Well, ICO (Initial Coin Offering) it a topic that is pretty much highly discussed at the moment. On the one hand the whole are is basically a wild west, apart from the good intention start-ups, there are a lot of Ponzi schemes, Pump and Dump schemes, or simply tokens that provide nothing in exchange to the value of the token.
On the other hand, the whole ICO market shows that the idea is actually a pretty much working idea, summarizing the advantages in three major points:
1. The area is booming of innovations: there are a lot of experimental initiatives to try out in which fields is it possible to use the decentralized model, how they might work and how they do not.
2. There is pretty huge demand on the market: If I am someone that wants to invest some money into a start-up, it is pretty difficult to do it otherwise. Certainly I can buy some stocks on the finance market, however on the one hand stocks are investments of big companies, not exactly start-ups, on the other hand there is a financial border for most people throughout the world of investing in stocks. ICO on the other hand is available for everyone on a self-service basis.
3. There is a huge supply on the market: for every start-up, there is not necessarily an easy way to collect funds. To get venture capital, is usually not an easy process and the result is pretty much questionable as well. On the other hand, latest news have been demonstrated that raising money with the help of an ICO can be pretty fast and pretty successful.
