Russia is developing a standard for assessing the reliability of ICO

The primary placement of tokens as a means of raising funds for the implementation of various projects has become increasingly used. Unfortunately, ICOs are relatively often carried out by companies and individuals with the aim of collecting as much money as possible, in order to simply disappear with a suitcase full of fiat currency . This is what frank fraudsters do, and organizations that have not previously been seen in something like this.

In order to solve the problem, at least partially, Russia decided to develop a single standard for assessing the reliability of companies that go to ICO (Initial Coin Offering), they write, "Izvestia". This standard will be applicable to both Russian and foreign participants.

It is being developed by the Russian Cryptocurrency Association and the Blockchain (Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the RACIB - Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, German Klimenko). According to the authors of the project, the standard is needed so that investors can obtain the necessary information about the reliability of the company in which they are going to invest. In addition, the innovation makes it possible to avoid the influence of unscrupulous rating agencies or the media, which increase ratings for a fee.
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The standard will be industry-specific; with its help, investors will be able to understand the criteria for evaluating companies and the meaning of rating points. The initiative authors argue that a unified assessment system will provide an opportunity to formulate general rules for ICO. In any case, for those of them that are held in Russia.

The association decided to develop a standard to help investors avoid fraudsters who openly manipulate ratings. We are talking about agencies that evaluate in accordance with their own methods, the principles of which are not disclosed for a fee, assessment points can be increased.

"In any project there are many parameters that affect the final assessment in the rating: who is in the team, was any of its participants noticed in fraudulent actions, what business model does the company have and can it survive in a year or two is promising Does the idea how new it is? The assessment can give the investor an understanding: whether it is possible to trust the project and whether it is worth investing money in it, ”explained Arseny Shcheltsin, director of RACIB.

In order for the standard being developed to be used for evaluating international companies, RACIB has entered into partnership agreements with 30 organizations that unite the largest industry players in different countries. Other partners include companies from Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, India, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Latvia, Indonesia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Estonia, etc. However, before the standard was put into operation, its conditions will have to coordinate with the international community.

According to representatives of RACIB, this development will be the first in the world "measure" of ratings in the field of ICO. Currently, this industry operates on the basis of self-regulation.

In 2017, the ICO was carried out more than in the entire previous period. If in 2016 the volume of this market was $ 96.4 million, in 2017 it was $ 3.6 billion. It is clear that fraudsters are trying to get into the realm with so many funds. One example of such a scam is the Confido startup , which managed to raise several hundred thousand dollars, and then evaporated with its leaders. As it turned out, false information about the founders and employees of the company was spread on social networks.

Experts (not only Russian) believe that ICOs should be conducted according to a number of generally accepted standards that help to understand what a company is that has come out on ICO. “Potential investors of projects need to understand what they are going to participate in. Standards allow you to make the assessment understandable for companies and investors. Without this, it is difficult for investors to understand what, for example, “AAA” rating means or nine points, ”explained Yevgeny Gordeyev, the founder of Russian Ventures.

Work on this project began at RAKIB in October of this year. Then the organization began to collect proposals from its members and outside experts, which should be the main bill legalizing the ICO.

Now some countries have already started to regulate the primary distribution of tokens, but there is no single approach. In some countries, ICOs were banned, in others (such as, for example, in the USA), ICO and sale of tokens were equated to IPO.

In Russia, the need to introduce ICO regulation and cryptocurrency has been stated at different times by different organizations. So, at the end of September, the State Duma announced a competition to conduct research on blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and the ICO tool as an alternative channel for attracting investments.