Like the basics:

WHAT IS THE ETHEREUM BLOCKCHAIN YOU PLAN TO USE?
The Ethereum blockchain is one of the blockchains available. Compared to the first (bitcoin blockchain) it enables the development of “smart contract” on top of it, which uses the underlying technology.

WHAT IS A SMART CONTRACT?
A smart contract is the programming code that creates the rules of how transactions of a certain property (like a token) are being processed on the blockchain.

WHAT IS AN ICO?
ICO is short for “Initial Coin Offering”. It’s a crowdsale during which organizers are selling cryptocurrency tokens (or coins - the terms are used interchangeably) in order to raise funds for a project.

HOW DOES A TOKEN CROWDSALE / ICO WORK?
Blockchain projects release their cryptocurrency to the general public via a crowdsale event. People who wish to use or donate to support a new crypto token participate in the crowdfund by sending funds to the project’s address. The tokens are created with a smart contract. At the end of the crowdfund period, each participant receives tokens corresponding to how much funds they donated. Contributors can participate with regular currencies or with cryptocurrencies - it depends on the rules set up when announcing the ICO.

WHAT IS A SOFT CAP AND HARD CAP?
A soft cap is the minimum amount of funds the crowdsale organizer wants to raise in the crowdsale. If the contributions don’t reach the soft cap during a predefined time period, the crowdsale is unsuccessful and the funds are returned to the contributor. Hard cap is the maximum amount that can be raised. A project can be set up without a soft cap (no minimum limit) or hard cap (no upper limit of funds raised), but as a general rule most token crowdsales have them, as relevant caps show that a project has a financial calculation behind it.