Launch is one of the important aspects I look at. Most shitcoins show a substantial premine (e.g. for an ICO/IEO), but that's true for a lot of altcoins. So how to determine if a launch looks "shitcoin-ey" or not?
For me, a premine, to be justified, should serve a clear purpose. Ideally the coins premined for the "team" should be locked for some time (with a feature similar to CLTV) to avoid exit scams. Or the coins should be exchangeable for services of the "team" (in the vein of utility tokens).
In all other cases I would oppose premines. Of course such coins can get hyped and yield a reward to investors, but usually only in the short term. Do not invest late in a non-established, premined coin.
Non-premined coins are not safe though: they can be instamined and then they're almost as bad as premined coins.
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For me, a premine, to be justified, should serve a clear purpose. Ideally the coins premined for the "team" should be locked for some time (with a feature similar to CLTV) to avoid exit scams. Or the coins should be exchangeable for services of the "team" (in the vein of utility tokens).
In all other cases I would oppose premines. Of course such coins can get hyped and yield a reward to investors, but usually only in the short term. Do not invest late in a non-established, premined coin.
Non-premined coins are not safe though: they can be instamined and then they're almost as bad as premined coins.
2. If project has too big supply (usually over 1 billion is too much) it's a shitcoin
This can be a red flag but is not necessarily one. I would change that in the following way: If the supply combining the coins sold in an ICO/IEO and held by the developers without any lock is too large (larger than Bitcoin's current supply of 20 million, for example), then it can be a red flag. The reason is that ICO/IEOs have a limited public and thus it's likely that if the coin doesn't reach the value buyers intend fast, then it's likely many of them sell together. Instead, if there's a large or not limited maximum supply like it occurs with Dogecoin for example, then the coins will reach the market gradually, a "big bust" is less likely.3. You can check team members on linkedin, if they are not there or anonymous - it's a shitcoin
That should be the case for clearly centralized coins with ICO launches. But not for decentralized coins. Satoshi was also anonymous and his coin is doing very well (despite the recent slightly bearish phase ).