This is not financial advice.
Great news! ICON Foundation development team demonstrated strong performance this week. The Financial Services Commission (FSC), South Korean government’s top financial regulator, has announced the inclusion of ICONLOOP’s ‘my-ID’ service into the ‘Innovative Financial Services and Regulations Sandbox’ created under the Financial Innovation Support Special Law. Now ‘my-ID’ will be utilized for non-face-to-face openings of banking accounts. These two weeks “ICON TX (Transaction) Challenge dashboard was released. For this competition, ICON is inviting the blockchain experts of tomorrow to build services — DApps or websites — on the ICON platform. Finally, ICON has partnered with Infinity Stones for strategic consulting, where Infinity Stones provides insight into the governance and economic structure of ICON. That’s good job! More to follow. Stay tuned for ICON Foundation updates in the coming weeks!
Development
ICONLOOP has introduced its digital ID service that can be utilized for untact (non-face-to-face verification) openings of banking accounts. The Financial Services Commission (FSC), South Korean government’s top financial regulator, has announced the inclusion of ICONLOOP’s ‘my-ID’ service into the ‘Innovative Financial Services and Regulations Sandbox’ created under the Financial Innovation Support Special Law.
As 18 different companies, including manufacturers, banks, stock/securities firms, insurance companies, and e-commerce companies, have expressed their participation in the Innovative Financial Service project, the sandbox inclusion is expected to act as a stimulus towards mass adoption.
my-ID is a digital identity authentication service built on blockchain technology. It allows for ID authentication information (ID, monetary transfers, verification through mobile phones, etc.) to be saved to the user’s mobile phone so that users can reuse said information to open further accounts or access other services that requires identification. This drastically simplifies the cumbersome processes such as taking pictures of one’s ID over and over again and will allow consumers to sign up for various financial products in an easier manner.
An ID that has been approved by financial institutions to be fit for financial activities is widely seen as having passed the most stringent authentication process. Therefore, it is expected that the said ID can and will be utilized within the digital ecosphere as a whole. For example, it could be used to authenticate driver’s licenses for car-sharing services or a method of logging in to an online shopping mall. Essentially, it will solve the problems due to the fact that there was no one unified method of ID authentication that everyone trusted.
In line with the global trend, my-ID is expected to be configured in a ‘self-sovereign’ manner, eliminating the risk of personal information leaks. The self-sovereign manner refers to a method where one keeps all of his/her information until it needs to be shared with a specific party, as opposed to consigning his/her information to a third authenticating party. This eliminates the risk of a third party holding large quantities of personal information and accidentally leaking information, as well as making it impossible for parties to trade other peoples’ private information for monetary returns. This, in effect, returns the ownership of personal information to the actual owners.
* Innovative Financial Services and Regulations Sandbox
It is an exemption system in which innovative financial services are designated and exempted from restrictions on licensing and sales activities. As children play freely in sand playgrounds, the phrase “Regulations Sandbox” is used for the purpose of unlocking regulations.
Check about 200 ICON DApp services and enjoy them. Register your service or DApp on TX Challenge to earn prizes. Link : http://bit.ly/txdashboard
- Blue Whale
Freelance, freelancer, and freelance worker, are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term.
Freelancers often rely on internet platforms to match their skills to particular projects in the same manner that corporations provide staff with a constant stream of duties. However, none of the freelancers on these platforms are employees of the platforms. As a result, they do not receive the benefits that typical full-time employment: retirement plan, paid time-off, unemployment, and medical coverage.
The Blue Whale Network wants to build a trustless network that no longer requires a centralized authority to manage contracts and provide the benefits of full-time jobs to freelance employees.
Significant highlight:
Blue Whale Global and Samsung Electronics Corporation (SC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop and to support the global indie game ecosystem together.
2. weBloc
What is the main goal of weBloc Project?
WeBloc seeks to change the core of the advertising ecosystem from advertisers to consumers. They intend to do this by using blockchain technology, creating a decentralized advertising ecosystem, building a user attention-based advertising ecosystem, and revolutionizing the existing advertising process by building an advertising alliance based on blockchain technology.
