The ICON project is building one of the largest decentralized networks in the world.
So, what does that mean?
ICON aims to revolutionize the network. They will create one of the biggest decentralized networks, allowing for hyperconnectivity between countries and people. By using ICON, communities that were isolated can now connect and share various services through their network. Communities use blockchain id’s for payments and exchange currencies of different communities through DEX (Decentralized exchange) wallets and access various networks and services.
Basically, their goal is to bring blockchain technology into our everyday lives by linking all the individual blockchains together.
Now you might be wondering, what the utility of the ICX token is.
“The ICX token is used as an intermediary cryptocurrency. ICX enables transactions among different cryptocurrencies by determining the exchange rate through DEX Reserve. Second, ICX can be used as for DApp tokens U-coin, which is a DAPP developed by our blockchain team for Korean University Consortium, can be one of these use cases already in development. Another example – ICX can be a token for ICO platform like ERC-20.”
(source: https://www.reddit.com/r/helloicon/comments/70t56h/icon_technical_qa_summary/)
It is similar to an ERC-20 token (A token on the Ethereum blockchain) because ICX tokens eventually will be used as the currency for ICOs build on the ICON blockchain.
Below you can see a comparison from ICONs website.
(source: https://www.icon.foundation/en/)
Now let’s take a look at the team and firms behind ICON.
There are several organizations involved with ICON. The parent company is Dayli financial group also known as Yello. Dayli financial group is a leading fintech company from Korea, and they provide DAVinCI, which is the artificial intelligence solution that will be used to analyze the data derived from the ICON network and to optimize its reward scheme. Theloop is another involved company, and they are a leading provider of private blockchain solutions for a Smart Connected Society, also from Korea. Furthermore, the team exists of 8 advisors, 6 members of the foundation council, 15 members of the blockchain department, 5 members of the AI department and 5 members for Design/Marketing/Security.
Overall, ICON has some very powerful companies and people behind it, and you can read more about them on their website: https://www.icon.foundation/en
Alright, now you understand the basics of the ICON project, but is this the future of blockchain technology?
It could be, but if we take a look at their roadmap, they are looking to partner with blockchain networks in Q1 2018, and that is CRUCIAL. They have already made some great partnerships with Woori Bank, Kyobo life insurance, Ripple, Coinone, different universities and so on, but they are yet to partner with medical facilities which is important for the future.
Let’s sum up
When you consider that many industries are starting to adopt blockchain technology, it is easy to see the appeal of a project like ICON, simply because their goal is to unify players from healthcare, insurance, educational, financial, verification and beyond on the platform that they provide. That is fairly ambitious, but the partnerships with Ripple, Coinone, Woori Bank, Kyobo life insurance and so on, does prove that this project could become even more successful than it already is. ICON is currently hovering between top 15 and top 25 on CoinMarketCap. Even though there are already several decentralized networks, this could very well be one of the crypto projects with the highest potential in 2018.
Disclaimer:
This is not professional financial advice. The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is very important to do your own due diligence before investing.
Sources:
http://docs.icon.foundation/ICON-Whitepaper-EN-Draft.pdf
https://www.icon.foundation/en/
https://icon.foundation/contents/team/partners?lang=en
https://twitter.com/Ripple/status/907426321650692096
https://www.reddit.com/r/helloicon/comments/70t56h/icon_technical_qa_summary/
