An Initial Coin Offering is a new way for startups and entrepreneurs to bring products and services to life without going through the soul-sucking process of wooing VC firms in traditional capital markets, who will at best immediately own a double-digit stake in your company.

Rather than relying on traditional methods for raising capital the ICO, or Initial Coin Offering, allows teams to generate funds in the form of cryptocurrency, helping provide the runway necessary to flourish.

The advantages of an ICO are three-fold:

• Lower investment barriers for common man
• Eliminate waste of VCs and central banks
• Create things of value for everyday people

There are, of course, reasons not to do an ICO. So before you try and hook into a buzzword you should probably understand their most practical uses.

Thanks to ICOs the value of cryptocurrency tokens such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) have been skyrocketing. Cryptocurrency values have been lifting so fast it’s difficult to even grasp the wealth generated as a result.

Here’s a screenshot from the Coinbase App I showed to a Warren Buffet follower before Buffet even started talking about cryptocurrency. Not sure how anyone could have missed this graph, showing the explosive growth of ETH since ICOs started going mainstream:

After speaking with a number of individuals about ICOs, both friends and strangers, the common response I hear is I don’t want to invest in something I don’t understand.

This usually leaves me chuckling at the fear of the unknown as risk takers are generally the ones who are rewarded the most. And to take a risk with cryptocurrency is such a nobrainer it would be a mistake not to put in at least something.

So here’s $10 of free bitcoin to get you started. From me to you. Because the slope you see in the graph above. You should be riding it too.