Significant highlight:
WeBloc has secured many future ecosystem players through AD4TH Insight’s marketing company. This includes mainstream companies, such as: Samsung, Blizzard, Reebok, and SK Telecom.
3. SOMESING
SOMESING uses blockchain technology to allow people to gain rewards for contributing to the ecosystem’s karaoke content using SOMESING.
This sounds awesome and is fun- all you have to do to gain rewards is to sing, record, and post your karaoke music on blockchain in a decentralized system.
Significant highlight:
Successfully completed an ICO in Q4 of 2018. They have launched SOMESING Beta — Pocket Studio a free Karaoke App where you can sing hundreds of latest songs. You can find the application on PlayStore and Apple Store.
4. VELIC
VELIC is an ICON network financial services platform how provides a range of financial services based on blockchain technology, including trading, crypto asset investment and you can even an instant crypto loan approval, everything on the same interconnected platform.
Significant highlight:
VELIC Crypto Exchange is live with several trading options. Currently, the supported cryptocurrencies and tokens are ICON (ICX), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), EOS, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Stellar Lumens (XLM), TRON, QTUM, Tether’s USDT, Circle’s USDC, and TrueUSD (TUSD).
5. ZenSports
ZenSports is creating the largest peer-to-peer sports betting marketplace in the world, where anyone can make and accept bets with anyone else in the world for live sporting events.
With ZenSports you can deposit funds instantly using cryptocurrencies(Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin), create bets on your own terms that others accept, or accept others’ bets using a blockchain decentralized platform.
ZenSports currently offers the ability to create bets in any of the following sports leagues: National Football League (NFL), National Basketball League (NBA), England Premier League, Germany Bundesliga, Italy Serie A, France Ligue1, Span La Liga, UEFA Champions League, Major League Baseball (MLB), National Hockey League (NHL), NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball (CBB), NCAA Division I Football (CFB), Professional Golf Association (PGA).
Significant highlight:
ZenSports has a native app for iOS and Android that you can download to start betting on sports right now.
Social encounters
But what are smart cities? — The term “Smart City” is quite comprehensive and, in short, is an intelligent city that can face the challenges of the future through the use of innovative technologies. In a broad definition, the term includes topics such as pollution, civic participation, alternative options for cultivating vegetables, better resource management, and more. As you can see, all relevant areas will be affected: economy, politics and governance, mobility, energy, civil society, our environment, logistics, nutrition, etc.
One particular company that has won the favor of the South Korean government is ICONLOOP and the ICON Foundation. On 8 March 2019, ICONLOOP was awarded a prize for its mass introduction of Blockchain technology at the World Economic Sustainable Cities Business Information Session. The presentation by Josh Choi, Director of Public Affairs at ICONLOOP, showed a rich palette of already build applications and possibilities. The presentation also showed that the ICON ecosystem is focused on building various blockchain communities, solving the oracle problem through the use of private blockchain systems, expanding the blockchain ecosystem, ensuring interoperability, and the Building smart cities with blockchain.
What solutions are offered and implemented for Smart City Seoul? — A citizen Dapp (digital citizen card, payment option & voting system) and BROOF — a blockchain based certificate issunace service
In November 2018, ICON presented a Blockchain based Citizen Card at the Seoul International Digital Festival; or in other words: a digital and decentralized way to identify. But this application had two more great options; namely to participate in votings, which in the future should guarantee more transparent and manipulation-free voting and secondly a payment system that can be used throughout the city.
Another development of ICON is BROOF. This application enables the issuing of certificates of all kinds. These are thus stored on the blockchain, whereby they are protected against manipulation and prevent counterfeiting. In practical terms, this application is primarily for various institutions, such as universities, which can issue future certificates on the blockchain. The interoperability of ICON’s network eliminates the need to create separate databases. Consumers can easily receive and display their blockchain-based certificates anywhere, anytime. BROOF offers significant time savings and handles processes in such way that time-consuming procedures no longer have to be performed.
