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In our model, a venture seeks capital through an initial coin offering (ICO). The ICO enables the venture to collect demand information from decentralized investors. The venture makes a tradeoff between ensuring the project’s success and forecasting market demand through token size and token price. We find that the higher the demand uncertainty and production cost, the greater the venture’s incentive to learn from its investors. To identify when the venture has an incentive to raise funds through an ICO, we compare it with traditional bank financing and analyze the venture’s preference between the two financing options. The results show that when demand uncertainty is high, an ICO can provide both financing and information benefits, whereas when demand uncertainty is low, although the venture does not collect information through an ICO, it can still get financing benefit. Only when demand uncertainty is intermediate, the venture prefers bank financing. In addition, we find that although the revenue sharing effect of the ICO results in an underinvestment issue, it can also alleviate the loss caused by the increased cost of production. Therefore, with high information accuracy, as production cost goes up, ICOs become more attractive than bank financing for the venture.

Using the market for initial coin offerings (ICOs) as a laboratory, we provide evidence that entrepreneurs use retention to alleviate information asymmetry. The underlying technology and the absence of regulation make the ICO market well suited to study this question empirically. Using a hand-collected data set, we show that ICO issuers that retain a larger fraction of their tokens are more successful in their funding efforts and are more likely to develop a working product. Moreover, we find that retention is a stronger signal when markets are crowded, and investors do not have as much time to conduct due diligence. This paper was accepted by Will Cong, Special Issue of Management Science: Blockchains and crypto economics. Supplemental Material: The data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4631 .

This study furthers recent research on Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) in understanding the set of characteristics that drive ICO performance and reduce information asymmetry. Using data on 166 ICOs and more than 300,000 contribution addresses that sent funds to ICOs in Bitcoins or in Ether between 2013 and 2017, we examined the effect of ICO characteristics on ICO performance. We found that three boundary conditions predict ICO fundraising amount, number of investors, hard cap achievement and token ranking. These are registering ICO and publishing project’s code on GitHub, obtaining VC or Business angel financing before the campaign or during presale, and finally, publishing the whitepaper before the campaign’s start. Other factors such as serial investors, presale of tokens, bonus sales and funders' ownership share explain ICO performance. We offer implications for ICO investors and policymakers.

This study investigates the determinants of the presence and success of initial coin offering (ICO) campaigns using data on 503 ICOs from 60 countries launched between 2015 and 2018. The analysis i...

This paper analyzes a financing problem for an innovative firm that is considering launching a web-based platform. The model developed in the paper is the first one that analyzes an entrepreneur’s choice between initial exchange offering (IEO) and initial coin offering (ICO). Compared to ICO, under IEO the firm is subject to screening by an exchange that reduces the risk of investment in tokens; also the firm receives access to a larger set of potential investors; finally tokens become listed on an exchange faster. The paper argues that IEO is a better option for the firm if: (1) the investment size is relatively large; (2) the extent of moral hazard problems faced by the firm is relatively large; (3) the degree of investors’ impatience is relatively small. Furthermore, a non-linear relationship between firm quality and its financing choice is found. Most of these predictions are new and have not been tested so far.

Clear legal content of white papers provides certainty, stability and trust in the relations between all the participants in initial coins offering (ICO) procedures and contributes to the successfu...

The growing sector of business related to the turnover of digital financial assets, utilitarian digital rights and cryptocurrencies leads to the fact that in most countries of the world administrative, financial, legal and other measures are taken aimed at protecting investors, countering fraud, collecting taxes and other tasks. However, until now, in the scientific legal literature, insufficient attention is paid to considering the degree of influence of certain measures on the development of the crypto industry as a whole. In this regard, the author of the article conducted a study of the influence of legal factors on the number of active ICO (Initial Coin Offering) companies in some jurisdictions. For the purpose of the study, methods of data collection and analysis were used to obtain information about the number of active ICO projects at a particular time in different states, comparative legal methods, as well as visualization of the results obtained through the construction of time series graphs. The constructed graphs reflect the change in the number of ICO projects in some states before and after the appearance of legal acts regulating various areas of ICO companies ‘ activities. Also, the main characteristics of legal acts that have most influenced the change in the number of new ICO projects in different jurisdictions were described. The result of the work was the visualization of the relationship between the legal regulation of the turnover of digital financial assets, utilitarian digital rights, cryptocurrencies and the number of new ICO projects. The author also provides a justification for the position of the significant influence of law on the trends of further development of the crypto industry in specific jurisdictions.

