Quote from: Tubsie on February 10, 2018, 04:56:49 AM

Oke guys so here I am gonna explain 2 things more in dept!

1: The Difference Between Coins and Tokens
2: What Research you should do!

Lets start with the difference between Altcoins and Tokens:

Altcoins:

Alternative cryptocurrency's are called altcoins or just 'coins'. And Altcoins simply refers to coins that are an alternative to Bitcoin. Most of the Altcoins out there are a variant (Fork) of Bitcoin, and they are built using Bitcoins open-sourced, original protocol but with changes to its underlying codes, And because of that creating a entirely new coin with a different set of features. Examples of Altcoins that are variants of Bitcoins codes are Litecoin, Dogecoin, Namecoin, Peercoin and Auroracoin.

But there are other Altcoins that arent copied from Bitcoins open-source protocol. Instead, they have created their own Blockchain and protocol that supports their own currency. And examples of these coins are Ethereum, Ripple, Omni, Nxt, Waves and Counterparty.

And what they all have in common is that they each have their own independent blockchain, where transactions for each seperate coin are happening.

Now Tokens:

Tokens are representing a particular asset or utility, that usually exists on top of another Blockchain.
Also Tokens can represent basically any assets that are exchangeable and tradeable, from commodities to loyalty points to even other cryptocurrencies!
And in the Future a lot of real assets and businesses will be tokenized.

Creating tokens is a much easier process because you do not have to modify the codes from a particular protocol or create a blockchain from scratch.
All you have to do is follow a standard template on the blockchain like the Ethereum or Waves platform, and you will be able to create your own tokens easily.
And creating your own tokens is made very easily because of smart contracts,a programmable computer codes that are self executing and do not need anyone else to operate it.

Also Tokens are created and distributed through an (ICO) while most of the coin projects are distributed through mining.

So the main difference between coins and tokens is their structure, altcoins are separate currencies with their own separate blockchain while tokens operate on top of a blockchain that helps with the creation of decentralized applications.

What Research you should do!

First of all Dont cut corners doing research it is the most important part, and the difference between losing your money or making profits!

1: Research the Team
Google their names, Visit their Linkedin's, and you could even Talk to them and ask them questions in the Telegram/Slack group.

2: Read and Analyze the Whitepaper
First of all most of the time the White paper is "the perfect scenario" and most of us wont even understand 50% of it.
But you have to read it, what I sometimes do is, I print the Whitepaper and read it in bed.
Make your own conclusions did they really put a lot of effort in the whitepaper and does everything check out?

Because I hear so many times, 'But I didnt read the whitepaper' Like how are you going to put hundreds maybe even thousands of dollars into a new Coin or Token and not read their specific purpose explained in the Whitepaper? It will explain how many coins the founders have, how long they must hold the coins after the ICO launch, what platform the Token/Coin will be launched on, the purpose/utility of the coin. Any questions you have should be answered here, or the whitepaper is incomplete!!

3: Understand who the developers are
Google their names, check their previous experiences and have a talk with them in the Telegram or Slack group.
And please just make sure the developers that the ICO claims to be working for their project are indeed participating.

4: Consider Investment strategies
What are you planning to do dump it after it hits the exchange or do you think this solves some real world problems, and could be a long term hold?

5: Analyze the Road Map
Some project still have a lot of time left before they will actually have a Dapp or some exiting developments down the road.
But you have to ask yourself do I really want to be in a project that is two years from launch?

6: Is the Company or Person Already Established?
Did they have any succes in business or crypto before this, or are they some scammer from india that just wants your money? Wink

Also Companies that are already profitable are great options to host ICOs. They release a utility token most of the time, that serves a purpose to the company.

7: Research
Take a look at the website, make sure the links are functioning, Does the website look professional or is it a wordpress website simply put togheter?
But most scams really can be found by typing the coins name into google as someone else may already be investigating scam and fraud claims
Visit Ico ranking services dont fully trust the ranking services, but they rarely have a top ranked Ico scam.

8: Join all Their Social Media
Telegram, Reddit, Facebook, Medium, Twitter, Youtube.

I hope I help some people with this if you guys have any questions let me know!!

very helpful, I only know little before, and I guess the same between token and coin, I'm new in bitcointalk forum, thank you sir.