Hello, ICONists and all crypto fans and enthusiasts! We’re thrilled to reveal our fresh Biweekly report on the thriving and progressive decentralized community that has spread across the world and already become one of the most revolutionary and collaborative communities in the dynamic crypto world!
ICON’s ecosystem strengthens day by day and it will never slow down its pace! The ICON Project aims to build a decentralized network that allows independent blockchains with different governances to transact with one another without intermediaries. The core principles that underlie the ICON network are: decentralization, interoperability, and governance.
The previous month was rich in different activities performed by ICON’s core team in collaboration with the passionate and devoted P-Reps!
Are you ready? It’s going to be a long and exciting journey along the boundless ICON’s roads! Make sure you seat belts are securely fastened!))) Let’s get started!
The team was excited to release 2020 roadmap focused on four major themes: Network Enhancement, Open Source Enhancement, Governance System Update and BTP and Sidechain. These are the most important focus areas for the expanding ecosystem and will be crucial to attract new network participants and improve the incentive structures for contribution.
Moreover, the core team has finished its research on LFT 2.0 and has since started working to implement this into ICON network. Additionally, the team has begun researching the Sidechain design and IISS 3.0 revisions including the anticipated timeline to implement both of these features. You’ll learn more details on these items in the coming months.
ICONLOOP’s Josh Choi introduced the decentralized identification (DID) service MyID at Hashnet Blockchain Conference 2020. DID, which verifies your identity without the involvement of a mediating institution, is a new type of identifier on public key infrastructure. The identification code is composed of a value from a method, DID and special characters. Enter this DID address, and you can get a saved DID document. DID attempts to resolve the problems of existing ID methods such as breaches of personal information, unnecessary repetition of ID confirmation procedures and increasing verification costs. It’s safe from hacking, while the use of a public key means there’s little chance of your data getting leaked.
Read the interview with ICONLOOP CEO Kim Jonghyup and journalist Jeong Inseon. On the 13th, Jeong Inseon met with Kim and learned what kind of digital ID ecosystem ICONLOOP and My ID Alliance are drawing. This article is an English translation of the Coindesk Korea. The translation was provided by P-Rep team ICON DAO.
The DeFi platform is coming to ICON! Balanced is the first DeFi project on the ICON Network. It is a collaborative effort between ICX Station, PARROT9, Galen Danziger of Mousebelt, and Dan Brehmer of iBriz-ICONosphere. The main goal is to create the de-facto form of payment for the ICON ecosystem through giving ICX another use case: collateral. Balanced is a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). It incentivizes people to deposit their ICX as collateral and borrow tokens pegged to the value of real world assets. The first token will be the ICON Dollar, which is pegged to USD.
Seoul Metropolitan Government will be launching its revamped citizen participation platform “Democracy Seoul.” The revamped platform adopts ICONLOOP’s ‘loopchain’ blockchain engine to prevent the altering or forging of voting data and to implement a one-person, one-vote enforcement through a real-name verification system. The key goal is to enhance the practical use of citizens’ suggestions by streamlining the process for citizens’ suggestions to become policies. Falsification and tampering will be prevented by applying blockchain technology and a one-person-one-vote system will be realized through the real-name authentication system.
In this Biweekly we’ve also focused on the recent events and developments of ICON’s main P-Reps!
Read on and stay tuned!
Development
Github metrics:
Developer activity (from Coinlib.io):
Decentralized Identification (DID) Service MyID
ICONLOOP’s Josh Choi introduced the decentralized identification (DID) service MyID at Hashnet Blockchain Conference 2020.
The MyID Alliance deputy executive director explained that DID, which verifies your identity without the involvement of a mediating institution, is a new type of identifier on public key infrastructure. The identification code is composed of a value from a method, DID and special characters. Enter this DID address, and you can get a saved DID document.
The MyID service was composed of two parts: a real-name ID for use with financial services and a digital ID for non-financial services. The real-name one lets users take advantage of remote banking services, while the digital ID can be used to provide your ID for online and offline services.
DID attempts to resolve the problems of existing ID methods such as breaches of personal information, unnecessary repetition of ID confirmation procedures and increasing verification costs. Because it takes place on a blockchain network, it is safe from hacking, while the use of a public key means there’s little chance of your data getting leaked.
It is the only South Korean DID service you can use in all digital financial services that is compliant with the country’s financial laws.
So far, 47 financial institutions, e-commerce services, manufacturers and other institutions and businesses are taking part in the MyID Alliance.
As requested by the community, P-Rep ICON DAO has translated/subtitled the latest ICONLOOP presentation where they discuss what makes MyID, Broof and VisitMe special and impactful contributions to the future of DID.