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have been established as an innovative capital-raising method. Nevertheless, numerous cases of ICO fraud are having a negative impact on investors. In particular, the lack of legal certainty (e.g., creditor protection) and the lack of direct participation in a company’s success (e.g., profit distribution) have led to an increasing number of security token offerings (STOs). These offer investors a degree of legal certainty and direct participation in company profits. However, to date, little scientifically-based knowledge exists regarding the factors that influence the funding success of an STO. We address this research gap by first identifying possible success factors for funding and then systematically analyzing 38 STOs that have already been carried out in order to determine the influence of those factors. Our analysis indicates that high-quality prototypes and high-quality teams are major drivers of STO funding success. Based on these results, we discuss the implications for science and practice, outline the limitations of our work, and identify further research needs.

As the initial coin offering (ICO) market waned in 2018, a new format for crowdfunding arose: initial exchange offerings (IEOs). Although the downturn of the ICO market undoubtedly contributed to the development of IEOs, this is also part of the natural evolution of raising capital through cryptocurrencies. Scams, regulatory issues, manipulation, and random speculation have all been associated with ICOs. Conversely, IEOs put the good name and reputation of a cryptocurrency exchange behind the token offering, providing a level of fairness, integrity, and safety not always offered through the ICO market. This article demonstrates that the additional level of due diligence conducted in an IEO increases token fundraising success. TOPICS:Currency, exchanges/markets/clearinghouses, risk management Key Findings ▪ Initial exchange offerings (IEOs) allow companies to raise capital by selling utility tokens on an exchange. Because the cryptocurrency exchange performs due diligence on the offering to protect its customers and its reputation, IEOs are less risky investments than initial coin offerings (ICOs). ▪ Utility tokens are one type of cryptocurrency that usually provides the holder preferential access to the sponsoring firm’s services and does not represent ownership in the sponsoring firm raising funds and are not considered securities. Nevertheless, utility tokens sold on a cryptocurrency exchange (IEOs) provide several advantages to both firms seeking to raise funds and their investors relative to those that are not (ICOs). ▪ Empirical results demonstrate that firms offering utility tokens are more successful in raising money if they do so through IEOs, rather than using an ICO approach. Results indicate that whether or not firms sell tokens on a cryptocurrency exchange is more important than traditional ICO success factors.

We empirically examine the initial returns of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and show that ICO underpricing is enormous, which implies that cryptocurrency markets are inefficient. Moreover, we find that having a short offering phase, not holding a presale, a precisely written whitepaper, and the creation of an independent blockchain all have a positive impact on ICOs’ initial returns. Our results also suggest that the driving factor behind initial returns is the movement of the cryptocurrency markets, measured by both Bitcoin and Ethereum returns. In addition, whether or not the jurisdiction has cryptocurrency regulations is an influential indicator. ICOs that belong to the high-tech services and platform industries have higher initial returns. Conventional financial assets, such as the stock market and gold, have a positive influence on ICOs’ initial returns.

Our purpose was assess the long-term efficacy of 4-mm coronary balloon catheter dacryoplasty in revision endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (RevEnDCR). This retrospective interventional case-series was performed for patients who underwent RevEnDCR aided by a 4-mm coronary balloon catheter (CBC) dacryoplasty. The indications for the surgery were previously failed DCRs by external or endoscopic approach where the ostium showed near total cicatrization with or without the presence of organized granuloma threatening the internal common opening (ICO). The coronary balloon (4 × 10 mm, SPALNO, Cardiomac, Haryana, India) with the guidewire was used and a minimum of >12 months of follow-up was considered for analysis. Ten lacrimal systems of eight patients with mean age of 48.8 years underwent CBC-assisted revision endoscopic DCR. Of the 10 failed DCRs, 6 had a previous external approach DCR and 4 were endoscopic DCRs. Grossly stenosed ostium with near total cicatricial closure were noted in half of the patients (50%, 5/10) while the remaining half, in addition, showed organized granulomas threatening the ICO. The surgical technique using CBC was found to be minimally invasive, easy to perform with multiple advantages like uniform clearance of the area in front of ICO and more predictable lacrimal sac flaps. At a mean follow-up of 20 months, anatomical and functional success were achieved in 90% (9/10) of the eyes. We conclude that coronary balloon catheter-assisted revision endoscopic DCR is a minimally invasive and viable alternative in select group of patients of failed DCR with near total cicatrisation or organized granulomas threatening ICO.

