This paper explores how entrepreneurs can use initial coin offerings — whereby they issue crypto tokens and commit to only accept those tokens as payment for their products — to fund venture start-up costs. We show that the ICO mechanism allows entrepreneurs to generate buyer competition for...

This paper explores how entrepreneurs can use initial coin offerings -- whereby they issue crypto tokens and commit to accept only those tokens as payment for their products -- to fund venture start-up costs. We show that the ICO mechanism allows entrepreneurs to generate buyer competition for...