Most of the coins, like filecoin, exist only in the whitepaper. Quite a lot have a roadmap of releases. There is no actual product, users or even a alpha or beta release. So I don't know why are they even thought of as IPOs.
Sure ICOs are platform for raising money but only in the riskiest sense. In some cases people are paying only for the R&D to be done by "core" team on some unproven but maybe tenable idea.
As for the profit mechanism, most of the cryptocurrency rely on finite and deflationary nature of coins to provide value. If say filecoin is proven to be valuable, finite nature ensures the price increases in short term all the while block rewards (coins given to miners) tapers off to ensure the coins are always limited.
Sure ICOs are platform for raising money but only in the riskiest sense. In some cases people are paying only for the R&D to be done by "core" team on some unproven but maybe tenable idea.
As for the profit mechanism, most of the cryptocurrency rely on finite and deflationary nature of coins to provide value. If say filecoin is proven to be valuable, finite nature ensures the price increases in short term all the while block rewards (coins given to miners) tapers off to ensure the coins are always limited.