This article analyzes two of the last innovative financing instruments of the crowdfunding family: Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and Initial Exchange Offering (IEO). Having both a potential financial nature, they will be addressed as «sons» of Equity-based Crowdfunding (EBCF). The main scope of this paper is to show opportunities and dangers of ICO and IEO through a comparison with EBCF. Indeed, at the end of the analysis it will be possible to understand if ICO and IEO can be considered as positive evolution of EBCF or — at least one of them — can be considered so dangerous to appear as a sort of «involution».In order to answer our question, the discussion firstly focuses on EBCF, the innovative financing instrument being one of the most important figures of the «crowdfunding family». Its importance lies in its financial nature that makes this instrument different from the other models (meaning the donation, reward and lending). Participating in an EBCF-campaign, indeed, lets participants become shareholders of the company they are giving money to. So, the main pros and cons of the participation in an EBCF campaign will be disclosed. In particular, granting easier access to capitals together with the possibility to benefit from the so-called «wisdom of the crowd» allowed EBCF to become one of the most innovative financing tools of our age. However, these advantages need to be mitigated with the main risks occurring during a crowdfunding campaign. These are: moral hazard and frauds, arbitrary exclusion during pre-emptive screening by platform and, last but not least, illiquidity.Therefore, the discussion moves to the technological advanced new entry of the crowdfunding family, meaning ICO and IEO. In order to understand why ICO and IEO are so similar to EBCF, both the main characteristic of these instruments will be described. With reference to ICO, first of all this article provides a brief description of the technology that makes this innovative financing tool the advanced «son» of EBCF. Indeed, through the launch of an ICO, a company asks the crowd a precise amount of money in exchange of a «token»: an informatic instrument through which the participant may exercise also some financial rights towards the company. From this point of view, an ICO-campaign is very similar to an EBCF one, lying the main difference in the technological solutions used, the queen on those is blockchain. Furthermore, ICO characteristic will be outlined in order to disclose its functioning — meaning the relation with blockchain and smart contracts — and the different models of tokens.After that, also IEO will be described. IEO could be considered one of the last variants of ICO. The main difference, indeed, lies in the fact that IEO campaigns are not conducted in the website owned by the company but in a specific platform, that is a crypto-asset exchange.The exam of ICO and IEO potentialities (i.e. programmability, disintermediation and tokenization) will highlight how ICO and IEO may solve most of the mentioned EBCF cons. This will lead to the potential consideration of ICO and IEO as evolution of EBCF. However, also ICO and IEO cons will be highlighted (meaning lack of transparency, not clear regulatory regime and, for IEO in particular, dangerous proximity with investors and potential conflict of interest). From the comparison between ICO and IEO pros and cons it will be possible to discuss on if we are really in front of two evolution of EBCF or nearer to an «involution» of this instrument, considering regulatory solutions in order to avoid this second scenario.

We describe iCO2, a simulation platform for collecting driving behavior data. It is designed as the first massively multiplayer online game for mobile devices to practice eco-friendly driving. It facilitates the collection of large-scale data on driving behavior to better understand compliance and incentive mechanisms for eco-driving and users' preferences. We present the results of a campaign with iCO2 that used a game promoter to attract 2455 users. The results are described from three angles: (1) types of drivers are identified by clustering driving behavior; (2) types of players are identified by relating players' interaction with game elements and their driving behavior; (3) by looking at longer sessions, we demonstrate that players who show eco-unfriendly behavior at the beginning of the session improve their eco-driving behavior throughout their playtime.

Various types of arm-and-hand movements co-occurring with speech give rise to diverse cross-modal semantic relations. This study investigated how the brain processes self-adaptors, emblems, and ico...