ICONLOOP CEO Kim Jonghyup’s Coindesk Interview
Read the interview with ICONLOOP CEO Kim Jonghyup and journalist Jeong Inseon. On the 13th, Jeong Inseon met with Kim Jonghyup and learned what kind of digital ID ecosystem ICONLOOP and My ID Alliance are drawing. This article is an English translation of the Coindesk Korea. The translation was provided by P-Rep team ICON DAO.
ICON LOUNGE: MANAGE MYDATA WITH MYID
ICONLOOP convened a discussion last Thursday, when it teamed up with Yo-si-jae — a Future Consensus Institute and think tank — to explore how recently passed legislation could usher in an age of digital sovereignty. Entitled “The Three Data-Related Laws: Could They Make Our Lives Smart?,” the event featured presentations, a panel discussion and a question-and-answer session with the audience.
Participants considered the legal issues and tensions that could result from data protection efforts on the blockchain. They explored how the public sector could further help progress development in data sovereignty, such as those being pioneered by MYID.
ICONLOOP CEO Jonghyup Kim cautioned against the government playing the role of judge, explaining that when innovative businesses emerge, the state and industry should trust one another as partners. He called on the government to lift negative regulations and stop telling businesses what they can and cannot do.
ICONLOOP believes that as government interest in self-sovereign identity grows, MyID has a huge opportunity to deliver personal data sovereignty to consumers and create an ecosystem where they can monetise the use of that data. Decentralized ID solutions — such as ICONLOOP”s “MyID” — help consumers navigate and take full advantage of the MyData ecosystem by enabling easier control, storage and management of their personal data.
South Korea’s parliament recently passed amendments to three data-related laws: the Personal Information Protection Act, the Act on the Promotion of the Use of the Information Network and Information Protection, and the Credit Information Use and Protection Act.
Korea FSC approves ICONLOOP’s MyID service additional range into its Fintech Sandbox
Icon Loop’s Digital ID Service, designated as the Financial Services Commission’s Innovation Financial Services last June, has also received special regulations on the Electronic Financial Transactions Act following the Financial Real Name Act. As a result, MyID can be used to open non-face-to-face accounts as well as to issue access media such as mobile OTP.
The ICON Revolution: Improving Job Placement And The New DeFi Project
ICON has been making waves in the cryptocurrency industry as one of the most advanced and well-structured blockchain platforms. The hype around the platform involves its impressive use cases.
Social encounters
P-rep Governance Meeting 1 video recording is now up on YT.
The team thank all those who joined and contributed to this meeting and ask to provide feedback.
Follow the link to to watch the video
Upcoming events
ZenSports
ZenSports is a peer-to-peer sports betting marketplace where anyone can create and accept sports bets with anyone else in the world, without the need for a centralized bookmaker. Crypto or fiat deposits and withdrawals, access to data from over 26 sports leagues worldwide for easy creation of bets, and one-tap accepting of bets. ZenSports’ P2P sports betting marketplace is currently only available to residents outside the United States. Customers within the U.S. may view sports betting odds and data, but not place any bets. Daily Fantasy Sports contests are available to both residents within and outside the U.S.
ZenSports created its own cryptocurrency utility token called SPORTS, which customers can use for placing bets, earning discounted betting fees, and getting cash back, bonuses, and other rewards. Betting with SPORTS tokens gives customers an exciting and rewards-driven experience for wagering on sports that traditional bookmakers don’t offer. ZenSports’ goal is to integrate SPORTS tokens into other access points within the sports ecosystem, such as online merchandise, media broadcasts, event ticketing, in-game food and beverage, and professional sports leagues. ZenSports is available for download in both the App Store (iOS) and the ZenSports website (Android), and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
After launching the sports betting app in March 2019, they closed $675K in October 2019 as part of a broader a $1M+ Seed Round raised in 2019. The team decided to open up a new round of funding to accommodate investors. In just 10 weeks since then, they syndicated and closed an additional $770K+ in funding across multiple angel investors.
While we felt more than comfortable that we had enough funding to execute on our growth strategy for 2020 after we closed the funding that we did in 2019, we decided that it would make sense to offer a time-boxed raise without a target amount for these investors who approached us and shared our vision of how decentralized, peer-to-peer sports betting using cryptocurrencies was the future. We were fortunate to have a lot of choices in the investors we decided to ultimately bring on board, and we’re thrilled to be working with them as we continue to grow and scale ZenSports.
The team have currently focused on optimizing the post-customer acquisition and retention funnel through constant product iteration and via their SPORTS Rewards Program.
