Kudos to wanting to learn as much as you can! The best protection against scams lies with the investors' due diligence.
There are many ways to figure out which projects are good and which projects are great.
For me personally, I will ask myself these questions first.
1) Will I use this product?
2) Am I interested to learn more?
3) Will it help bring Crypto or Blockchain to non-crypto investors/users?
Then, of course, we shall proceed with reading the actual whitepaper.
I will look out first:
1) The team
The experience of the team matters quite a lot. And where their true strengths lie. Just an example, Justin Sun is a fantastic marketing wizard and thus, he is able to secure these partnerships and create the hype for TRX. Vitalik Buterin is a technical wizard, with a figurehead like him, Ethereum has a strong technical advantage. That sort of things. Steve Jobs and Apple. Elon Musk and Tesla/SpaceX. Jack Ma and Alibaba. (Not advocating these companies. They are just examples).
2) If available, business model.
How will the project bring revenue and profits? During a bear market when ICO contributions like BTC and ETH lose value, how can a company sustain in the market? Revenue makes a company tick.
Hope this helps somehow! It is a long topic for sure.
There are many ways to figure out which projects are good and which projects are great.
For me personally, I will ask myself these questions first.
1) Will I use this product?
2) Am I interested to learn more?
3) Will it help bring Crypto or Blockchain to non-crypto investors/users?
Then, of course, we shall proceed with reading the actual whitepaper.
I will look out first:
1) The team
The experience of the team matters quite a lot. And where their true strengths lie. Just an example, Justin Sun is a fantastic marketing wizard and thus, he is able to secure these partnerships and create the hype for TRX. Vitalik Buterin is a technical wizard, with a figurehead like him, Ethereum has a strong technical advantage. That sort of things. Steve Jobs and Apple. Elon Musk and Tesla/SpaceX. Jack Ma and Alibaba. (Not advocating these companies. They are just examples).
2) If available, business model.
How will the project bring revenue and profits? During a bear market when ICO contributions like BTC and ETH lose value, how can a company sustain in the market? Revenue makes a company tick.
Hope this helps somehow! It is a long topic for sure.
+1 The only thing that I would added is: Is it achievable for the team. You read sometimes that crazy projects and what they want to achieve it is nearly impossible for the team. If they can not achieve the roadmap/whitepaper it probely gonna flop.
+1 on your input as well. Yes, completely agree!
The more ambitious the project, the longer time it will/should take for it to be fulfilled. There are some companies that are very upfront about their timelines, giving years as deadlines. Though everyone here probably knows, Crypto is an emotional FOMO-based market so price tends to supersede the promise of a company. Which is perhaps the cause of massive volatility. Game of patience. 