Purpose. The development of digital technologies contributes to the improvement of financial relations using various information systems, which actualizes the study of the problems of legal regulation of new relations, in particular in the field of ICO. The article analyzes the processes of initial placement of tokens (moent), as well as possible options for their legal regulation. The methodological basis for the research of this article is the dialectical method of scientific knowledge. The research used such general scientific methods and techniques as scientific abstraction, system, logical, analysis and synthesis, comparative law. Conclusions are drawn that 1) various approaches to the issue of ICO regulation have been formed in a number of countries, and rather ambiguous ones, 2) Russia is currently in the process of forming a legal framework regulating the circulation of cryptocurrencies and digital financial assets, 3) the term “ICO” has not been introduced in domestic legislation, and the terms “issue” and “circulation”are used instead. Scientific and practical significance. This research allows us to consider the nature of the token and the content of the ICO process, as well as contributes to the development of theoretical directions on this topic and the formation of training courses on tokens and new ways of implementing financial relations.

Introduction Newly available, smartphone-enabled carbon monoxide (CO) monitors are lower in cost than traditional stand-alone monitors and represent a marked advancement for smoking research. New products are promising, but data are needed to compare breath CO readings between smartphone-enabled and stand-alone monitors. The purpose of this study was to (1) determine the agreement between the mobile iCO (Bedfont Scientific Ltd) with two other monitors from the same manufacturer (Micro+ pro and Micro+ basic) and (2) determine optimal, monitor-specific, cotinine-confirmed abstinence cutoff values. Methods Adult (≥18) smokers (n = 26) and nonsmokers (n = 21) provided three breath CO samples (using three different monitors) in each of 10 sessions, and urine cotinine was measured for gold standard determination of abstinence. CO comparisons (N = 437) were analyzed using regression-based Bland–Altman Analysis of Agreement; receiver operating characteristics curves were used to determine optimal abstinence cutoffs. Results Bland–Altman analyses indicated that the iCO monitor provided higher CO results than both Micro+ monitors. Sensitivity and specificity analyses showed that the optimal CO cutoff for determining abstinence was Conclusions Relative to both Micro+ monitors, the smartphone-enabled iCO provided systematically higher CO values and required a higher cutoff to reliably determine smoking abstinence. This does not indicate that CO values obtained using the iCO are not valid; instead, these results suggest that monitor-specific abstinence cutoffs are needed to ensure accurate bioverification of smoking status. Implications Results from this study indicate that CO values from the smartphone-enabled iCO should not be used interchangeably with the stand-alone Micro+ pro and Micro+ basic, particularly when lower CO values (

Background/AimsThe International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) offers fellowship programmes to help young ophthalmologists, mainly from low-resource countries, improve their practical or research skills in ophthalmology subspecialty areas. Using questionnaires, the objective of the present study was to evaluate how the ICO Fellowship Programme has impacted on improving knowledge, skills and the careers of young ophthalmologists from low-resource countries.MethodsFrom 2001 to 2019 overall 1140 ICO fellowships were awarded. A questionnaire was sent to ICO fellows after the conclusion of their fellowship and another 3 years later. Part 1 contained 26 questions, while Part 2 had 21 questions. The answers were collected through an online platform and analysed descriptively thereafter.Results1101 Part 1 questionnaires had been sent to former fellows, with a return rate of 47% (516 responses) and 829 Part 2 questionnaires with a return rate of 47% (390 responses). Overall, 98.3% strongly or somewhat agreed that knowledge in their subspecialty has improved considerably. Whereas only 19% of them held a lecturer, senior lecturer or head of subspecialty department position prior to the fellowship, 46% of them held such a position 3 years after the fellowship was completed.ConclusionsThe ICO Fellowship Programmes aim to promote the enhancement of eye care delivery and eye health in low-resource countries, the professional development of young leaders and the improvement of eye care. The results of the current study confirm the expectation of such a positive impact. Moreover, almost half of the responding participants have been appointed to a local leadership position in their home country.

