Etherum and Waves are currently the most promising in the over saturated world of alt coins.
No my friend, ethereum and waves are not ICOs, they are the alternative coins ( altcoins),
Initial Coin Offering (ICO) an unregulated means by which funds are raised for a new cryptocurrency venture. An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is used by startups to bypass the rigorous and regulated capital-raising process required by venture capitalists or banks. A percentage of the cryptocurrency is sold to early backers of the project in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies, it is like IPO on the stocks.
Ico is like investing your money in it, it is more of a way to have some advantages on a company or project, having a say on how it will goes or to have bonuses when ICO runs,it is the newest trend how company or individual funds their project.
Of course yes, ICO is new innovation of investing in digital coins, we are really investing our money in it, it is not like.
And the risk losing money in the ICOs is very high but it is gives big chance to getting large of profit too in ICOs,
I think my explanation above was clear about the ICO, if you don't understand about the IPO, it is like ICO in digital coins,
but IPO be used for stocks not on digital coins, if you want see more about the IPO you can be an investors on stocks market and google it.