Blockchain

Point For Discussion Date :10/11/22

Topics To be covered: next week
• ICOs

• Black Market

• practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance(pBFT)

• What is GHOST Protocol For Ethereum?

• Sidechain

• Namecoin (NMC)

• Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)

• Case study discussion:-4/5

 ICOs
• Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are a popular way to raise funds for products and
services usually related to cryptocurrency.

• ICOs are similar to initial public offerings (IPOs), but coins issued in an ICO also
can have utility for a software service or product.
• A few ICOs have yielded returns for investors. Numerous others have turned out
to be fraudulent or have performed poorly.
• To participate in an ICO, you usually need to first purchase a more established
digital currency, plus have a basic understanding of cryptocurrency wallets and
exchanges.
• ICOs are, for the most part, completely unregulated, so investors must exercise a
high degree of caution and diligence when researching and investing in them.
How an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) Works
• Static supply and static price: A company can set a specific funding
goal or limit, which means that each token sold in the ICO has a
preset price, and the total token supply is fixed.

• Static supply and dynamic price: An ICO can have a static supply of
tokens and a dynamic funding goal—this means that the amount of
funds received in the ICO determines the overall price per token.

• Dynamic supply and static price: Some ICOs have a dynamic token

supply but a static price, meaning that the amount of funding
received determines the supply.
White Paper Release

• What the project is about

• The need that the project would fulfill upon completion
• How much money the project needs
• How many of the virtual tokens the founders will keep
• What type of payment (which currencies) will be accepted
• How long the ICO campaign will run
Special Considerations 
• There is no guarantee that an investor won’t be on the losing end of a scam when investing
in an ICO. To help avoid ICO scams, you can:

• Make sure that project developers can clearly define what their goals are. Successful ICOs
typically have straightforward, understandable white papers with clear, concise goals.

• Look for transparency. Investors should expect 100% transparency from a company
launching an ICO.

• Review the ICO’s legal terms and conditions. Because traditional regulators generally do not
oversee this space, an investor is responsible for ensuring that an ICO is legitimate.

• Ensure that ICO funds are stored in an escrow wallet. This type of wallet requires multiple
access keys, which provides useful protection against scams.
Examples of Initial Coin Offerings
• Ethereum’s ICO in 2014 is an early, prominent example of an initial
coin offering.
• The Ethereum ICO raised $18 million over a period of 42 days.
•  In 2015, a two-phase ICO began for a company called Antshares,
which later rebranded as Neo.
• The first phase of this ICO ended in October 2015, and the second
continued until September 2016.
• During this time, Neo generated about $4.5 million
What is an ICO used for?
• Creating a blockchain and cryptocurrency is a costly endeavor.

• Developers must pay for legal counsel, programmers, facilities, and

other expenses.

• An ICO is intended to raise funds to pay for the costs incurred during a
blockchain’s or coin’s development.

• Link:https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/initial-coin-offering-ico.asp
 Black Market
• A black market is an economic activity that takes place outside government-
sanctioned channels.

• Illegal market transactions usually occur “under the table” to let participants
avoid government price controls or taxes.

• The goods and services offered in a black market can be illegal, meaning their
purchase and sale are prohibited by law, or they can be legal but transacted to
avoid taxes.

• Illegal markets are also known as illegal markets, shadow markets, or

underground markets.
 KeyTerms
• An illegal market is an economic activity that occurs outside of government-sanctioned
channels.
• Underground markets trade in illegal goods and services, legal goods and services to
avoid taxes, or both.
• Examples of underground markets include the sale of illegal drugs, weapons, human
trafficking, and the illegal wildlife trade.

• Underground markets can have a negative impact on the economy because the activity
is not reported and taxes are not collected on the transactions.

• Underground markets do provide some benefits, such as creating jobs for those who
may not be able to find employment in traditional markets and allowing access to
medicine and healthcare to those individuals that might not have had access otherwise.
Types of Illegal Markets
• They are venues where highly controlled substances or products such
as drugs and firearms are illegally traded.
• Human trafficking is a very large illegal market. Human trafficking
moves people into forced labor, prostitution, child armies, and the
market for human organs.
• n 2021, it is estimated that there are 40 million people trapped in
modern enslavement worldwide.
• One-in-four of them are children. Almost three-quarters (71%) are
women and girls.
• From a 2014 International Labor Organization (ILO) report, human
trafficking earns profits of $150 billion a year.
• Link:https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackmarket.asp
practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance(pBFT)
What is GHOST Protocol For Ethereum?
Sidechain
Namecoin (NMC)
Decentralized Autonomous Organization
(DAO)