Blockchain technologies provide means to develop services that are secure, transparent and efficient by nature. Unsurprisingly, the emerging business opportunities has gained a lot of interest that is realized in form of successful Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) that are able to raise billions of USD through crowdfunding campaign. In this exploratory research we study 91 ICOs through content analysis in order to investigate the special characteristics of ICO crowdfunding as business models towards the possible investors. We found that ICOs can be described through (1) the model for providing incentives for investment, (2) the pricing strategy, (3) the token strategy and (4) the activities for crowd involvement in value co-creation.

Tixl (TXL) is a crypto money project that uses Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to fund its development phase. Various problems underlying the existence of Tixl (TXL) and the proposed solutions are closely related to the condition of society in the information technology era. This study aims to determine the various factors underlying the use of ICO as a way to raise funds, examine Tixl (TXL) as a crypto money project and its position in public life which is reviewed in the perspective of the maṣlaḥa mursala, and token sales transactions in ICO organized by Tixl gmmbH in the perspective of Islamic treaty law. This research is a library research using a conceptual approach and qualitative analysis techniques. This paper shows that there are three factors underlying the use of ICOs as a way to raise funds, namely a change in orientation in the business model, tokenization, and characteristics of business activities. As a crypto money project, Tixl (TXL) cannot provide benefits that are comprehensive or kully, even the harm caused is greater than the benefits. Transaction of token sales in ICO held by Tixl (TXL) is a transaction that is damaged because it is contrary to maqāṣid al-sharī'ah.

As economies digitalize and many local businesses gradually internationalize, crowdfunding platforms have offered a new way for ventures to raise capital. Relying on distributed ledger technology (DLT, blockchain), the method of "tokenization" now seems to be the next way for digital economics to be actualised in practise. Digitalizing some of the production and selling processes through crypto-tokenization technology has brought with it new perspectives and opportunities. Any thorough consideration of the logic of "distributed systems" applied to economics is bound to see that it potentially brings considerable disruptions and significant changes in how companies get access to funding. Cryptocurrencies, and subsequently "tokens" initially issued from "initial coin offerings" (ICOs) have answered an obvious need for efficient, borderless, and secure flows of capital. This article first summarizes what early academic research tells us about ICOs based on DLTs and their factors of success. We then use the case of LakeDiamond, a Swiss venture in the business of growing and polishing synthetic diamonds, to present and contextualize the process of holding an ICO, which ultimately did not succeed. In the final section, we present two fund raising models that have recently gained traction and popularity, namely "security token offerings" (STOs) and "initial exchange offerings" (IEOs), and highlight their main advantages compared to ICOs.

Attracting investments is one of the most significant problems faced by management at any stage of a business project’s life cycle. Besides traditional fundraising channels, relatively new methods ...

Policy uncertainty created by regulatory authorities regarding the blockchain matters for the initial coin offering (ICO) market. Using an ICO dataset from four major cryptocurrency exchanges, we find that higher policy uncertainty regarding the blockchain leads to a lower return and a lower trading volume of an ICO on its first trading day. Although ICOs are decentralised by design and less vulnerable to direct regulatory intervention, we conclude that blockchain policy uncertainty constitutes an important component of the information environment of ICO ventures.

Today financial innovations seem ubiquitous. A new way of attracting capital by startups based on the blockchain such as ICO (initial coin offering) is similar to crowdfunding, selling produced tokens to the pool of investors. With the assistance of this source, startups collected 22 billion dollars in 2018, but in 2019 the market began to fall, so many researchers noted the danger of the ICO bubble. The low survival rate of ICO-projects led to the development of STO (security token offering) market, which guarantees the investor’s secured rights. It has been examined in the article how the new financing instruments can replace traditional ones and how they are adapted to existing legislation. For this purpose, the development of market for these instruments in comparison with traditional ones has been analyzed. The legislation in this area has been studied.

