be more reasonably priced.