An Initial Coin Offering (ICO), is the means by which cryptocurrencies acquire funding. It’s the counterpart of an Initial Public Offering (IPO), used in traditional financial circles. But where an IPO offers shares of stock to investors, an ICO sells a certain quantity of cryptocurrency in the form of tokens.
A token is like a digital document acknowledging a debt. In itself, it has no value but points back to where the value is located. Speculators buy these tokens that will offer them benefits in the future and do so using regular money or other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Proceeds from an ICO are used to launch a new digital currency or other products in the Web.
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