Raising capital by your tokens issue - blockchain technology may disrupt fundraising as you know it. Thousands of projects have already raised billions of dollars through ICO. Why might yours be next?

What will you find in the article?

What is the intial coin offering?
Advatages of ICO
How do ICOs work?
Launching ICO step by step
Different structure models of ICO
ICO vs IPO
STO vs ICO

Most technology startups have limited options when it comes to fundraising. They can either raise a seed round from private investors, pitch a VC fund, or start a crowdfunding campaign.

But if your project is blockchain-based, entirely new possibilities emerge, among them, you can find an initial coin offering (ICO). With ICO, you can issue your own utility tokens to be used in the network you want to create. As it grows, the demand for tokens increases, the same as their price, bringing profits to early investors.

An initial coin offering - ICO is a blockchain industry equivalent of IPO (Initial Public Offering). Find why issuing tokens may be the best way to raise funds for your project.

What is the initial coin offering?

Among STO and IDO, initial coin offering is one of the fundraising methods brought to life thanks to Blockchain technology. Essentially, an initial coin offering regards raising funds for a project by issuing new cryptocurrency where new blockchain-based projects mint and sell new tokens in exchange for other digital assets or fiat money.

Eventually, those token will have a specific utility on the platform built for funds raised during the ICO. For example, they may be exchanged for products or services of the company. In other cases, they become governance tokens that allow investors to vote to shape the project’s future.

How did it start?

Everything started in 2013 with Mastercoin’s initial coin offering that raised approximately 5 million dollars. The Mastercoin launch was quickly followed by Ethereum. Yes, that’s right - one of the most influential technology projects of this decade was funded via an initial coin offering. During Ethereum's ICO, creators raised 18 million dollars. To this day, Ethereum remains one of the most successful ICOs.

Yet, those 18 million sounds like nothing, compared to the 4 billion raised by EOS in several rounds during 2018-2019. It was the largest ICO to date.

Democratization of fundraising

But initial coin offering (ICO) isn’t all about big projects with enormous capital for fundraising campaigns. Their main advantage over IPO is allowing also smaller startups to arrange a successful funding round.

Advantages of initial coin offerings

Speed

Quick access to funding at a seed stage. Conducting an ICO campaign can be a matter of just a few weeks.

Fewer legal requirements

ICOs are far less regulated than any other fundraising method. Hence they require minimal bureaucracy.

Your project, your equity

During ICO, you can raise funds without loss of equity.

Community

Your ICO investors will create a strong community, willing to test and even promote the project.

Liquidity

Global markets, where your tokens will be sold, operate 24/7.

Fundraising without borders

Contrary to a public offering, your tokens will be sold on a global market, which means that the campaign doesn’t have to be restricted to one jurisdiction. Anyone with a crypto wallet can buy them.

How do ICOs work?

Essentially, launching initial coin offerings means issuing your own tokens that will have a specific utility in your project. That’s why they are named Utility Tokens. You can read more about different token types in this article. Contrary to a securities offering, ICO doesn’t grant investors shares of the company. Instead, they distribute tokens with a specific utility in the project that will be built for raised funds.

To raise money through initial coin offering, startups usually start with creating a white paper. This is a document that describes the project and its goals, providing investors with information that may help them decide whether they want to participate.

During the ICO process, investors buy tokens with other cryptocurrencies or fiat money. If the funding requirements are met, raised capital will support the creation of the project. If they aren’t, they may be returned to investors. It depends on chosen structure model.

Different structure models of ICO

Initial coin offerings may be structured in various ways. In some examples, tokens sold during ICO have a fixed price and specified limited supply. In contrast, others limit the supply but leave the token price dynamic, which means that fundraising will depend on the amount of raised funds.

There are also initial coin offerings that set a static price of token and dynamic token supply that depends on the amount of funding received.

ICO and federal securities laws

It’s important to note that currently, in the majority of jurisdictions, ICOs remain largely unregulated. This means that they are far less restricted than IPOs or even STOs.

Essentially, most tokens issued during ICO aren’t treated as securities because they don’t represent any equity in the project. Instead, they have a certain utility in their network.

How to raise capital via ICO?

In the whole initial coin offering process, the following stages can be distinguished:

Make sure your project needs ICO

A brief disclaimer: not every company qualifies for ICO. And even if it does, there may be better alternatives.

ICO isn’t a universal solution that will suit every project. Many factors should be taken into consideration before choosing it.

