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For those of you who are familiar with the world of investing, both stocks and digital tokens, the term ICO, IEO, may be familiar. However, for those of you who are just starting to dive into the world of investing, especially digital token investing, these three terms are certainly still unfamiliar to your ears.

Therefore, on this occasion, we will explain a little about two basic terms in the blockchain world. The goal is for you to know the basics in the world of blockchain. In addition, you can have a basis for determining and choosing where to invest in digital tokens that you will use.

![1557827616692.jpeg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmP359SiGdBSgYNWGPuQ7g61uCrGYU957M5PijP9YAWtti/1557827616692.jpeg)[s](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/initial-coin-offering-ico-vs-exchange-ieo-edward-ventham) **

So, what is an ICO, IEO, in the blockchain world? What are the advantages and disadvantages. I've summarized it below.

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Initial Coin Offerings (ICO)

Initial Coin Offerings or ICOs are simply referred to as a means of raising funds for blockchain projects. In other words, ICOs are a source of capital for blockchain technology project makers.

ICOs are actually similar in function to Initial Public Offerings or IPOs. IPO itself is a term used by companies when they first release their shares to the public. The shares released to the public will later become capital for the company. Before the shares were released, the shares owned by the company were private shares.

The shareholders will later benefit from the process profits. The company's profits will later be obtained from the production and sale of goods or services from the company that released the shares.

However, ICOs are slightly different from IPOs. Blockchain technology-based application developers use the term ICO by distributing tokens to fund owners. The tokens owned by the owners of these funds will later function unlike shares. Token owners will only benefit if the blockchain project is successful.

In addition, ICOs do not give token owners any long-term rights of authority. The token clicker also does not have the right to interfere in the project implementation process. The token owner only acts as a provider of capital to application developers based on blockchain technology.

Thus, ICO has a level of security that is arguably lacking. This is because application developers based on blockchain technology have the opportunity to deceive fund owners. What's more, the ICO system has a decentralized system that allows multiple people to participate.

The little capital and preparation required by blockchain technology-based application developers have resulted in many scams by taking advantage of ICOs. In fact, in several countries, fraud has often appeared or what is often called a scam under the guise of an ICO.

Initial Exchange Offerings (IEO)

The number of scams experienced by fund owners or investors through ICOs has made blockchain technology developers or application developers start using the new system. From this phenomenon emerged a system called Initial Exchange Offerings or IEO.

IEO itself is an ICO that is not based on a direct relationship between the application developer and the owner of the funds. IEO involves an exchange that acts as an intermediary for buying and selling tokens between application developers and fund owners.

Blockchain technology-based application developers who are not fake are indeed quite disturbed by the emergence of various models of fraud or scams that use ICOs. This makes it difficult for developers or developers to get funds from fund owners or investors.

In addition, the security offered by IEOs makes investors or fund owners feel more comfortable getting tokens without fraud. To get tokens from developers, investors must first have an account on an exchange that provides tokens from the developers.

For developers, using IEOs will make projects that are being developed or created by developers look more legitimate and trustworthy. This is because projects that enter the exchange will be seen as projects that have large funds. Projects that have large funds are usually trusted projects and will have great value. The large value possessed by a project will give investors an idea that the profits they will get will also be large.

For investors, the use of IEOs in the development of application projects based on blockchain technology will make investors or fund owners have a guaranteed sense of security. This is because the projects that enter the exchange have been verified in advance by the exchanges. In addition, big name exchanges will be at stake if there is any indication of fraud against fund owners or investors. Thus, investors will have more confidence in buying tokens from the exchange.

Apart from investors and developers, the emergence of this IEO also has advantages for the exchange market owners themselves. Usually, exchanges and developers have their own contracts to trade developer projects. These contracts are usually very large in value and can increase the income from the exchange market. In addition, the existence of projects that are traded through exchanges will increase the opportunities for their tokens to be sold and increase the credibility and income of the exchange itself.

Despite having many advantages compared to ICOs, IEOs also have several drawbacks that have more of an impact on the exchange market and developers.

For investors, the losses that are felt will only occur if the developer who offers the project performs a scam. Money held by investors will be lost. However, when a scam occurs, the big names of the exchange market brokers will be at stake. In fact, the exchange company concerned could go bankrupt and no longer operate.

This is because the exchange company could be sued by investors. In addition, the exchange market company must compensate investors who have bought through the exchange market. It doesn't stop there, the name of the exchange market that has been tainted will make it difficult for the exchange market to find investors for the next opportunity. Not only do they find it difficult to find investors, developers will also hesitate to offer cooperation with them for fear of not getting investors.

