While acting as an ICO adviser I face a lot of questions with regards to the ICO process. There are more projects each day and more people are entering the space who are totally new to crypto and are attracted by the high amounts of raised money reported by media. I realized that it is a good time to write down the steps of ICO execution and addressing the common topics and issues faced when starting an ICO

1. How to do ICO 101
By Bogdan Fiedur
bogdanfiedur@gmail.com

2. 1. Review other ICOs
ICOBench

3. 2. Creating white paper
ICO Bench People
1. Write draft
2. Engage advisors (offer them tokens)
3. Engage professional editor
4. Add graphics to your white paper

4. 3. Create the team
1. Find 2-3 like minded people in your
physical proximity
2. Don’t send emails or use Facebook
to initiate contacts
3. Use Linkedin, angel.co, f6s.com
4. Find people who are related to your
domain
5. Also people connected to investors,
technology and marketing.
(offer them tokens)

5. 4. Legal questions
1. There is no legal framework on running ICO in most countries.
2. Some countries where token and ICOs are regulated are
Gibraltar Switzerland Estonia Barbados Singapore and more.
3. Hire lawyer who you can find in past ICOs.
4. Don’t hire lawyer who you know, but rather who has already experienced with
ICOs.
5. Decide if you want security token or utility.
6. Currently there is no exchange which will handle security tokens, but they are
coming.

6. 5. Preparing your website
1. Don’t get cookie cutter website.
2. Make it DDOS resistant
3. Host it with companies like cloudfare
4. Your website should load fast and host should have scalable servers and
offer load balancing.
5. Have link to white paper, prototype and the team.
6. Include links to your social accounts, blog, github and bitcointalk thread

7. 6. Security of yor ICO platform
1. There are rules which govern security requirements for smart contracts.
https://github.com/ConsenSys/smart-contract-best-
practices/blob/master/docs/known_attacks.md
2. Smart contract can’t be hidden behind firewall.
3. It has to be able to process and respond even if someone accesses it directly,
not through your website.
4. Your landing page, on the other hand, can be hijacked or it can be hacked.
5. DNS of your website can be hacked or your website modified.
6. Setup balancing servers if you anticipate lots of traffic to your ICO.

8. 7. Other security considerations
1. Don’t share your crowdfunding contract address on your Telegram or blog.
It is only on your website, possibly after login.
2. Monitor your Telegram and Slack channel for impersonators who will pretend to have names like
admin and will try to provide their contribution address.
3. Google adwords will be used to still those who search for your ICO. Report it.
4. Have pinned message in your Telegram or Slack which warns your contributors about the tricks
used to redirect contributions.
5. There are false website with misspelled MyEtherWallet.

9. 8. Smart contract developing and auditing
1. Smart contract should be developed
by experienced developer.
2. Find experienced developers on Upwork.
3. You can set up payment milestones when work
is delivered.
4. Hire developers who have 100% work success
and are top rated by Upwork.
5. Hire reputable audit company which will review
the contract and find security flows.

10. 9. Ensure that your crowdfunding campaign
follows common rules
1. Each crowdfunding campaign has parameters such as min cap, max cap, campaign duration, token
allocations and what happens to tokens which are not sold.
2. Keep in mind that if your campaign doesn’t raise the min cap, you are obligated to return money you
have raised to contributors. Measure your expectations appropriately.
3. Reserve tokens for advisers, bounties, team members and co-founders. Make at least 50% of
tokens available for sale or you will not be received well by investors and contributors.
4. Offer good bonuses to early birds and provide a reasonable stepped pricing model, so that at each
given stage of your campaign, your contributors have the perception that waiting with the purchase
will be less beneficial for their pocket.

11. 10. Announce your ICO
https://hackernoon.com/top-10-ico-listing-sites-ico-alert-679191242da0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2891192.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2903597.0
https://iconow.net/top-10-ico-listing/
https://www.quora.com/Which-are-the-main-ICO-listing-websites-out-there
https://www.techbullion.com/ten-popular-ico-websites-and-listing-directories/

12. 11. Your social media and communication
channels
1. BitcoinTalk
2. Medium
3. Telegram
4. Github
5. Facebook, Twitter and Reddit
6. Youtube (explainer video)

13. 12. PR and Marketing
1. Crypto investors, who do not necessarily read Bloomberg, or spend time on Facebook, but rather
spend their time on Reddit, BitcoinTalk, Telegram, Discord and/or Slack channels and read
Coindesk, Cointelegraph and Steemit for example.
2. Traditional high worth investors who have never created a crypto wallet and heard about Bitcoin
appreciating 1000% a year. This group is usually not technically savvy and would like to deal
with someone reputable to get them involved with ICO.
3. Investors who don’t speak English and live in China, South Korea, Japan or Russia and need to
be found on language specific forums and introduced through their mother tongue. They also
need to receive support in their language.