This document outlines 13 things to look for when evaluating a token project. They are: 1) the project's purpose and need for blockchain, 2) competitive analysis, 3) legitimacy of the team, 4) appropriateness of the blockchain solution, 5) quality of code, 6) community support, 7) token allocation, 8) milestones and timeline, 9) financing details, 10) prior financing, 11) geographic restrictions, 12) social proof from investors and advisors, and 13) availability of financial and legal documentation. The document provides brief explanations for each item and emphasizes the importance of thoroughly investigating projects before investing.

1. 13 Things to
Look for in a
Token Project
Edith Yeung
January 2018

2. Edith YeungSelected by Inc's Magazine as one of the Silicon Valley’s
investors you must know, Edith Yeung is the head of 500
Startups Greater China and partner of 500 Mobile Collective
Fund.
Edith invested in over 40 mobile, VR, AR, AI and machine
learning startups, including Hooked - #1 reading app for
millennium, DayDayCook - #1 Asian Cooking media and
platform, Fleksy (acquired by Pinterest), Human (acquired by
Mapbox), AISense, and many more. Before 500, Edith was
the head of marketing for Dolphin Browser, a Sequoia-
backed mobile browser with over 150 million installs
worldwide. Edith also worked with many Fortune 500
companies such as Siebel, AMS, AT&T Wireless and
Autodesk.
Edith Yeung | @edithyeung | edith.co

3. Disclaimers
• This session is purely for knowledge sharing
• I cannot give you any investment or legal advice ☺. I am not
a lawyer.
• ICOs and token investments are extremely risky
• Please DO NOT invest in anything you don’t truly understand
and cannot afford to lose

4. Blockchain by the Number (as of February 2018)
• Total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies hovers
around $400 billion.
• As of Feb 2018, Bitcoin is valued at ~$138 billion. Bitcoin
makes up ~34.2% of the total market cap compared to 50%
six months ago.
• Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have exploded in popularity,
closing in on $5B+ in funding in 2017 alone.
• If you had invested $100 in Bitcoin in 2011 that Bitcoin
would be worth over $2.5M today.
-

5. ICOs Raised Over $5B across ~800 Blockchain
projects in 2017. Equity Investors Deployed $1B in
215 Deals
https://www.cbinsights.com/research/blockchain-vc-ico-funding/

6. 60%+ Consumer Focused Tokens. 30%+
Infrastructure and Platform Focused Tokens.
http://tomtunguz.com/saas-and-blockchain/

7. What kind of
investor do you
want to be?

11. 13 Things to Look for in a Token Project
1. Purpose - what is the purpose of the project and token. Do you really need blockchain for
this?
2. Competitive Analysis - are there similar projects out there already?
3. Team – is this team legit?
4. Technology – does this blockchain solution make sense?
5. Technology – what is the quality of their code?
6. Community – do they have strong community support?
7. Token allocation – what is their token allocation?
8. Milestone & Timeline – what is the project timeline?
9. Financing – what is the total target raised? What is the cap? Any lockup?
10. Financing - has the team raised any amount of pre-sale or equity financing already? If so
what terms?
11. Geography - do you have any geographic restriction for investors? If yes, which countries
are restricted?
12. Social proof – who else are investing (investors) and involved (advisors)?
13. Legal – do they have all the financial and legal documentation ready to go?

12. 13 Things to
Look for in a
Token Project

13. 1. What is the
propose of this
project and
token?

16. Many Strange, Weird, Bullshit Tokens Out There…
Source: Top 10 Weirdest Coinhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/07/10/cryptos-in-wonderland-12-of-the-weirdest-wackiest-coins/#6eaf8e2f2a70

17. Ether is a necessary element — a fuel — for operating the distributed application platform
Ethereum. It is a form of payment made by the clients of the platform to the machines executing
the requested operations. Ether is the incentive ensuring that developers write quality
applications (wasteful code costs more), and that the network remains healthy (people are
compensated for their contributed resources).

