@kingscrown, ICOs are too revolutionary a concept to just disregard as a guaranteed path to failure. As @moksamol mentioned there are many successful ICOs and the payout can be massive. Personally I tried to get in on the BAT ICO but missed it by a millisecond. I think that one is going to do great considering they have the creator of Javascript on board. I agree that ads on this platform would be completely ridiculous and unnecessary and at the same time they already have anonumous ads on the Steemit rich list: https://steemwhales.com/

I repeat ANONYMOUS ADS, wrap your head around that one.

Steemit is a very promising platform and as it evolves, if high quality, honest, informative posts, like the one you just did here, can win out over Steem-bait trash, then Steemit will be the best site on the internet, hands down.

But let's not pretend like it doesn't currently have its share of shady shit. I think that is why they put the "beta" next to the name, so we the community can test it.