First of all, initial coin offerings work best for blockchain-based projects. There are many good ICOs out right now; hence the competition for the attention of investors is high. If your project uses unnecessary tokens and doesn’t back them with attractive utility, investors probably won’t be interested in putting their funds into it.

Yet, the crypto industry offers more solutions that support fundraising. Some of them, as STO, are also suitable for non-blockchain projects.

Get to know the local law

ICOs are a relatively new fundraising solution. Hence many countries still haven’t developed a clear legal framework for them.

So far, only China and South Korea have banned ICOs. Yet, you have to be aware that in some jurisdictions launching your private ICO will be much easier than in others. You can find more information regarding this issue in our article: The 5 most popular jurisdictions for your company’s tokenization.

Create a distribution plan

The plan will depend on your primary requirements and assumptions. For instance, there may be different stages of the token sale before you get to the actual initial coin offering. For example, Telegram managed to raise $850 million during the pre-sale only.

At this stage, you have to decide which of the previously mentioned models you will choose? Is the price going to be stable or rather dynamic? What about the supply? Moreover, you should determine how many of them will be sold at each stage of the token sale.

Choose the right technology

This may sound trivial, but the right technology solutions are the backbone of your ICO’s success. There are several universally required technologies, among them blockchain, smart contracts, tokens, and solid back-end and security infrastructure.

When it comes to blockchain, the majority of the companies decide to use established, well-known protocols. In most cases, it’s Ethereum. Launching an ICO on your own blockchain is possible and can sometimes be observed in the industry. Yet, it’s time and cost-consuming. Additionally, for the majority of projects, there is no need to do so.

White paper

A white paper is a document that describes the project and explains its goals in almost every possible detail. It’s aimed to provide potential investors with the information needed to decide whether they want to participate. This includes:

Vision
Market analysis
Goals
Available resources
Development strategy
Legal frames
Details regarding token and its distribution
Description of the team

Not sure how to write a proper white paper? Our consultants will gladly guide you through the whole process.

Website creation

You need to face that your project will be judged mainly by the content and appearance of its website. It has to contain clear information about your team, aims, and measures to protect investors’ interests.

Before ICO launch, the website should also feature a token sale landing page. Remember about approachable UX here.

ICO vs. IPO

The main difference between IPO and ICO lies in equity. During ICO, owners don’t have to give up a part of their equity in exchange for funds, as they do with shares in the case of IPO. Instead, they issue tokens that will have a utility in their project. Therefore, ICO is mainly used for blockchain-based projects.

Because during the ICO no equities are sold, there are fewer restrictions regarding ICOs than IPOs. For example, most ICOs don't fall under securities law. Thus, they require less bureaucracy and are more suitable for seed-stage startups. Furthermore, investing in ICO tokens isn't restricted to accredited investors, as it happens with IPO.

ICO vs. STO: main differences

There are different types of token offerings out there. One of the most important is the slightly younger STO - security token offering. Here instead of utility tokens, security tokens are issued. This means that their value is backed by real assets - for example, shares in the company or real estate. You can read more about security tokens in this article.

The main advantage of STO is that they are suitable for various projects, not only blockchain-based ones. In this way, you can even tokenize alternative assets, such as cars or precious metals.

On the other hand, because tokens represent specific equity, they are treated as securities. And this means far more legal restrictions.

What is ICO? - Conclusion

Initial coin offerings are an excellent opportunity for seed-stage startups to raise capital for further development. During the past 6 years, billions of dollars have been raised using ICO, funding such projects as Telegram or Ethereum. At the same time investing in ICO gained tremendous popularity, even outside the crypto community.

Yet as with every solution, they aren’t free from limitations. While from a technology perspective process is getting easier every year, more and more legal restrictions emerge. Furthermore, because of several ICO projects, reaching investors now requires a well-planned marketing strategy.

Are you interested in launching your own ICO, but you are not sure if your team will manage to fulfill all the requirements? After conducting one of the first tokenizations globally and many other ICOs, we may say that we know the ropes of successful tokenization. Hence, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Applying Game Theory in Token Design

Kajetan Olas

16 Apr 2024

Blockchain technology allows for aligning incentives among network participants by rewarding desired behaviors with tokens.
But there is more to it than simply fostering cooperation. Game theory allows for designing incentive-machines that can't be turned-off and resemble artificial life.