UbikCapital added a blog devoted to ICON in order to keep a running list of ICON content for all the ICONists out there. Please check it out and let them know if there’s any specific topics you’d like to see us cover. Videos to come soon — explaining some of the more complex topics of ICON in a simplified manner. Follow the link.
THE ICONIST
- FIGHTING ACADEMIC FORGERY WITH BROOF
- IISS UPDATES AT A GLANCE
- HERE ARE 2019’S TOP 3 CRYPTO WALLETS TO STORE YOUR ICX
>> ICONEX WALLET
>> LEDGER HARDWARE WALLET
>> TRUST WALLET
- ICON AND INFINITY STONES PARTNER FOR STRATEGIC CONSULTING
- BLOCKCHAIN IS SHAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER
- VELIC TO LAUNCH NEW CRYPTO-LOAN SERVICE
See also:
- By ICONists, for ICONists Episode 4 — Special Edition with Rodney from Gilga Capital
- By ICONists, for ICONists Episode 5 — Special Edition with Russell from Ubik Capital
Upcoming events:
Date: 09:30 ~ 18:00, June 27–28, 2019
Venue: Hanbit Media / 62, Yeonhui-ro 2-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul
Website: http://devground.hanbit.co.kr
‘DevGround 2019’ is a tech conference held at the head office of Hanbit Media in Sinchon on June 27 & 28, 2019.
ICON, a leading Korean blockchain project committed to supporting the developer ecosystem, is sponsoring this event. Furthermore, Edward Ryu, the CTO of ICONLOOP, will give a presentation on <DECENTRALIZED IDENTIFIER> at 13:20–14:00 as a part of the ‘Blockchain and Cryptocurrency’ session on the 28th (Day 2). Specifically, Edward will present the concepts and implementation technologies of DID (Decentralized Identifier), a prime example of improvements being made through blockchain. He will also expound upon ICON ID, a prime example of the concept of DID fully realized.
Finance
TestNet Phase 2 is the final testing and practice of block production and transaction validation for P-Reps, prior to P-Rep elections in September (Staking for every ICONist $$$). It important to test the process, the software, the hardware, and practice producing blocks and validating transactions so we will be prepared to take the reigns of the ICON network in September as P-Reps! (For those voted in).
The first few weeks of TestNet have gone well. In total, about 200,000 blocks have been produced! Please enjoy the image below of the “yoonjeong” group. ICONation is the current leader node producing blocks. The algorithm rotates between leaders producing blocks, while the other nodes vote and validate transactions. ICX_Station-SF is Syncing their node up. Once they are caught up, they’ll join in on the action. The “ajpr-yjprep01” and 02 are ICON, and the remaining are all P-Rep teams. Some teams have multiple nodes(e.g. Ubik Capital has a node in Europe and North America).
TestNet is made up of 2 groups comprised of 32 teams (6 ICON teams + P-Rep candidates). If you are a P-Rep candidate and are not participating, please join as soon as possible (the testing continues through the end of July. Sign up here.
For ICONists who want to keep tabs on the TestNets, each group has it’s own tracker (same as the standard ICON tracker, but for each TestNet):
Roadmap
P-Rep TestNet Operation
In May, P-Rep candidates organized their respective node environments as scheduled, and successfully completed the first operation of the ICON TestNet. The second TestNet operation will run from June to July. As P-Rep candidates practice operating their own nodes, preparations for stably operating the decentralized ICON network are being made. The decentralized network is expected to flourish under the operation of the P-Reps that will be elected in the 3Q.
Interchain
The Interchain Development Team is in the process of designing the BTP protocol for interconnecting Ethereum chains with public chains. The main components for interconnecting these two heterogeneous chains will be the Relayer, the ICON Relay Contract, and the ETH Relay Contract.
- The Relayer manages and delivers Proof Data while monitoring the ICON and Ethereum networks.
