‘’The Korean Ethereum’’

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ICON (ICX) ICON seeks to “Hyperconnect the world,” using their innovative Loopchain technology to build one of the largest decentralized networks in the world that is scalable for worldwide adoption. ICON has already established partnerships with big enterprise names in South Korea, boasting various well established financial institutions, insurance companies, hospitals, and universities on their resume. South Korea is a country with a very clear demand for Blockchain technology with government officials and financial regulators openly supporting Crypto.

Key Fundamentals

ICON boasts independent blockchains comprised of reputable institutions in major industries. ICX is a parent-chain using a loopchain-based smart contract protocol that facilitates, verifies, and enacts a negotiated agreement between consenting parties within ICON acting as a point of intersection for a plethora of distributed applications and blockchains. ICON aims to fuel the real world adoption and implementation process that seems to be somewhat inevitable given the current banking and financial crisis.

Loopchain — At the core of ICON is loopchain. loopchain is a high-performance blockchain that can provide real-time transactions based on two factors, SCORE (Smart Contract on Reliable Environment)and BSI (Blockchain Signature Infrastructure). SCORE is a smart contract provided by loopchain ensuring high-performance running in real time and executed based on a container separated from the basic blockchain process, so the basic blockchain processes at the core of ICON can function properly even if there is a problem with the loopchain smart contract. Generally, when a Smart Contract is updated, data migration is required. However, due to ICON’s versioning capability, Smart Contracts do not require data migration with every update. This means that Smart Contracts can update quick and efficiently on ICON.

Nexus-

Nexus is a loopchain based blockchain governance structure that essentially acts as a point of intersection connecting multiple networks together. This works in a very similar way as the Internet that connects every computer into one communication network by establishing ‘Networks of Networks’. Nexus guarantees independent governance to different blockchains and makes mutual connections only when they are needed. The diagram below illistrates the concept of ‘’Networks of Networks’’ that we see with Nexus.

Possible scenario: Blockchain A (Hospital) Blockchain B (School) Blockchain C (Insurance Company) would all be able to interact with each other fluidly using ICX tokens allowing for instant access of data. The Nexus functions as a form of indirect democracy, where the representatives of each blockchain reach consensus by exercising a systematically and fairly allocated vote.

Partners & Team

ICON have an outstanding team in all aspects; Advisors, Developers, Software and Data Engineers, Business Analysts, AI Department, Security, Design and Communications, Marketing. I could write a whole article just on their extraordinary team and partners.

Roadmap -

March 2018- Token Swap, Mobile Wallet / Official Airdrop to ICO participants will take place after the ERC20 to ICON Main Net token swap. ICX airdrop will be distributed as mainnet ICX Coins (not as ERC20 tokens) and can only be received through the ICONex wallet. ICONex is a wallet where you can keep not only ICX but also other various crypto-currencies. Starting with today’s PC version (Chrome extension), ICX will expand to mobile version (Android & iOS) wallets in March.

April, 2018- IISS Launch, ICO Platform / 5 ICO’s and Dapps coming to ICX in April -Stove, Bluewhale, TINK, Silkroad, UPPSALA, AD4th. This should positively impact the price in the same way ICO positively impact the price of competitors (ETH, NEO). Interoperability improvements. IISS (ICON Incentives Scoring System) Launch; an AI driven algorith tasked with continuously analyzing data such as Masternode logs, C-Rep status, Exchange volume etc. (ICON Republic)

2018. Q2- ICX/ETH DEX, Public Channel / ICON will provide a DEX (decentralized exchange) based around ICX. ICX-based DEX schemes will enable the trading of cryptocurrencies linked to various independent blockchains connected to ICON.

2018. Q2- Governance Channel, IISS Improvement / ICON essentially aims for a decentralized governance. Each blockchain connected to the Nexus has its own governance structure thus will require a Governance Channel.

2018. Q4- SCORE Improvement / SCORE will enable smart contracts to be executed in real time and independently from the underlying blockchain, placing them directly in the node operation environment and avoiding separate virtual machines.

ICON DPOS (Delegated Proof Of Stake) Incentives.

(Similar idea staking to NEO & GAS incentives)

Masternodes — Masternodes are full nodes setup to keep the network healthy and serve particular functions within the network ultimately offering the opportunity for both parties to yield. In order to run an ICX masternode you must first become a delegate; A delegate is simply a node (user) tasked to verify transactions on the network. As a reward, delegates will receive x amount of tokens along with transaction fees within their block. The idea of delegates in a DPOS system is that they will forge or mint new blocks with their verifying rights on transactions, then rewarded for the effort. In traditional POW system, blocks are mined and miners are rewarded for their hash-power. Becoming a delegate is quite different from running a masternode, where you can simply stake and lock a certain amount of tokens to secure. Becoming a delegate is more like running a project where you’ll need to write proposals, you’ll need coding and scripting skills, you’ll need to provide certain level of security to gain users (votes) etc.

ICX Overview

ICX is currently sitting at rank 23rd with a $1.4 billion Market Cap which may seem large however, many people speculate that we could see price rivalling that of top competitors such as Ethereum or NEO and could hit upwards of $50 by the end of 2018, of course this all depends on the rate in which the overall crypto market cap grows. ICO price was $0.11, today’s price is $3.83, and the all time high price is $12.47 which equates to an 11000% increase.

Circulating Supply: 400,230,000 ICX

Total Supply: 800,460,000 ICX

ICX’s main exchange in terms of Volume (24h) is Binance which seems strange considering this a coin based in Korea, well.. ICX isn’t actually listed on any Korean exchanges yet which ultimately provides a very bullish case. I expect we will see ICX listed on Korean exchanges like Bithumb, Upbit etc. throughout 2018 which should allow for a huge influx of new capital.

ICX/BTC — Price is currently testing the falling wedge support with absolutely no MACD movement in almost a month and RSI flat-lining. I would be looking to average in a position anywhere between the current market price (31.4k sats) and the next big support around (24k sats). I recommend buying in increments over a period of a few days to perform risk management. If you’re hesitant to enter due to the current bearish market conditions you can wait until we break out of the falling wedge, ideally with a MACD cross and volume increase to match. Short to Medium term targets are 62k sats (96%), and 91k sats (193%). The fib levels can be used as support / resistance ultimately helping you to gauge when to buy / sell. Always make sure you practice good risk management: Stop Losses, Trailing Stop Losses, Sensible position sizes (no more than 30% of your portfolio). You can always re-take positions to perform risk management even if that means you miss out on a small pump. Capital preservation is more important than capital growth in such a volatile and unpredictable market.

ICX Summary

ICON is approaching blockchain technology in a totally different way. Instead of creating a product and making clients adapt to it, ICON goes in and finds out the individual needs of the business they’re working with. This is something we haven’t seen very often if at all in the Crypto space. ICON’s impressive partnerships, and scalability for mass adoption coincides so well with what Blockchain 3.0 aims to achieve. I think the similar incentives to rivalling coins like NEO and ICO development similar to what we’ve seen from Ethereum really is the icing on the cake.

Bullish

ICO Platform, Scalability, Partnerships, interoperability, Incentives, Impressive team, 9,000tps+, No Korean Exchanges, Hasn’t been marketed to the west, Low market cap compared to competitors.

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Disclaimer: I’m an analyst, not a financial advisor. This is not investment advice. What you do with this information is up to you.