Emergent Optimization

Game theory provides a robust framework for analyzing strategic interactions with mathematical models, which is particularly useful in blockchain environments where multiple stakeholders interact within a set of predefined rules. By applying this framework to token systems, developers can design systems that influence the emergent behaviors of network participants. This ensures the stability and effectiveness of the ecosystem.

Bonding Curves

Bonding curves are tool used in token design to manage the relationship between price and token supply predictably. Essentially, a bonding curve is a mathematical curve that defines the price of a token based on its supply. The more tokens that are bought, the higher the price climbs, and vice versa. This model incentivizes early adoption and can help stabilize a token’s economy over time.

For example, a bonding curve could be designed to slow down price increases after certain milestones are reached, thus preventing speculative bubbles and encouraging steadier, more organic growth.

The Case of Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s design incorporates game theory, most notably through its consensus mechanism of proof-of-work (PoW). Its reward function optimizes for security (hashrate) by optimizing for maximum electricity usage. Therefore, optimizing for its legitimate goal of being secure also inadvertently optimizes for corrupting natural environment. Another emergent outcome of PoW is the creation of mining pools, that increase centralization.

The Paperclip Maximizer and the dangers of blockchain economy

What’s the connection between AI from the story and decentralized economies? Blockchain-based incentive systems also can’t be turned off. This means that if we design an incentive system that optimizes towards a wrong objective, we might be unable to change it. Bitcoin critics argue that the PoW consensus mechanism optimizes toward destroying planet Earth.

Layer 2 Solutions

Layer 2 solutions are built on the understanding that the security provided by this core kernel of certainty can be used as an anchor. This anchor then supports additional economic mechanisms that operate off the blockchain, extending the utility of public blockchains like Ethereum. These mechanisms include state channels, sidechains, or plasma, each offering a way to conduct transactions off-chain while still being able to refer back to the anchored security of the main chain if necessary.

Conceptual Example of State Channels

State channels allow participants to perform numerous transactions off-chain, with the blockchain serving as a backstop in case of disputes or malfeasance.

Consider two players, Alice and Bob, who want to play a game of tic-tac-toe with stakes in Ethereum. The naive approach would be to interact directly with a smart contract for every move, which would be slow and costly. Instead, they can use a state channel for their game.

Opening the Channel: They start by deploying a "Judge" smart contract on Ethereum, which holds the 1 ETH wager. The contract knows the rules of the game and the identities of the players.
Playing the Game: Alice and Bob play the game off-chain by signing each move as transactions, which are exchanged directly between them but not broadcast to the blockchain. Each transaction includes a nonce to ensure moves are kept in order.
Closing the Channel: When the game ends, the final state (i.e., the sequence of moves) is sent to the Judge contract, which pays out the wager to the winner after confirming both parties agree on the outcome.

A threat stronger than the execution

If Bob tries to cheat by submitting an old state where he was winning, Alice can challenge this during a dispute period by submitting a newer signed state. The Judge contract can verify the authenticity and order of these states due to the nonces, ensuring the integrity of the game. Thus, the mere threat of execution (submitting the state to the blockchain and having the fraud exposed) secures the off-chain interactions.

Game Theory in Practice

Understanding the application of game theory within blockchain and token ecosystems requires a structured approach to analyzing how stakeholders interact, defining possible actions they can take, and understanding the causal relationships within the system. This structured analysis helps in creating effective strategies that ensure the system operates as intended.

Stakeholder Analysis

Identifying Stakeholders

The first step in applying game theory effectively is identifying all relevant stakeholders within the ecosystem. This includes direct participants such as users, miners, and developers but also external entities like regulators, potential attackers, and partner organizations. Understanding who the stakeholders are and what their interests and capabilities are is crucial for predicting how they might interact within the system.

_{Stakeholders in blockchain development for systems engineering}

Assessing Incentives and Capabilities

Each stakeholder has different motivations and resources at their disposal. For instance, miners are motivated by block rewards and transaction fees, while users seek fast, secure, and cheap transactions. Clearly defining these incentives helps in predicting how changes to the system’s rules and parameters might influence their behaviors.

Defining Action Space

Possible Actions

The action space encompasses all possible decisions or strategies stakeholders can employ in response to the ecosystem's dynamics. For example, a miner might choose to increase computational power, a user might decide to hold or sell tokens, and a developer might propose changes to the protocol.

