- Developers
- Developer Blog
- FinTech Software Development
- How to Build an ICO Tracking Website Like ICO Tracker
profile
By Aran Davies
Verified Expert
8 years of experience
Aran Davies is a full-stack software development engineer and tech writer with experience in Web and Mobile technologies. He is a tech nomad and has seen it all.
Interested in knowing how to build an ICO tracking website?
You’ve come to the right place.
In this article, we will discuss how to create your own ICO tracking website like ICO tracker. So, first, let’s have a look at the ICO tracker.
ICO Tracker
ICO Tracker is a dedicated ICO project website that aims to bring together ICO launches with investors. The platform is one of the most popular among ICO tracking websites on account of the number of ICOs it has listed and the key features that it offers.
It is free to use and makes its money by allowing users to donate bitcoins to get certain ICOs moved up in their ICO listings. The site includes basic information on each ICO and also links to social media accounts and ICO whitepapers, etc.
Key Features of ICO Tracker:
- Easily Search Past, Present, and Future ICOs
- Great User Interface That Includes a Calendar view detailing ICO start dates
- ICO tracking detailing how much money previous ICOs have made
- Section for recently added ICOs
- Healthy ICO investors network
- Chat Function
- Free Smartphone App Available
- Newsletter
Next, let’s see how to build an ICO tracking website.
How to create an ICO tracking website
Creating an ICO tracking website can be a daunting task, especially given the huge amount of different ICOs that get launched each day. On the ICO Tracker website, for example, there are hundreds of ICO listed at any one time.
Since ICOs have different technical aspects and project goals, apart from ICO marketing strategy and ICO compaign, all this information has to be somehow presented in a coherent and easy-to-understand manner.
Get a complimentary discovery call and a free ballpark estimate for your project
Trusted by 100x of startups and companies like
So to help you build an ICO tracking website, here are the key areas that you must get right with your platform:
Design
An ICO tracking website is used by a huge range of individuals from total newcomers to industry experts. That’s why the design has to be simple but still provide all the most important information about each ICO.
If you take a look at the UI of the ICO Tracker website above, you will see that it has limited the information regarding each ICO to include the following:
- Name
- Logo
- Description
- Base
- Number of ICO coins available
- Date ICO started
- Start Bonus
- Amount Raised
- Links to ICO whitepaper, social media, and company website
Despite seeming to keep information to a minimum, the site actually contains or contains links to all the information that investors require.
Any ICO tracker website development team should have experienced UX designers that are able to create a catchy but uncluttered UI. If the UI contains too much information, it will seem overwhelming and is therefore sure to put off the average ICO investor.
Keep in mind that the majority of whitepapers and supplementary information are too complex for the average investor to understand anyway.
In his article for Hacker Noon, Reza Jeffery analyzed the language difficulty of several top white papers and concluded that “the more simple a white paper, the more money raised”.
Investors want simplicity but still like to have access to all the right information. That is why the outbound links on the ICO Tracker website work so well.
Development
An effective ICO tracking website is best written in a flexible cross-platform programming language like Node.js. Since it is a JavaScript run-time environment, it will be familiar to most programmers and therefore will allow you access to a huge pool of talented software developers.
The beauty of creating an ICO tracking website is that they are relatively simple sites to create. A typical ICO tracking website only needs to include the following:
- Homepage with a complete listing of ICOs
- A page where companies can add their ICOs
- 3 Pages for Current, Future, and Past ICOs
- About page
While it is definitely a good idea to offer something more than this to create a unique selling point for your site, the only real development challenge is linking real-time ICO information to your site. I will cover this in just a second.
Before I do, remember when designing your UI, it is always best to stick to a minimalist approach that will appeal to your general user base. For a little more on how to create a great-looking website, you can read this article.
Hire expert developers for your next project
1,200 top developers
us since 2016
Listing ICO’s
Most ICO tracking sites enjoy the pleasure of user-generated content. Users can post their own ICOs without any need for help. However, all new ICOs listed will need to be scrutinized and approved by a member of your team.
The reason for this is the need to prevent fraudulent ICOs from being listed on your site and thereby tarnishing your site’s reputation. This will likely end up being a full-time position so you will need to allocate your resources appropriately over the long term.
As I have already stated, one aspect of ICO listings can be a bit of a challenge. Investors will want to see up-to-date information regarding ICO performance for each listing. This means that every ICO tracking site must incorporate this feature in order to be relevant.
The majority of sites use the ERC-20 standard to fulfill this task. ERC-20, also known as the Ethereum token standard, was developed in 2015 by The Ethereum Project. It outlines a list of rules or conditions that allow for the implementation of smart contracts.
