ICON

What is ICON? 

• Launched in 2017 by ICON Foundation based in South Korea, ICON completed their ICO with not less than $43m raised from around 50% of ICX total supply.
• The way ICON technological structure works (and the naming) is inspired by a republic governance system. The Republic system is designed with votes gathered from the voice of communities (political party, society association, etc.). In ICON’s  case, those communities are ICX token holders that belong to certain groups that we can see here. Each token holder can vote for the representative of their community to be elected as C-Rep. 
• ICON adopted a unique consensus mechanism called LFT (Loop Fault Tolerance) Protocol. The main regulatory nodes on the network are called P-Rep (the delegates). P-Rep is chosen by ICX token holders by delegating their ICX to the P-Rep candidates. 22 candidates with the highest number of ICX delegates will be responsible to maintain the whole ICON network. The next top 78 will be responsible to be Sub P-Rep to maintain a copy of the verified messages to enhance the network security.
• Besides having the right to vote for C-Rep and P-Rep, ICX stakers also reserve the rights to vote for DApps and Ecosystem Expansion Project (EEP) on the ICON platform.  
• ICON network has its own smart contract called SCORE that stands for Smart Contract for Reliable Environment that is compatible with EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine).

Key Metrics

Ticker	ICX
Token Name	ICON
Token Type/Protocol	ICX/ICON
Total Token Supply	800,460,000
Current Circulating Supply	See coinmarketcap
Market Capitalisation	See coinmarketcap
Token Creation Date	June 2018
Can it be mined?	No

Who is behind ICON?

The ICON Foundation was founded by Min Kim. He is currently acting as the ICON Foundation Council Member that is registered in Zurich, Switzerland. 

What is the purpose of ICON? 

ICX acted as a governance token on the ICON network. The ICX token holders reserve the right to vote for the governing bodies, development proposal, and support for DApps. By participating in the network, ICX holders would be rewarded by unmined ICX at a percentage of around 11% per year at the time of writing.   

Insights

ICON is a notable blockchain project in South Korea. It was the first of the successful Korean blockchain projects, before Fantom, etc. Developing technology infrastructure that ICON is designing requires complicated setup and research, the execution and public acceptance is another challenge that it needs to overcome, not to mention competition from other more popular platforms.  

• ICON has partnered with notable institutions in South Korea such as Samsung, Line, Shinhan Bank, Saramin, and Seoul Metropolitan Government. This partnership could potentially increase technological adoption and user base of the ICON network.
• Instead of creating its own programming language, the ICON platform lets developers build DApps and smart contracts on the ICON network using Python and Java. That might lower the barrier of entry for most developers to build on ICON networks that theoretically could increase the network and ICX value.

Risks

• Risk of competition for public blockchain platforms is high with platforms that have larger investors and developer community support like Ethereum, BSC, Polkadot, etc. joining the race.   
• The coming of new advanced technology developed by other platforms such as Ethereum 2.0, would make ICON main strength point, about blockchain performance that could process 9000 TPS, no longer stand out.

News and Updates

• ICON is currently working on the ICON 2.0 network to enhance its network capacity; details of the current progress can be found here. 
• ICON blockchain has also been used by an Australian gin distiller in 2020 to provide a tracking system on their supply chain as reported by Cointelegraph. 
• ICON recently announced a partnership with NEAR Protocol to improve the cross-chain communications on the network.

Community & Whitepaper Links:

• Official Website: https://iconrepublic.org/  
• White Paper: https://icon.foundation/resources/whitepaper/ICON_Whitepaper_EN.pdf 
• Governing nodes: https://tracker.icon.foundation/governance 
• Developer documentations: https://www.icondev.io/ 
• Community channels: https://iconrepublic.org/community 

Disclaimer: 
All investment is speculative and involves substantial risk and uncertainty. Investors should understand the nature of digital assets including the terms of return and the risk of assets. We encourage investors to fully understand the assets and the risk associated with them prior to making any investment.