Constraints and Opportunities

Understanding the constraints (such as economic costs, technological limitations, and regulatory frameworks) and opportunities (such as new technological advancements or changes in market demand) within which these actions take place is vital. This helps in modeling potential strategies stakeholders might adopt.

Causal Relationships Diagram

Mapping Interactions

Creating a diagram that represents the causal relationships between different actions and outcomes within the ecosystem can illuminate how complex interactions unfold. This diagram helps in identifying which variables influence others and how they do so, making it easier to predict the outcomes of certain actions.

Analyzing Impact

By examining the causal relationships, developers and system designers can identify critical leverage points where small changes could have significant impacts. This analysis is crucial for enhancing system stability and ensuring its efficiency.

Feedback Loops

Understanding feedback loops within a blockchain ecosystem is critical as they can significantly amplify or mitigate the effects of changes within the system. These loops can reinforce or counteract trends, leading to rapid growth or decline.

Reinforcing Loops

Reinforcing loops are feedback mechanisms that amplify the effects of a trend or action. For example, increased adoption of a blockchain platform can lead to more developers creating applications on it, which in turn leads to further adoption. This positive feedback loop can drive rapid growth and success.

Death Spiral

Conversely, a death spiral is a type of reinforcing loop that leads to negative outcomes. An example might be the increasing cost of transaction fees leading to decreased usage of the blockchain, which reduces the incentive for miners to secure the network, further decreasing system performance and user adoption. Identifying potential death spirals early is crucial for maintaining the ecosystem's health.

Conclusion

The fundamental advantage of token-based systems is being able to reward desired behavior. To capitalize on that possibility, token engineers put careful attention into optimization and designing incentives for long-term growth.

FAQ

What does game theory contribute to blockchain token design?
- Game theory optimizes blockchain ecosystems by structuring incentives that reward desired behavior.
How do bonding curves apply game theory to improve token economics?
- Bonding curves set token pricing that adjusts with supply changes, strategically incentivizing early purchases and penalizing speculation.
What benefits do Layer 2 solutions provide in the context of game theory?
- Layer 2 solutions leverage game theory, by creating systems where the threat of reporting fraudulent behavior ensures honest participation.

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Token Engineering Process

Kajetan Olas

13 Apr 2024

Token Engineering is an emerging field that addresses the systematic design and engineering of blockchain-based tokens. It applies rigorous mathematical methods from the Complex Systems Engineering discipline to tokenomics design.

In this article, we will walk through the Token Engineering Process and break it down into three key stages. Discovery Phase, Design Phase, and Deployment Phase.

Table of Contents

Discovery Phase of Token Engineering Process
Design Phase of Token Engineering Process
- Objective Function
Deployment Phase of Token Engineering Process
Time Duration
Required Skills for Token Engineering
Summary
FAQ

Discovery Phase of Token Engineering Process

The first stage of the token engineering process is the Discovery Phase. It focuses on constructing high-level business plans, defining objectives, and identifying problems to be solved. That phase is also the time when token engineers first define key stakeholders in the project.

Defining the Problem

This may seem counterintuitive. Why would we start with the problem when designing tokenomics? Shouldn’t we start with more down-to-earth matters like token supply? The answer is No. Tokens are a medium for creating and exchanging value within a project’s ecosystem. Since crypto projects draw their value from solving problems that can’t be solved through TradFi mechanisms, their tokenomics should reflect that.

The industry standard, developed by McKinsey & Co. and adapted to token engineering purposes by Outlier Ventures, is structuring the problem through a logic tree, following MECE.
MECE stands for Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive. Mutually Exclusive means that problems in the tree should not overlap. Collectively Exhaustive means that the tree should cover all issues.

In practice, the “Problem” should be replaced by a whole problem statement worksheet. The same will hold for some of the boxes.
A commonly used tool for designing these kinds of diagrams is the Miro whiteboard.

Identifying Stakeholders and Value Flows in Token Engineering

This part is about identifying all relevant actors in the ecosystem and how value flows between them. To illustrate what we mean let’s consider an example of NFT marketplace. In its case, relevant actors might be sellers, buyers, NFT creators, and a marketplace owner. Possible value flow when conducting a transaction might be: buyer gets rid of his tokens, seller gets some of them, marketplace owner gets some of them as fees, and NFT creators get some of them as royalties.