Meanwhile, for developers, usually to start a project through IEO will require a very large cost. This will be a big problem for developers who are still starting their own company. Of course, they have to raise a lot of funds first to use an IEO. Like it or not, they will use an ICO which could potentially be seen as a scam for some investors.

That was a brief explanation of some of the basic terms in the blockchain world, especially ICO, IEO. After knowing these terms ICO, IEO, hopefully you can be wiser in considering investing in the world of digital tokens.

--- ![theiota-5bfd7fbfc9e77c0026f2854f.webp](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmYmCDGQVJCx3Mqz3wZnVexEqtXABLdHv2nwgEwjhahQaf/theiota-5bfd7fbfc9e77c0026f2854f.webp)[s](https://www.investopedia.com/news/closer-look-iota/) **

What is IOTA?

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IOTA (Internet of Things) is an Open-Source

Distributed Ledger or open distributed ledger, or crypto currency that focuses on providing secure communication and payments between machines on the Internet. IOTA uses Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) or directional acyclic technology, not the traditional blockchain technology as we know it today; thus making IOTA transactions free regardless of transaction size, super fast confirmation times, Unlimited (unlimited) number of transactions that the system can handle simultaneously, and the system can easily scale.

So, all the advantages that other cryptocurrencies have are also owned by IOTA. While some of the advantages of IOTA are not shared by various crypto currencies that were created before, such as scalability, size, and unlimited number of transactions.

IOTA's special feature that caught my eye.

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Cryptocurrency Design IOTA

Some IOTA designs do exist that are similar to other cryptocurrencies, but IOTA has very striking differences including:

Transaction with IOTA.

For IOTA users, to submit a transaction, the user must validate two other randomly selected transactions. Transactions sent must accumulate a sufficient level of verification (ie, have to be validated multiple times by other users) to be recorded on the system as "Valid Transactions".

The Tangle.

Instead of using blockchain as the basis for its network, IOTA uses a Directed Acylic Graph (DAG) or Directional Acyclic Graph. IOTA's DAG programming language is called "The Tangle", and is a generalization of the block chain protocol.

Cryptography IOTA

IOTA uses a Winternitz-based cryptographic signature and does not adopt a common cryptographic signature, Curve Cryptography (ECC). Winternitz is featured as a hash which is much faster than ECC.

Initially, IOTA made use of a self-designed Hash function called Curl. But in July 2017, researchers discovered a language vulnerability in Curl. On August 7, the developers then replaced the Hash function with a SHA-3 version called Kerl, which works with the Terner (not binary) operation, so as to effectively fix the vulnerability.

IOTA's Advantages Compared to Other Cryptocurrencies

The main innovation behind IOTA is Tangle, a revolutionary new distributed ledger that is immeasurable, lightweight, and for the first time makes it possible to transfer a value without having to charge any fees. Unlike the Blockchain as we know it today, consensus is no longer separated, but unified and is an intrinsic part of the system, which leads to a decentralized Peer-to-Peer network and runs automatically.

Some of the advantages that IOTA brings through the Tangle system are

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Micro Transactions

For the first time, transactions with micro and nano sizes are possible because of the unique IOTA Tangle architecture. This provides developers with a new set of tools for implementing IoT in their business applications. So, business people and companies who are reluctant to use Bitcoin because of increasingly expensive transaction fees, can switch to using IOTA, because the transaction costs are zero (0).

Data Transfer

Data Transfer is a core feature of IOTA, namely the ability to transfer data via Tangle. IOTA gives developers and users the option to create a secure and authenticated communication channel between devices. All data transferred via IOTA Tangle is fully authenticated and can be done easily.

Masked Authenticated Messaging

Masked Authenticated Messaging (MAM) is a second-layer data communication protocol that allows encrypted data streams, such as RSS, to be sent securely within the IOTA distributed ledger. In order to carry out a transaction, a small amount of proof of work must be performed to prevent network spamming.

Flash Channel (Lightning Network / Fast Channel)

IOTA enables high-speed, real-time throughput payment channels that are bi-directional and off-Tangle. This allows transactions to be processed at high speed, without waiting for normal confirmation times.

Flash Channel or Lightning Network is the main feature that will solve all scalability problems that may occur. In fact, Bitcoin and Ethereum have not been able to launch their own Flash Chanel (Lightning Network).

That is all I can say about ICO, hope it is useful. thank you for reading

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Greetings @fikar1213

--- --- Cc @steemcurator02 @imagen