We don't. But dev teams keep creating them. It's IMO much more appropriate for new coins to make an announcement, provide a whitepaper + source, and start the network at time X.

But I can (somewhat) sympathize with their desire to be rewarded. What if someone just aims their ASICs/GPUs/cloud cycles at their new coin for the first months after the announcement and reaps the lion's share of the rewards? While that seems unfair to them, it is traditionally the fairest/most honest method.

Because nobody skilled is going to build this without payment? this thinly veiled criticism of ICOs has that obvious logical flaw.

Computational proofs take a long time for the development team to get funded, and this delays go to market strategies. Look at the graveyard of mineable projects before this year's ICO boom, broke underfunded devs with no ability to mobilize a community to fund the tiniest things. Pitiful bounty systems where the payouts can't even motivate the imagined Indian developer.

If you don't think current ICOs align economic incentives well ENOUGH, then discuss that particular nuance instead.

> Sounds like IPFS

Only if you didn't RTFA

Why would they do all that work for free?