Purpose To study the in vivo morphology of common canalicular/lacrimal sac mucosal folds (CLS-MFs) and their relationship with probing findings. Methods Consecutive cases undergoing endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy had endoscopic examination of the internal canalicular orifice (ICO). Details of CLS-MFs folds, probing findings, and outcomes of dacryocystorhinostomy were analyzed. Results Thirty-six lacrimal systems of 34 patients (mean age, 58 years; 7 males, 27 females) were examined. All 36 lacrimal systems had a single common canalicular orifice entering the lacrimal sac (100%). Overall, 61.1% (22/36) had visible CLS-MFs, out of which only 13.6% (3/22) were overhanging the ICO requiring manipulation of the probe to enter the lacrimal sac. The orientation of folds was superior 180° in 2, posterosuperior in 2, posterior in 6, inferior 180° in 6, and inferior 270° (excluding 10-2'o clock quadrant) in 6 systems. Two cases preoperatively labeled as having common canalicular obstruction, based on lacrimal syringing, had CLS-MFs impacting against the ICO without any anatomical obstruction. One of 5 cases with lacrimal sac mucocele had CLS-MFs located along the posterosuperior edge extending for 270°, which resulted in a soft stop on preoperative lacrimal syringing findings. Only 1 case had a true membrane (2.7%) overlying the ICO, which required excision. No differences in outcomes of dacryocystorhinostomy were observed between cases with CLS-MFs versus without any folds. Conclusion CLS-MFs display a wide variation in terms of morphological location and extent along the ICO. They might be responsible for the false soft stop observed in some cases on preoperative syringing and do not require excision.

This paper reviews the behavior of medical tourists as an interdisciplinary object of study (evidence from Moscow region). We first examine the global medical tourism market, offering the classification of medical tourism trips from the perspective of consumer needs. We reveal the drivers for medical tourism development in emerging economies (drawing on India’s experience). We construct a conceptual model of overall satisfaction of medical tourists as consumers of combined tourist and medical services. In partnership with Moscow medical tourist agencies we conducted an empirical study to identify the factors of consumer behavior of outbound medical tourists. The analysis makes it possible to substantiate the relevance of the proposed model, as well as to identify a number of distinctive features of the medical tourism segment based on the identified features of Russian medical tourists’ behavior. We conclude with the implications to promote medical tourist destinations for Russia’s medical tourists and to form a tourism product that fully meets their needs.

In conditions of financial institutions' development it is crucial to examine the transformation in the form of a collective investment institution under the influence of digitalization and, in particular, the emergence of cryptocurrencies. The subject of the research refers to the features of ICO functioning as a transformation of a financial institution for collective investment. The goal is to explore the ICO as a new form of collective investment. The results of the research are achieved through a comprehensive comparative analysis of ICO and IPO as a basic tool of financial institutions. The paper highlights the advantages and disadvantages, identifies the factors, analyzes the institutional regulation of ICO and proposes development vectors from three angles: for project creators, investors, regulators. The results can be used in policymaking, the functioning of joint investment platforms, in training specialists in the field of digital economy and financial markets.

An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a blockchain-based financing method that can be described as a hybrid form of crowdfunding as it contains characteristics of both crowdfunding and IPOs. The first ICO took place in 2013 but still, after tens of billions of dollars have been raised, the phenomenon is surrounded by legal uncertainty. This article aims to highlight the issues relevant to the evaluation of ICOs at the interface of investment-based and rewards-based crowdfunding. This interface has become important with the emergence of ICOs, as blockchain technology allows the issuance and speculative trading of different types of digital assets, such as utility tokens and security tokens. The evaluation is largely based on the European concept of a transferable security as defined in the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 2014/65/EU (MiFID II). The main conclusion of this article is that the issuance of tokens with attached dividend-like profit rights (i.e. security tokens) closely resembles the issuance of transferable securities and therefore financial laws should apply to security token issuances. Due to the possibility of speculative trading on secondary markets, questions relating to investor protection arise also in connection to tokens without attached profit rights (i.e. utility tokens). However, applying existing financial laws to utility token offerings would not provide the means for adequate investor protection due to the special characteristics of ICOs.

The phenomenon of a blockchain use case called initial coin offering (ICO) is drawing increasing attention as a novel funding mechanism. ICO is a crowdfunding type that utilizes blockchain tokens to allow for truly peer-to-peer investments. Although more than $7bn has been raised globally via ICOs as at 2018, the concept and its implications are not yet entirely understood. The research lags behind in providing in-depth analyses of ICO designs and their long-term success. We address this research gap by developing an ICO taxonomy, applying a cluster analysis to identify prevailing ICO archetypes, and providing an outlook on the token value market performance for individual archetypes. We identify five ICO design archetypes and display their secondary market development from both a short-term and a long-term perspective. We contribute to an in-depth understanding of ICOs and their implications. Further, we offer practitioners tangible design and success indications for future ICOs.

