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Comment by jamespitts | Hacker News Reader

I would like to make an appeal to the YC community: please reach out and help guide those involved in this rapidly advancing phenomenon.

There is a huge amount of instantly-deployable capital in Ethereum and Bitcoin, held by individuals now seeking ways to put it to work. Many technologists will naturally make use of this energy, but so will BS artists and people under the influence of hubris.

I am making this appeal because it is irresponsible to stand by and watch so much financial energy be directed at projects without appropriate constraint. Many firms funded by ICOs (or soon to be) have qualified leaders and developers and are developing great ideas, but IMO many are also raising too much money for their own good.

What may be needed to guide these rockets to their full potential are maturity, mentorship, and the careful application of jurisprudence and principles of accounting.

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>Many firms funded by ICOs (or soon to be) have qualified leaders and developers and are developing great ideas, but IMO many are also raising too much money for their own good.

No, there aren't. Real money has never been cheaper than it is now. Never in human history. USD, Euros, JPY, etc. Super cheaper. Low single digits to borrow. Anyone doing an 'ICO' is trying to cash out at your expense, big time.

> Real money has never been cheaper than it is now.

As strange as it sounds, this is indeed the case.

The cost of money is measured in $ per $ (or actually currency per currency) which is a percentage also known as interest rate.

There are no known records of any time in history where interest rates were negative. Sure, only banks can "get" these but they will do and hand them to the next by investing in his asset.

The interest rate in Japan is currently -0.1% and has been since the start of 2016.

https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/interest-rate

Japan has been using negative interest rates for decades.

Welcome to the everything bubble. For those of us keeping a list, here it is:

- Government spending/borrowing bubble

- Education Loans bubble

- Housing bubble (at least in CA, but also worldwide to some degree)

- Bit coin, Ethereum, Coin bubble

- Stock market looks a bit frothy too - all the leading technical indicators show things won't be too rosy for the next 10 years.

Did I miss any?

Gold? How's gold doing?

I could, if I determined there's an insane amount money to be made. Sorry, I'm not helping the rich get richer out of a good heart.

I agree with this sentiment.

The sentiment on HN is that ICO promoters/startups are all scammer. My company, Pipeline Network is going to launch our ICO soon. We would be more than happy to get some guide/mentorship from the YC community.

I hope that instead of slinging mud at ICOs, the YC community reaches out to firms like yours.

Calling them all scams will not stop the next ICO from getting bigger. Note to blockchain-denialists: there are 10s of billions of capital, a deep enough pool for thousands of ICOs.

Slinging mud will also not help make ICOs any safer, nor protect financial systems outside of blockchains from collateral damage should firms fail.

Cui bono? In a world with ICO crowd funding, the roles of a VC firm like YC is greatly diminished. It's not surprising the buggy whip manufacturer is casting doubt on the dangers of the automobile.

"Role of a VC firm ...greatly diminished" :

In which way is this different that "regular" crowd funding, which doesn't have as bad a reputation as ICO ?

Personally, i'd rather raise "real money", than cyrptocurrencies. The reason why it's easier for those companies to raise millions through cryptocurrencies than regular money raising tools, is probably because there's a bubble.

Actually, I would imagine that the YC model would benefit greatly in a world of legitimate ICO crowdfunding. YC doesn't really make their money from deploying huge amounts of capital. In an ICO crowd funding world YC companies could focus more on product and sale and less on fundraising.

I seriously doubt the ICO market is going to be ready for prime time until a few years from now.

I love this term "blockchain-denialist."

But yeah, the whole concept is stupid and the only reason it is getting any traction is because the traditional financial system is just as bad, and there is way to much free cash in the hands of "investors" who can't even tie their own shoe laces.

What will your token be used for?

We are attempting to use it to enable P2P trade of electricity, without fiat money exchanged at the energy trade level although fiat money should can be exchanged at the coin level.

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