To give a brief explanation of how smart contracts work, essentially they are the same as any real-world contract. Each contract has stipulations that have to be met before the contract is executed.
When a company decides to launch its ICO, it can create a smart contract that allows for the creation of a predetermined number of ICO tokens that reflect the value of the amount of monetary investment put in. These tokens then operate fundamentally in the same way as a cryptocurrency, where their value fluctuates according to the principle of supply and demand.
Because of the simplicity and versatility of ERC-20 and the Ethereum platform, most new ICOs use the Ethereum smart contract system as the basis of ICO token creation. Ethereum’s set of fixed standards clearly define how any developer using the Ethereum smart contracts can do so.
This gives the programmers a standard to work with, making development easier and more straightforward.
As a result of the popularity of Ethereum’s smart contracts, a massive support community has evolved around the platform, many of whom have helped develop a vast library of tools and even Solidity, a programming language that was created for writing smart contracts.
One of the most important tools is the Web3js library. This library is based on JavaScript and is used to query the Ethereum Blockchain on the client-side. On the server side, any JSON-RPC interface on an Ethereum node can be used to get the information about how the sale is progressing and the balance of the contract.
Page loading speeds are much better if all the data about the ICO is fetched and stored in a server-side cache and is presented to the user as and when it is requested. To ensure the best possible experience, a Websocket could be created that updates the data from the server in real-time.
Once the contact details for any new ICO are added to your source code-base, it will update automatically based on the JSON-RPC queries. This will ensure that all your ICOs are tracked in real-time, giving the best possible information to users in real-time.
Hire expert developers for your next project
Additional Features
The core features that I have already detailed are the basic requirements of any ICO tracking website. However, adding additional unique features can enhance the appeal that your ICO tracking website has to investors.
Here are some unique features that you might consider:
- Editors Pick – Sites such as ICO Hot List actually recommend the best ICOs to invest in.
- Newsletter – A great way to let investors know of upcoming ICOs that might interest them.
- Large Community – Utilizing social media such as Twitter to actively encourage investors to interact and share information is a huge selling point.
- Chat Feature – Sites like ICO Tracker actually have an inbuilt chat feature on their apps. This once again helps users share information and the latest hot tips.
- Blog Articles – Not only will blog articles help with your site’s search engine optimization but they also help inform your users too.
- Sort By Most Earned – This sort feature is utilized by About ICO Champs to allow investors quick and easy access to only the best performing ICOs.
- Map – ICO Map allows its users to search ICOs according to location. This allows investors to target specific locations where they are eligible to buy ICO tokens. (Due to ICO law, citizens of certain countries are not able to buy tokens depending on where the ICO is held and whether the sale meets the definition of tradable security)
My Final Thought
The development of blockchain solutions is creating some fascinating new technologies. In order for ideas to get off the drawing board, they need startup capital, and that’s where ICO investors come in.
An Initial Coin Offering is one of the few ways that people can get hold of much-needed cash without having to resort to an IPO or getting a bank loan. ICO investors are willing to risk huge sums of money to front these brave and exciting new projects.
These days the biggest problem ICO investors have is sifting through the vast number of ICO listings to find the ones that are of most interest. It is for this reason that they need a reliable and trustworthy ICO tracking site.
As I have demonstrated, building an ICO tracking site is a relatively straightforward task. The real key to success is whether yours offers a reliable, easy-to-use platform that is able to stand out from the crowd.
For this, your dedicated website will need to be innovative and embody some unique features that potential investors will quickly find that they cannot live without. As the tech giant Steve Jobs once said: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
If you are looking for expert blockchain technology developers to build an ICO tracking website, DevTeam.Space can help you. Write to us your initial requirements to build an ICO tracking website via this quick form and one of our technical managers will back to you to discuss further details.
Frequently Asked Questions on how to build ICO tracking website
ICO stands for Initial Coin Offerings. Similar to an IPO, it is the offering of coins or token sales in exchange for FIAT currencies. It represents a way for startups to raise capital to develop their projects
It is the offering of crypto coins or crypto tokens in exchange for FIAT currency. These coins have the ability to rise in value and so are considered an investment. These coins are used to pay for services offered by the ICO provider.
These ICO websites allow investors to track multiple ICO launches in one go.
Alexey Semeney
Founder of DevTeam.Space
Hire Alexey and His Team To Build a Great Product
Alexey is the founder of DevTeam.Space. He is award nominee among TOP 26 mentors of FI's 'Global Startup Mentor Awards'.
Alexey is Expert Startup Review Panel member and advices the oldest angel investment group in Silicon Valley on products investment deals.