Balanced: the DeFi platform coming to ICON, explained
Balanced is the first DeFi project on the ICON Network. Balanced is a collaborative effort between ICX Station, PARROT9, Galen Danziger of Mousebelt, and Dan Brehmer of iBriz-ICONosphere. The main goal is to create the de-facto form of payment for the ICON ecosystem through giving ICX another use case: collateral.
Balanced is a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). It incentivizes people to deposit their ICX as collateral and borrow tokens pegged to the value of real world assets. The first token will be the ICON Dollar, which is pegged to USD.
There is no ICO and no pre-mine of tokens. Balanced contributors earn (mine) Balance Tokens, which entitle them to governance and rewards from network fees. Only Balance Token holders that actively contribute to the Balanced DAO receive these benefits.
Like many other platforms, Balanced provides its users an opportunity to mine its native token. In this case, ownership of Balance Tokens provides a chance to participate in governance, as well as payment in network fees (paid in ICD).
By depositing ICX into Balanced, ICONists can essentially earn an additional layer of interest on their holdings (through the mining of Balanced Tokens), providing an incentive to provide the collateral necessary to provide an adequate supply of ICD.
While it’s unclear when Balanced will officially launch and other details still have yet to emerge, it is clear that this is an exciting opportunity not only for ICONists but for the network as a whole.
Please, read an in-depth article providing a detailed explanation of Balanced here
Roadmap
Development roadmap plans for 2020
Key Themes
1. Network Enhancement
The Foundation continues to refine icon-service and its loopchain engine through network enhancements and stability features. This will remain a key focus as the team look to improve upon the technology for broader adoption across corporates, government entities and crypto natives. Additionally, they will continue to improve the security features of the network and improve decentralization.
Items that will be accomplished in 2020:
- Block Recovery
- 2 blocks Invocations
- P-Rep Private Key Dualizing
- Increase the Main P-Rep Set Size
- LFT2 technical documentation and yellow paper
Other Items
- Staking and voting APIs on SCORE
- Automatic block structure upgrading via Revision Proposal
- SCORE internal call function
2. Open Source Enhancement
This year ICON wants to increase the number of open-source contributions from the community to loopchain and icon-service. Right now, the codebase is being primarily managed by ICON Foundation but in 2020 they want to increase their level of open source to a much greater degree.
Key focus areas:
- Fully migrate internal development process to GitHub repository
- Improve documentation explaining the architecture of loopchain and icon-service, including design documentation
- Improve commentary between codes
- Enhancing and formalizing the off-chain governance process (IIP)
3. Governance System Update
ICON plans to propose refinements to IISS in 2020. By better aligning incentives across stakeholders in the network, they hope to promote more collaboration amongst ICONists. These stakeholders include Main P-Reps, Sub P-Reps, Contributors and Delegators. The team also plan to implement the Contribution Proposal System (CPS) to accelerate the activity on the network. Recall that the CPS is a governance and funding mechanism to support growth through contribution. With this system, ICONists can be rewarded for their contribution through this decentralized mechanism without relying on ICON Foundation for support.
Potential Proposal for IISS Revisions
- Adjust the Representative Reward (TBD)
- Form the Contribution Proposal Fund
- Add the minimum bond requirement for Public Representative
- Add the slashing based on the minimum bond requirement for Public Representative
Contribution Proposal System
- Improve the design of the CPS
- Develop the CPS
- Integrate the CPS into the ICON Network
4. BTP and Sidechain
Blockchain Transmission Protocol (BTP) will allow the transfer of value and information between heterogeneous chains. With this technology, multiple blockchains can communicate and interconnect via ICON Network. In 2020, the team plan to have the basic level of the BTP technology implemented into the ICON Network. The basic level of the BTP will allow Private Blockchains to interconnect with ICON Network.
- Design the new economic, governance components for the BTP
- Integrate the BTP technology into the ICON Network
- Develop the new components to ICON Network to support the BTP
Sidechain will be a new layer of the ICON Network to support a reliable smart-contract environment. The primary goal of this sidechain is to incentivize developers to deploy smart contracts on the sidechain leaving the ICON Network to focus on interchain and governance transaction processing. This is not only the most effective solution for improving scalability and implementing a virtual machine but also allows the ICON Network to focus on the interchain and governance, making it a true ICON Republic; an interconnecting hub as the Nexus, referenced in the original whitepaper. All business logic related to smart contacts will be handled on this layer independently. However, the economic and governance systems of the sidechain must technically depend on the root chain so we will implement this into ICON’s IISS and on-chain governance system.
- Design economic, governance model of the sidechain
- Develop the sidechain using the new blockchain-based on Java Virtual Machine (JVM)
- Integrate the sidechain into the ICON NetworkUpdate log format
ICON Development Roadmap Update — February 2020
LFT 2.0 Summary
LFT 2.0 is a next-generation BFT consensus algorithm that improves upon the existing LFT algorithm.