Incentive Mechanisms Canvas

The last part of what we consider to be in the Discovery Phase is filling the Incentive Mechanisms Canvas. After successfully identifying value flows in the previous stage, token engineers search for frictions to desired behaviors and point out the undesired behaviors. For example, friction to activity on an NFT marketplace might be respecting royalty fees by marketplace owners since it reduces value flowing to the seller.

_{source: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFDTNKsIJs/8Ky9EoJJI7p98qKLIu2XNw/view#7}

Design Phase of Token Engineering Process

The second stage of the Token Engineering Process is the Design Phase in which you make use of high-level descriptions from the previous step to come up with a specific design of the project. This will include everything that can be usually found in crypto whitepapers (e.g. governance mechanisms, incentive mechanisms, token supply, etc). After finishing the design, token engineers should represent the whole value flow and transactional logic on detailed visual diagrams. These diagrams will be a basis for creating mathematical models in the Deployment Phase.

Token Engineering Artonomous Design Diagram — _{Artonomous design diagram, source: Artonomous GitHub}

Objective Function

Every crypto project has some objective. The objective can consist of many goals, such as decentralization or token price. The objective function is a mathematical function assigning weights to different factors that influence the main objective in the order of their importance. This function will be a reference for machine learning algorithms in the next steps. They will try to find quantitative parameters (e.g. network fees) that maximize the output of this function.
Modified Metcalfe’s Law can serve as an inspiration during that step. It’s a framework for valuing crypto projects, but we believe that after adjustments it can also be used in this context.

Deployment Phase of Token Engineering Process

The Deployment Phase is final, but also the most demanding step in the process. It involves the implementation of machine learning algorithms that test our assumptions and optimize quantitative parameters. Token Engineering draws from Nassim Taleb’s concept of Antifragility and extensively uses feedback loops to make a system that gains from arising shocks.

Agent-based Modelling

In agent-based modeling, we describe a set of behaviors and goals displayed by each agent participating in the system (this is why previous steps focused so much on describing stakeholders). Each agent is controlled by an autonomous AI and continuously optimizes his strategy. He learns from his experience and can mimic the behavior of other agents if he finds it effective (Reinforced Learning). This approach allows for mimicking real users, who adapt their strategies with time. An example adaptive agent would be a cryptocurrency trader, who changes his trading strategy in response to experiencing a loss of money.

Monte Carlo Simulations

Token Engineers use the Monte Carlo method to simulate the consequences of various possible interactions while taking into account the probability of their occurrence. By running a large number of simulations it’s possible to stress-test the project in multiple scenarios and identify emergent risks.

Testnet Deployment

If possible, it's highly beneficial for projects to extend the testing phase even further by letting real users use the network. Idea is the same as in agent-based testing - continuous optimization based on provided metrics. Furthermore, in case the project considers airdropping its tokens, giving them to early users is a great strategy. Even though part of the activity will be disingenuine and airdrop-oriented, such strategy still works better than most.

Time Duration

Token engineering process may take from as little as 2 weeks to as much as 5 months. It depends on the project category (Layer 1 protocol will require more time, than a simple DApp), and security requirements. For example, a bank issuing its digital token will have a very low risk tolerance.

Required Skills for Token Engineering

Token engineering is a multidisciplinary field and requires a great amount of specialized knowledge. Key knowledge areas are:

Systems Engineering
Machine Learning
Market Research
Capital Markets
Current trends in Web3
Blockchain Engineering
Statistics

Summary

The token engineering process consists of 3 steps: Discovery Phase, Design Phase, and Deployment Phase. It’s utilized mostly by established blockchain projects, and financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund. Even though it’s a very resource-consuming process, we believe it’s worth it. Projects that went through scrupulous design and testing before launch are much more likely to receive VC funding and be in the 10% of crypto projects that survive the bear market. Going through that process also has a symbolic meaning - it shows that the project is long-term oriented.

If you're looking to create a robust tokenomics model and go through institutional-grade testing please reach out to contact@nextrope.com. Our team is ready to help you with the token engineering process and ensure your project’s resilience in the long term.

FAQ

What does token engineering process look like?

Token engineering process is conducted in a 3-step methodical fashion. This includes Discovery Phase, Design Phase, and Deployment Phase. Each of these stages should be tailored to the specific needs of a project.

Is token engineering meant only for big projects?

We recommend that even small projects go through a simplified design and optimization process. This increases community's trust and makes sure that the tokenomics doesn't have any obvious flaws.

How long does the token engineering process take?

It depends on the project and may range from 2 weeks to 5 months.