Let's talk about Tezos.
I have heard a lot of criticism about Tezos for being uncapped from a "looking to profit from a unicorn ICO" perspective, which is where most ICO investors/participants are probably at and there is nothing wrong with that.
However, what I'm hearing Arthur(Founder of Tezos) say is that he is not looking at the ICO from a perspective of wanting to allow ICO-insiders to profit, if that were true, he would cap it, but instead, his goal is to release as much tezzies as possible, which makes sense to me now.
First, I will explain the fundamental difference between an ICO participant vs an investor in ICO. Participants will seek to actively use what they buy, investors will seek to own and trade what they buy.
Let's look at stocks since they are often compared to tokens. There is one major factor that makes stocks and tokens different: profits.
Stocks are an entitlement to ownership of profits - when profits go up, stocks are worth more and some pay dividends. Therefore, publicly traded companies are motivated to consider profits in their decisions first. Stocks attract investors looking for profits. Stocks themselves have no other uses other than being owned or traded. As far as I know, you cannot spend stocks as a currency.
Tokens are different. Tokens do have a use other than to be owned and traded, they can be spent. Token value goes up when more people are using a platform. It's not related to profits directly, instead it is more related to growing the user base. Tokens can be used to fuel the blockchain platform they are produced for... Ideally, ICO participants would be people who believe in the platform being developed and who plan on using their tokens for the intended purpose on the platform.
Basically, as the founder, Arthur believes that what they are doing is so important that everyone who wants should get their tezzies now.
If users will need tezzies to use Tezos, then spreading as many tezzies as possible makes sense... if that's why people are buying into the ICO, then no cap is justifiable.
However, Jeremy has an excellent point about unsophisticated investors... and yeah, not many people are reading white papers. Also... I could be wrong, but, most people aren't buying tezzies in the ICO to potentially use them on Tezos... they are prospecting that Tezos could produce a unicorn token and they don't want to have FOMO.
So, for the founders to be taking a percentage of the total raised could potentially be taking advantage of tons of uneducated money being thrown at the ICO. One other possibility would be for them to reimburse themselves for time and effort over the past 3 years by agreeing to taking a set amount that pays them all really well.
At the same time, Arthur and the founders are totally free to pay themselves whatever they think they deserve for their years of commitment and perseverance. More power to anyone who is a founder of a great product.
If Tezos is a huge success, then more power to you too Arthur. Your answers helped me understand your reasoning. One thing I would say is that your writing comes off a bit frustrated and defensive at times. You actually don't
All you have to say is that you want as many people to get their tezzies as possible and that's your job - to spread Tezos. Personally, I think you are doing a great job at that and you will probably make history with this ICO.
If people choose to participate in Tezos ICO, then that's up to them to be responsible about their money and their tezzies.