LFT 2.0 generates blocks through consensus by round-basis, like the BFT algorithm, and each round consists of two phases, the Propose Phase, and the Vote Phase. LFT 2.0 can achieve high performance in the way that the current block’s state is confirmed in the next block. LFT 2.0 improves latency and TPS compared to PBFT as block confirmation time and state confirmation time are the same.
IISS 3.0
IISS is the contribution measurement and incentive distribution system for ICON’s decentralized autonomous network. An IISS 3.0 upgrade is currently being researched which includes both the design, the scope of development and timing. The goal will be to move towards a stronger contribution-oriented DAO based on game theory and an improved voter behavior economy.
Partnerships and team members
SEOUL CITY BRINGS ICONLOOP’S BLOCKCHAIN TO PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Seoul Metropolitan Government will be launching its revamped citizen participation platform “Democracy Seoul.” The revamped platform adopts ICONLOOP’s ‘loopchain’ blockchain engine to prevent the altering or forging of voting data and to implement a one-person, one-vote enforcement through a real-name verification system.
The key goal is to enhance the practical use of citizens’ suggestions by streamlining the process for citizens’ suggestions to become policies. Falsification and tampering will be prevented by applying blockchain technology and a one-person-one-vote system will be realized through the real-name authentication system.
Up to now, Seoul has saved the platform’s voting data in a centralized database. Going forward, however, the city plans to save the data in a decentralized, more transparent way on its blockchain-based administrative platform designed by ICONLOOP.
ICONLOOP had previously carried out a number of trial projects with the city as part of the 2018 Seoul Blockchain Demonstration Project, applying its blockchain engine to Seoul Blockchain Standard Platform, used car trading system, and mobile-voting system.
More info on the topic is here
ICONists want to know what P-Reps are doing, or are planning on doing with their funds! This video provides a brief summary of ICONation’s developing economic model as well as information on what the team is currently working on.
Welcome to ICON’s headquarters! You can witness the future of blockhain technology with demos of broof and VisitMe! This is what blockchain adoption looks like.
Watch the video here ! Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss any new videos.
ICON P-Reps News
Paradigm
Enigma: Mainnet Launch, SEC Settlement
Ethereum biweekly: Ecosystem and projects’ updates, opinion and research articles
Orbs: Activity in the US Market, A New PoS Wallet In Beta-Test
ICX Station
The first part of a 30+ page series is designed to provide an overview of ICON’s technology. The series is easy to understand for beginners exploring the project for the first time. It also provides enough depth that it can be enjoyed by more advanced blockchain enthusiasts. The team will be releasing each part in smaller segments!
Enjoy! The first part is here
In the second part of a 30+ page series you’ll find out about blockchain layers and the architecture behind ICON.
Ubik Capital
VELIC
ICONation
RHIZOME
ICONVIET
Catalyst
ICON DAO
Everstake
POS Bakerz
To all Chinese speakers! You can now discover this guide on how to stake your $ICX using Ledger or ICONex in Chinese!
Check out the article here
block42
ICON Tools — Whale Watcher
Whale Watcher is one of the tools the team aim to create to improve the user interface of gathering information about the ICON network. It will help track votes that contain larger amounts of ICX and the distribution of votes by them. If users that have smaller amounts of ICX are very important to the ecosystem and their votes can also make a change it is not so damaging to the ICON network if they allocate their votes to one P-rep or if they change their votes meanwhile a change or undistributed votes by whales may be damaging for the ecosystem or for a certain P-rep.
ReliantNode
Metanyx
Chainode Tech
Rumors
The Bank of Korea continues to show interest in blockchain technology.
South Korea’s central bank is reportedly looking for a company that can build for it a blockchain platform that would improve record keeping for the Korean blockchain market.
CoinDesk reports:
“Bond transactions could be recorded on the blockchain and could even form the basis for a ‘real-time simultaneous payment trading system,’ a local official told Yonhap. The system would be designed to be shared between relevant financial institutions as well as the BOK and the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), Korea’s financial watchdog.”
The Bank of Korea is unlikely to launch this service until South Korea attains a bit more regulatory clarity, a hesitation shared by many other Korean financial institutions when it comes to blockchain projects (see below).
However, Korea might be getting that regulatory clarity as CoinDesk Korea is reporting that the legislative affairs committee of South Korea’s parliament could put revisions to the Financial Transactions Reporting Act to a vote during a session this week.
Social media metrics
Social media activity:
The graph above shows the dynamics of changes in the number of ICON Reddit subscribers, Twitter followers, and Facebook likes. The information is taken from Coingecko.com.
This is not financial advice.
Subscribe to particular companies’ updates by Paradigm!