Blockchain ventures rely on a distributed funding instrument called initial coin offering (ICO). Since ICOs are not regulated, potential investors face information asymmetries and decision-making under uncertainty. In this study, we investigate whether blockchain ventures can effectively reduce these information asymmetries by utilizing signaling mechanisms on Twitter and how the resulting effects differ from those in conventional market environments. Based on a corpus of 144,492 tweets from 522 ventures, we provide empirical evidence that positive language and a high, yet steady level of interactivity with the community are linked to higher funding, while frequent stressing of time frames has the opposite effect. To the best of our knowledge, this presents the first study to analyze how the textual content of tweets can be linked to the success of blockchain ventures.

Clinical value of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in pneumonia management is still controversial. A prospective study was conducted to evaluate the clinical impact of PneumoSeq in 57 immunocompetent (ICO) and 75 immunocompromised (ICH) pneumonia patients. The value of PneumoSeq for both etiological and clinical impact investigation in pneumonia was assessed. Among the 276 potential pathogens detected with PneumoSeq in our cohort, 251 (90.9%) were cross-validated. Clinical diagnoses of the causative pathogens were obtained for 97 patients, 90.7% of which were supported by PneumoSeq. Compared to conventional testing, PneumoSeq suggested potentially missed diagnoses in 16.7% of cases (22/132), involving 48 additional pathogenic microorganisms. In 58 (43.9%) cases, PneumoSeq data led to antimicrobial treatment de-escalation (n = 12 in ICO, n = 18 in ICH) and targeted treatment initiation (n = 7 in ICO, n = 21 in ICH). The PneumoSeq assay benefited the diagnosis and clinical management of both ICH and ICO pneumonia patients in real-world settings.

Security Token Offering (STO) is the new and reshaped form of the famous Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The thing that distinguishes STO from ICO is the inclusion of several rules from regulators and auditors. The control by regulators and auditors will generate a trade-off between control and decentralization of the STO. We did a simulation for selecting the most suitable blockchain platform for the STO process using the Multi-Criteria Decision Model simulator to cover this issue. The simulation result shows the relation between the selected features, software quality, and the most suitable solution for STO.

The use of biometrics by police forces has rarely been out of the headlines over the past year. As with many emerging technologies, it has hit significant hurdles. Recently in an unprecedented move, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) – the government body responsible for GDPR and data privacy enforcement – launched an independent investigation into the use of facial recognition at London's King's Cross train station, after it was revealed that the general public were having their faces scanned without consent. This scandal triggered the halt of police biometric trials across the country, while the South Wales Police force was taken to court over a similar issue.

Over one billion US dollars were invested in blockchain in 2016. The potential application of blockchain extends far beyond cryptocurrencies. One use of blockchain is an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), a digital method of raising finance involving issuance of tokens in exchange for cryptocurrencies or fiat money. It is a cheaper, easier and quicker way to raise funds compared with traditional public offerings. However, it has raised a new opportunity for fraud. An estimated 10% of ICO funds have been lost to fraud. Using case-study analysis, this study determines characteristics of such fraud schemes and the regulatory changes made in response to them. The study reveals key lessons for investors in terms of proactive steps that can be taken to protect themselves from being victims, for issuers to ensure awareness and take steps to secure investors’ trust, and for regulators to promote a safe environment. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to document the effect of ICO fraud schemes on the regulatory environment, which is going through a series of amendments to provide protection against such fraudulent schemes. Additionally, it provides direction for future research to further investigate the risks of this new method of raising funds.

Purpose: The article analyzes the content of economic and legal mechanisms of state control over the emerging market of ICO (Initial Coin Offering). Methodology: This was analytical-logical research based on content analysis. Result: Regarding the considered areas of legal regulation, it is worth noting that in regulating the protection of intellectual rights, counteracting legalization and laundering of money obtained by criminal means, as well as in regulating the protection of personal data, most states use the current legislation without any changes. Applications: This research can be used for universities, teachers, and students. Novelty/Originality: In this research, the model of the analysis of foreign experience in the regulatory framework of distributed ledgers and ICO (initial coin offering) within innovative economy is presented in a comprehensive and complete manner.

