ICON

ICON is an interconnected network that connects one blockchain-based independent community to another.

What is ICON?

Launched in 2017 by the ICON Foundation based in South Korea, ICON completed their ICO with $43m raised from around 50% of the ICX total supply.
The way ICON’s technological structure works (and the naming) is that it 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. 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 for maintaining the whole ICON network. The next top 78 will be responsible for being Sub P-Rep. They have 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 right 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, registered in Zurich, Switzerland has been the main support of the ICON promotion and development. It was founded by Min Kim who is currently the ICON Foundation Council Member.

What is the purpose of ICON?

ICX acts 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 are 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 the 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, and this could theoretically 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 advanced technologies developed by other platforms such as Ethereum 2.0, would make ICON’s main strength- about blockchain performance that could process 9000 TPS – stand out no longer.

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://ico n republic.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
*As cryptocurrency and digital tokens involve high risks, investors may lose all their investment money and should study information carefully, making investments according to their own risk profile.