Highlights from ICON's AMA with Binance.us
Welcome to this week’s edition of RHIZOME WIRE!
An AMA with Binance.US
This week, ICON team members Min Kim and Ricky Dodds participated in a Telegram AMA (“Ask me anything”) with Binance.US. This AMA is part of an ongoing series of AMAs conducted by tokens that have been listed on Binance.US.
The AMA comprised three parts: a general Q&A with Binance.US moderators to provide a big picture view of ICON, a trivia component with incentives for correct answers, and, finally, a more traditional AMA where community members had an opportunity to ask more specific questions (an opportunity they definitely took advantage of!).
For veterans of the ICON community, the AMA might not have been uniquely insightful, as much of the information presented and many of the topics discussed are familiar territory; however, there was some new information put forward that even long-term ICON followers might find of interest.
Here are some tidbits I found personally interesting:
Ricky Dodds: Currently, 47% of the total circulating supply is staked. This percentage has been hitting new highs almost every week since our network became since we launched in Oct 2019.
Unless you’ve been paying very close attention to trends in staking over time, you likely weren’t aware of this fact. However, this sentence is encouraging for two reasons: first, the 47% of circulating supply being staked is a very healthy number, both in terms of governance and the fact that a chunk of the market is essentially locked up. Second, the direction of the trend has consistently been up.
When staking first began, back in the Fall of 2019, there were some voices that were concerned about the “low” number of tokens that had been staked. However, over time, more and more people have staked — either because they’re new to ICON, or because had been holding ICON and finally got around to staking.
Either way, what matters most is the trend — and it’s only been going up. Eventually, it will likely taper off, but we may not see that happen for a while.
Min Kim: On the technology side, we just recently released our new consensus algorithm called LFT2, which improves blockchain performance without compromising safety and liveness. It reduces the network load, supports faster voting, improves overall throughput and reduces network latency. And in the coming weeks, we expect to release our interoperability technology for private to public interchain which is an extremely important achievement for our goal of bridging legacy and blockchain native institutions. Those high quality enterprises mentioned above (that are using our core engine) will be able to utilize our public blockchain easily once released.
While most ICONists are likely aware of the LFT2 announcement, they may not have been aware of the fact that ICON expects (in the coming weeks) to “release our interoperability technology for private to public interchain which is an extremely important achievement for our goal of bridging legacy and blockchain native institutions.”
While more details will presumably be released at the time of the announcement, this is a significant piece of information — the ability to build the technology allowing private and public chains to interact is no easy feat, and, if done successfully, is another significant milestone for ICON, both from a technical standpoint, but also from a project development standpoint. Interoperability has been ICON’s top priority since Day One — the fact they are able to deliver on that promise is a huge step (and a step that many blockchain projects haven’t been able to fulfill!).
Min Kim: On the business and adoption side, we expect ICONLOOP, our ecosystem partner, to announce many more partners to its MyID Alliance. Including some very exciting additions in May.. MyID is the leading ID consortium in Korea with 57 partners and the only one approved by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) under the regulatory sandbox. (an SEC equivalent in Korea)
The ongoing growth of the MyID Alliance is nothing new (I bet you didn’t even realize the alliance was up to 57 partners by this point!), so the fact there appears to be some additional hyping behind some new additions to be announced this month is extra encouraging. Later on, Ricky also hyped up what could be coming down the pipeline as it relates to MyID (and also shared some encouraging news about Visit.Me):
Ultimately, between the upcoming announcements about the latest developments in the interoperability technology, as well as new additions to myID, the next few weeks could be very exciting for ICON. Stay tuned!
News from ICON World
RHIZOME Report EP 19 has been released!
In the latest episode of the RHIZOME Report, hosts Brian Li and William McKenzie sit down and discuss all the latest news/developments in the ICON ecosystem. This episode in particular comes with an increased production quality - one to continue moving forward in future episodes.
Check it out!
Markus of P-Rep team ICON Hyperconnect shares a sneak peek of an upcoming hackathon
“ICON Hyperhack” is the official ICON hackathon which is being organized by ICON Hyperconnect. Be sure to keep up and stay up to date with all announcements leading up to it’s launch!
Scott Smiley (Benny_Options) shares an important message to the ICON community
MetrICX notifications are now near-instant!
Recently, RHIZOME announced about a 1-2 month initiative in replacing the backend of MetrICX - more information on those changes can be found towards the end of the latest episode of the RHIZOME Report.
Additionally, RHIZOME developer Andrew Burns shared an ELI5 breakdown of the newly developed notification system.
Be sure to update and enjoy near-instant notifications!
ICON appears in Austrian finance news
Something we’re not particularly used to occurred this week - where ICON’s newly developed LFT2 consensus algorithm made it’s way into Austrian finance news.
Min Kim appears on Nugget’s News hosted by Alex Saunders
ICONLOOP’s MyID Alliance reaches 57 members
Suprema, the latest addition to ICONLOOP’s growing MyID Alliance - is focusing on implementing its mobile card technology with DID.
ZenSports launches new product suite for sports industry businesses
Blockchain Industry News
Crypto Fund II - Andreessen Horowitz
We think it’s important to keep investing in the long-term development of the internet to address the needs of the coming decades. That’s why we’re excited to announce a new $515 million fund that will be used to invest in crypto networks and businesses.
Vertalo Launches Tokenization Sandbox Program For Issuers & Service Providers To Accelerate Adoption Of Digital Asset Issuance and Tokenization - Vertalo
Through this new initiative, participants in the Digital Asset industry can, at no initial cost, implement and learn by tokenizing digital assets in transactions that would otherwise incur expensive software development and consulting fees that routinely cost in excess of $50,000 dollars per single asset tokenization.
Telegram Postpones GRAM Token Issuance and Offers Investors Refunds - Securities.io
The key takeaway of the letter is that GRAM token investors now have a few options to consider moving forward. The company stated that investors that don’t want to wait out the regulatory storm can file with the firm to receive a refund. Importantly, investors that go this route will receive 72% of their initial investment.
Why Nasdaq is working with R3 to issue digital tokens - Decrypt
With its “long-term, non-exclusive, collaboration agreement” with R3, announced Wednesday, the two companies will help financial institutions issue tokens and build marketplaces for digital assets.