This Friday saw the first annual meeting of Korea’s Open Blockchain Industrial Association where ICON’s parent company, the Loop, attended talks alongside electronics industry giants such as SK Telecom, LG, and Hyundai as well as two of the countries largest banks, Sinhan and Hana.

ICON foundation, the not-for-profit foundation that manages the ICON blockchain, was created by The Loop, which operates as a joint venture between three of Korea’s largest universities and DAYLI Intelligence. Consisting of over 25 separate companies, DAYLI Intelligence is Korea’s largest fintech holding company.

An Interoperable Smart Contract Enabled Solution

While this union of companies and conglomerates may seem odd, it illustrates ICON’s goal to “hyperconnect the world.” The team looks to solve the current fragmentation in the blockchain market, acting as a universal language for all blockchains to communicate.

ICON plans use their ICX token to act as the intermediary currency for all, negotiating exchange rates through a Decentralized Exchange Reserve to allow the token to be used on any blockchain.

The project’s interoperability takes place on a layer referred to as Nexus. While this layer interacts with the ICON blockchain itself, it operates as a separate element that it is built upon the Loopchain enterprise blockchain.

ICON, however, integrates a multi-channel structure comprised of the light clients of other blockchains, using Loopring’s own Loop Fault Tolerance consensus mechanism to reach a consensus between corresponding chains.

Additionally, ICON’s support for smart contracts, sidechains, and dApps allow it to function as a self-sufficient entity. The recent New Kids on the Block(chain) demo day has already seen five such smart contracts developed using the Smart Contracts On Reliable Environment runtime container. These projects ranged from Blockchain integrated Real Estate Listing to fair Language Translation marketplaces, demonstrating the versatility of ICON smart contract platform.

I just published “[Event sketch] Demo Day” https://t.co/gX0D9M8AAS — ICON (@helloiconworld) April 28, 2018

ICON Helps to Solidify Koreans Blockchain Future

ICON’s cooperation within the Korean Open Blockchain Industrial Association can thereby be seen as two-fold. Firstly, the ICON team can provide other industries with technical knowledge about blockchain infrastructure. Secondly, ICON’s involvement operates under the assumption that these companies would either want to build a blockchain on Loopchain alongside ICON or integrate their blockchain platform via the Nexus channel.

The ICX price has seen an increase recently over news that Pantera, a San Francisca-based blockchain investment fund, has made a large investment in ICX.

Evidence of ICX tokens transferred to a Bittrex-owned ERC20 wallet has fuelled rumors that a potential Bittrex listing of the coin may be imminent, contributing to positive price movement.

While no official announcement has been made from either ICON or Bittrex, the addition of yet another top ten exchange listing ICX would enable the token to further extend its reach, possibly leading to greater bullish price action.

Investors Maintain Support for Dynamic Blockchain Solutions

The South Korean Won remains the highest traded currency for ICX outside of BTC as the nation’s largest industries look towards the seamless interconnectivity and cross chain communication provided by the network.

ICX still currently retains a position in the top ten highest 24 hour volumes of most South Korean exchanges.

The recent meeting of the Korean Open Blockchain Industrial Association is encouraging news for the global blockchain community. The merger of open source technology with government and industry will provide South Korea with a transparent and flexible economic structure to tackle the new digital economy.

For more information on ICON, including price, market cap, volume and technical information, see our ICON coin profile.