while cost structures for an ipo and ico may not be directly comparable due to differences in regulation real savings can be realised in the postipoico stage thinking of tasks such as dividend payments or shareholder voting requiring many intermediaries such as accountants lawyers and bankers switching from paperbased to digital ownership with the issuance of equity tokens permits full codedriven automation without intermediaries and at reduced cost of governance the investor therefore either receives return on investment as consequence of the value gain of equity or through dividends or receives future services that are offered by the investment project renewable power access to shared bikes etc this core concept is described in greater detail in section