- The ICON Relay Contract and ETH Relay Contract perform the On-chain Proof and handle the issuance/refund requests for each of the chain tokens.
This research and development will create an environment in which DApps that are operated on other blockchains can be used through the ICX.
DEX
ICON DEX implementation is complete and its sources, concept descriptions, and test documents have been published on the ICON GitHub.
>> Check out the ICON DEX page
As the ICON DEX was developed as open source with the Apache 2.0 License, anyone can build and operate decentralized exchanges such as Bancor, and KyberSwap, based on IRC tokens by using open DEX sources.
Fee 2.0
The fact that all DApp users were required to pay cryptocurrency fees starting from their initial uses of the services has been a major hurdle to overcome within the blockchain industry as a whole. With Fee 2.0’s RPC API, ICON DApp users will be able to use ICON services without ICX fees starting in mid-June. DApp providers can also pay fees using Virtual Step, which is generated through ICX staking, allowing providers to save DApp operating costs.
IISS — ICON Incentive Scoring System
The IISS feature is expected to open in August, a month before the P-Rep elections take place. In this system, ICX holders receive ICX incentives to contribute to the ICON Network by staking ICX and delegating to healthy and viable P-rep candidates. The IISS Development Team and The Governance Team are closely reviewing the ICX incentive policies, and are working hard to develop the P-Rep election system and IISS system, while at the same time, ensuring the growth of ICON Network’s value by maintaining its stable operation.
ICON Developer Documentation
ICON is continually enhancing and improving the developer documentation to make it easier for ICON developers to develop and operate the ICON Smart Contract and ICON services. The Documentation 0.9 Beta Version on the ICON Developers Portal is currently in the final stages and will be officially released after a final review.
ICON DPASS (DID)
Users will be able to keep their personal information in the DPASS app, a decentralized identity authentication service, and access multiple existing services and apps without repeating authentication procedures (KYC). DPASS will be linked with various online/offline services in the future, and ICON Foundation will make this the easiest and the most convenient authentication service that exists.
Blockchain based Certification Service — broof
ICON launched ‘broof (https://broof.io)’, a service that allows various certificates to be issued based on the ICON blockchain in. This service takes the same form as the Seoul Blockchain Governance Team’s mobile letter of appointment that is created using ICON’s public blockchain and is provided as an open service. By issuing certificates on a blockchain, permanent archiving is possible without issuing separate paper documents. It also allows for certificates to be easily issued, viewed, and verified anywhere via mobile platforms.
ICON TX Challenge
The ‘ICON TX Challenge’ is a large scale blockchain development contest. ICON will be rewarding ICX to teams that generate meaningful transactions using the ICON Smart Contract. Teams confirmed to participate in the contest will be given 200 ICX such as a participating prize. A separate reward of 0.01 ICX per 1 TX that occur within the contest period will be given out, with a daily limit of 200 ICX. The rewards will continue to be distributed until the total award of 600,000 ICX is completely exhausted. Please join us in this exciting challenge!
>> Check out the ICON TX Challenge Participation Guide
See also:
What’s next?
Partnerships and team members
ICON has partnered with Infinity Stones for strategic consulting, where Infinity Stones provides insight into the governance and economic structure of ICON. Infinity Stones has been running nodes on several blockchain networks (EOS, Tron, IoTeX, Tezos, Cosmos, etc.) and has built an extensive network in the blockchain industry. Through this agreement, ICON can leverage the relationships Infinity Stones has built, as well as their experience running nodes on other networks.
Infinity Stones has already provided valuable insight into the economic and governance structures of other networks and has shared details of the shortfalls they have experienced through running nodes on such networks. This insight has helped ICON in the development of IISS and other governance features.
Infinity Stones is a Silicon Valley-based company, providing cloud management services and security solutions for Blockchains. They are blockchain infrastructure architects with proven track records in the industry.
Social media metrics
The charts above illustrate an increase in the number of Twitter followers and Reddit subscribers. The number of Facebook followers has decreased. In general, ICON foundation experiences average level of social 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.