18. Lumen is the built-in currency for the Stellar network which serves two purposes:
• Lumens play a small anti-spam role. Each transaction has a minor fee—0.00001
lumens—associated with it. This fee prevents users with malicious intentions from
flooding the network. The Stellar network requires all accounts to hold a minimum
balance of 1 lumen to ensures that accounts are authentic and maintain a
seamless flow of transactions.
• Lumens may facilitate multi-currency transactions and trades between pairs of
currencies between which there is not a large direct market, acting as a bridge.

19. 2. Are there
similar projects
out there?

21. 3. Is this team
legit?

22. Are They Crypto Native or Crypto Want-to-be?

23. How to Validate a Crypto Team?
Linkedin
Twitter
Slack
Reddit
Github
Website
Crunchbase
YouTube
Slideshare
Telegram
Medium
Dribble
Facebook
Baidu Baike
Youku
Tudou
QQ Video
Angellist

25. 4. Does this
blockchain solution
make sense? Do you
really need blockchain
for this?

26. 3. Awesome

27. • Inner workings of the protocol and application
• How does the whole system works
• How the token will be used within the system
• Development roadmap
• Token allocation

28. Original Bitcoin Whitepaper - https://
bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

29. List of Whitepapers You Should Read
• Bitcoin - https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
• Ethereum - https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper
• 0x - https://0xproject.com/pdfs/0x_white_paper.pdf
• Stellar - https://www.stellar.org/papers/stellar-consensus-
protocol.pdf
• Filecoin - https://filecoin.io/filecoin.pdf
• OmiseGO - https://cdn.omise.co/omg/whitepaper.pdf
• Qtum - https://qtum.org/en/white-papers
• Nebulas - https://nebulas.io/docs/
NebulasTechnicalWhitepaper.pdf

30. 5. What is the quality
of their code?

33. 6. Do they have
strong community
support?

38. 7. What is the token
allocation?

39. Super Clear Token Allocation and Use of
Proceeds

40. Super Clear Token Allocation and Use of
Proceeds

41. 8. What is their
milestone and
timeline?

43. 9. What is the total
target raised? What
is the cap? Any
lockup?

45. 10. Has the team
raised any amount of
pre-sale or equity
financing already? If
so what terms?

47. 11. Do you have any
geographic restriction for
investors? If yes, which
countries are restricted?

49. 12. Who else are
investing (investors) and
involved (advisors)?

51. 13. Do they have all the
financial and legal
documentation ready to
go?

52. Super Clear with Financial & Legal stuff…
• Currencies accepted (BTC, ETH)
• Clear “Know your Customer” (KYC)
process
• Clear bonus program or discount program
with lock up policy
• Clear timeline and duration of the offering
• Clear geo-fencing criteria (does not
accept US investors)
• Minimal and maximum token investment
size
• Will you be using a SAFT?
• Are you geo-fencing the offering?
• Are you setting up a foundation to be a
steward of the token?

54. Scam Alert
• Celebrity advisors and endorsements
• More advisors than team members
• Ask you for private keys over email or Twitter
• Fake websites

55. 13 Things to Look for in a Token Project
1. Purpose - what is the purpose of the project and token. Do you really need blockchain for
this?
2. Competitive Analysis - are there similar projects out there already?
3. Team – is this team legit?
4. Technology – does this blockchain solution make sense?
5. Technology – what is the quality of their code?
6. Community – do they have strong community support?
7. Token allocation – what is their token allocation?
8. Milestone & Timeline – what is the project timeline?
9. Financing – what is the total target raised? What is the cap? Any lockup?
10. Financing - has the team raised any amount of pre-sale or equity financing already? If so
what terms?
11. Geography - do you have any geographic restriction for investors? If yes, which countries
are restricted?
12. Social proof – who else are investing (investors) and involved (advisors)?
13. Legal – do they have all the financial and legal documentation ready to go?

56. Crypto future is really bright…

57. • edith@500startups.com
• Twitter @edithyeung
• Newsletter
http://www.edith.co/
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