Blockstream CEO Adam Back expressed the opinion that ICOs, despite their controversial nature, have funded some really important research.
Beck stressed that in the vast majority of ICOs, the goal of projects was to enrich their creators, and this is unethical. In addition, the very concept of ICO does not provide for any effective protection of investors. Blockstream CEO said:
“Investors have no rights, no financial supervision, so you cannot know what the funds are being spent on. Given all the temptations, I would say that most of the money raised during the ICO is used for the personal enrichment of founders and promoters. And when the money runs out, they just launch a new ICO. “
That being said, Beck acknowledges that some ICOs have funded really useful research:
“Of course, there are exceptions, and some interesting ICO projects and altcoins have funded research or provided grants for them. But the overall efficiency of the ICO area is much lower than that of startups. “
Back believes that most high-cap altcoins are worthless coins that have raised funds only through smart and expensive marketing policies. He noted that the best developers will not work in ICOs, so projects are forced to hire second-rate programmers.
As a reminder, Adam Back recently named Ethereum and several other high-cap altcoins “Ponzi schemes”, putting them on a par with the well-known financial pyramids.
