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What is Icon?
Icon’s has a mission to hyperconnect the world. This page will explain some information about its project.
A description from its whitepaper explains, “The ICON Project aims to build a decentralized network that allows independent blockchains with different governances to transact with one another without intermediaries.” Ethereum has a similar mission, which is to bring tools to developers to produce decentralized applications through one network. Although Ethereum currently conducts the most cryptocurrency transactions per day, we believe Icon has the potential technology and institutional backing to surpass Ethereum in upcoming years.
Technology
Icon’s website features this comparison of blockchains (shown below). Even if you do not understand some of the technical jargon, the chart implies that Icon uses more mature blockchain technologies over something like Ethereum. It is misleading because some of the technology is not operational yet. However, the chart demonstrates Icon’s future upside that focusses on its scalability. If you were to take away one thing from the chart it would be Icon’s consensus algorithm. Icon uses a proprietary algorithm called Loop Fault Tolerance (LFT) that intends to solve Ethereum’s scaling issue. Transactions on Ethereum’s blockchain may take up to 12 hours depending on its network’s traffic. As more users enter the market, that transaction speed will be unable to support a worldwide ecosystem. The Loop Fault Tolerance will solve the transaction time issue and will formally be released on January 24th, 2018. If you are interested in learning about the technology behind the Loop Fault Tolerance, click here.
Institutional Support
Icon has an ambitious goal but we believe the greater team supporting ICON will try to turn that goal into a reality.
ICON already boasts communities comprised of reputable institutions – banks (Woori Bank and SBI Ripple Asia), insurance (d.Lemon, Kyobo, Won), hospitals (Severence Hospital, Samsung Medical Centre), and universities (Korea University, Sogang University, Sohang University of Science and Technology). Some of these institutions are funded by the government. A future with faster money remittance and frictionless value exchange of securities, medical records, academic data, insurance fees is within their reach.
In addition to those supporting institutions, Icon has formed partnerships with other blockchain networks (Aion and Wonchain), an artificial intelligence system (DAVinCI), and has ties to the biggest South Korean crypto exchange (CoinOne).
Key Dates
1/24 – Mainnet launch – Icon will leave testing and release its real product
1/31 – Icon Annual Convention – Icon will hold a convention at the Signiel hotel in Seoul, which is Seoul’s tallest building, the Lotte World Tower
1/31 Update
Icon updated its whitepaper after its summit on 1/31. The update revealed more about Icon’s governance system, its existing relationships with institutions, how its interoperability works, and how its consensus system works. Its interoperability and consensus system use Loop Fault Tolerance (LFT), which is highly technical so we will not bother with an explanation, but the information is available on Icon’s whitepaper. However, we want to highlight the institutional support that backs Icon and how that institutional support is tied to its governance.
Capital Markets
Korea Financial Investment Blockchain Consortium is backed by 25 securities firms and uses loopchain. Since October 2017 they have used Chain ID, which can verify digital signatures in the absence of third party oversight. The Consortium plans to expand to other processes, including post-trading and trading, through the loopchain’s smart contract execution environment (SCORE). Some transactions that take 2-3 days because of third party back end work can be executed instantaneously.
Insurance
Insurance companies and hospitals in South Korea have launched a pilot to incorporate theloop’s blockchain technology into their claims and payment processes. The idea is that through the blockchain, insurance companies will be able to securely retrieve medical records from hospitals and automate claims.
Healthcare
Precision Medical Hospital Information System is the largest healthcare blockchain consortium in Korea and loopchain provides their underlying blockchain technology. Their project aims to build a network to share medical data in a secure manner and plans to broaden the scope of medical data distributions. The consortium is building a safe and transparent distribution system of medical information based on blockchain and promoting the introduction of cryptocurrencies to the ecosystem.
How Does Icon Come Into Play?
Blockchain technology powered by theloop proved its concept in 2017 in Korea but each project has been kept separate. They need a secure network to share information, which is where Icon comes in. Through Icon, any community using theloop will be able to transfer funds and information in a secure manner.