The authors explore how topic modeling can be used to automate the categorization of initial coin offerings (ICOs) into different topics (e.g., finance, media, information, professional services, health and social, natural resources) based solely on the content within the whitepapers. This tool has been developed by fitting a latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model to the text extracted from the ICO whitepapers. After evaluating the automated categorization of whitepapers using statistical and human judgment methods, it is determined that there is enough evidence to conclude that the LDA model appropriately categorizes the ICO whitepapers. The results from a two-population proportion test show a statistically significant difference between topics in the success of an ICO being funded, indicating that the topics are usefully differentiated and suggesting that the topic model could be used to help predict whether an ICO will be successful. TOPICS:Statistical methods, simulations, big data/machine learning Key Findings • Categorization of ICO whitepapers can be done via topic modeling with the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model. • Statistical and human judgment methods confirms that there is enough evidence to conclude that the LDA model appropriately categorizes ICO whitepapers. • Statistical tests suggests that the categorization results from the LDA model provides useful information on predicting whether an ICO will be successful funded.

This paper is saddled with the task of investigating the Bitcoin market behavior in the presence of a government risk. This is because both the institutional and retail investors’ interests in the Bitcoin market are growing rapidly. Conversely, the seemingly unregulated nature of this market is a serious concern to most economies and results to the placement of ban on Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in some economies by the government. Daily series of return and volume within the window of the ICO ban in China was used for the Bitcoin market and S&P500 stock market to examine the effect of a government risk in the Bitcoin market and possible hedging capabilities. Empirical results show that the ban dampened Bitcoin returns and the returns from each market can predict the other. The Exogenous Dynamic Conditional Correlation (Exo-DCC) model result suggests that, yes! the S&P500 stocks are capable of hedging Bitcoin risk, while Bitcoin can also hedge S&P500 stocks’ risks and vice versa. The Exogenous BEKK (Exo-BEKK) model result shows evidence of bidirectional volatility spill over between the two markets studied. In practice, investors (institutions and retailers) can comfortably form a robust investment portfolio with (at least) these two assets and develop a hedging strategy, such that the impacts of risks on the portfolio’s returns are safely hedged.

This paper examines the performance of cryptocurrencies issued in initial coin offerings (ICOs) over a three-year period after the initial exchange listing. Average (median) ICO underpricing amount...

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to recognize the benefits of the initial coin offering (ICO) as a way of raising funds and to present a detailed comparison between the ICO and the initial public offering to realize the future possibilities that this new funding method holds.Design/methodology/approachIt is an exhaustive review of the ICO, the mechanism of crowdfunding, the blockchain technology behind it, benefits and current shortcomings of the ICO, and the potential future development of the ICO as a convenient and efficient way of raising capital.FindingsICOs have brought billions of dollars of funding to startups and projects worldwide in less than two years. Concurrently, many successful ICOs yielded extremely high returns to investors and believers of this new way of funding businesses.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the ICO is a revolutionary vehicle for business funding, it has raised concerns among users as well as potential investors about its risk and lack of regulation. The future of this innovative funding method highly depends on further development and placement of appropriate regulatory supervision, better understanding of risk and benefits and attaining the confidence of users.Originality/valueThis is a review of the advantages and drawbacks of the ICO. If the current fraud, market and cybersecurity risks can be mitigated and standardized regulations are developed, the ICO has a future to become an established way of capital funding or even replace the existing options, regardless of the size and age of companies.

The advantages of cryptocurrency, its distribution and application experience in different countries have been considered. The results of the analysis of the state and ways of development of national and supranational cryptocurrencies in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia) have been introduced. Conclusions and recommendations have been formulated: 1.it is necessary to develop a single regulatory framework for the regulation of the crypto sphere in the EAEU countries. 2.digitalization of the cryptosphere should be carried out according to the General scheme; 3.to make maximum use of blockchain technology to create a digital economy in the EAEU countries.