Welcome to this week’s edition of the RHIZOME Wire!
Since this is Thanksgiving week in America, I will be putting together a few smaller thoughts, rather than the typical lengthy opening. I hope you’ll still enjoy!
Korean Blockchain Week
In case you hadn’t yet seen it, I highly recommend the relatively short (only about 15 minutes) video of ICONLOOP CEO Jonghyup Kim providing an overview of decentralized ID and MyID during this year’s Korea Blockchain Week (the video features English subtitles).
There has been a bit of frustration from some corners of the ICON community that the overall transaction rate still isn’t very high — especially when you remove the thousands of daily transactions that ICONbet is currently generating for the ICON public chain.
However, despite the fact that ICON first had it’s ICO three years ago, we’re still in the early phases of this project. One thing that’s important to remember, especially as it relates to the way MyID is being implemented, is that it’s not only difficult to build the underlying technology, but it’s arguably even more difficult to acquire the required regulatory approval and trust of major enterprises.
Fortunately, ICON and ICONLOOP are well on their way to conquering all three. Not only has the technology made significant strides, but ICONLOOP’s DID technology has also received approval from financial regulators, and the ever-expanding list of MyID partners is impressive.
It isn’t ultimately reasonable to expect all these pieces to instantly fall in place next to each other in a manner that allows ICON to simply flip a switch and onboard all of these companies.
As Jonghyup Kim explains during the presentation, even the initial program that ICON has rolled out (COVID tracking on Jeju Island) is still in the pilot phase.
In other words, we still have a long way to go with MyID…and that’s just MyID. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the roadmap.
ICONFi
Early this week, we got some exciting news in the form of an announcement of ICONFi, “a new crypto staking and earn service for the ICON community”:
ICONFi was designed to bridge the gap unfilled by ICONex. Our service brings clear benefits to crypto beginners. It complements ICONex to further create a more inclusive and diverse ICON community.
For crypto beginners, decentralized wallets such as ICONex are a new concept, and hence, challenging to use properly. For example, a countless number of users have lost private keys, keystore files, and passwords, causing a loss of their valuable digital assets. Such experiences turn away new users from owning and growing their crypto assets. ICONFi aims to minimize such friction by providing a secure and simple option for crypto beginners.
In addition, ICONFi is about helping crypto beginners build experience and wealth across a multitude of digital assets. ICONFi is a simple way for crypto beginners to get involved with crypto yield products and services. We believe ICONFi serves as the gateway to ICONex, DeFi products, and everything else that the ICON ecosystem, and blockchain platforms in general, has to offer.
There are two clear benefits to this new platform.
First, this will undoubtedly make ICON’s staking process easier to understand and utilize. While ICONex is fairly straightforward for those who are crypto veterans, it may not be as intuitive for new entrants into the space. By making it easier for stake ICX, ICONFi will create a new layer of incentive for people to join the ICON community.
Second is the fact that this platform will almost certainly draw users from other projects who want to earn interest on the tokens they are already holding in an easy and simple manner. When they do so, they’ll likely notice that ICON’s DPoS tokenomics can earn them a greater interest rate (~12%) than the tokens they already hold. For many, this may be the first time they’ve seen ICON’s staking rate, and it may motivate them to either buy ICX, or even trade their existing assets for ICX. Obviously, that’s a positive thing for ICON!
And if you were worried about whether or not ICONFi would be able to attract users, you shouldn’t be:
$15 Trillion?
One of the ongoing conversations and discussions I regularly see is about how much growth the entire crypto market cap might (or might not) see during a future bull-run.
As a point of reference, the last bull-run (in 2017/18) produced an overall market cap of around $850 billion (on January 6, 2018). At the time, this seemed like a lot (because it was, relative to the past). These days — especially with so many more projects having entered the space during the bear market — it doesn’t seem so crazy (especially when you consider we’re already at a bit under $600 billion as I write this, despite most tokens being nowhere close to ATH values).
Now, many people have shared an opinion that they don’t think a future bull-run will be as crazy as 2017. Fair enough. What would a more ‘conservative’ version of 2017 look like?
One of the more interesting (and logical) traders I follow is Justin Bennett, who I have linked to in the past a few times (he’s also an ICX holder). Here’s how he sees a future bull-run playing out (this was a Tweet he made during this past summer):
If it’s not clear, the point he’s making is that, even if we chop the growth rate of 2017s bull market in half, we’d still be on track for a $15 trillion market cap.
ICON’s market cap (based on circulating supply) was about $5 billion when the market peaked, indicating an overall market share of .58% at that point in time. What happens if we retain that same market share in a $15 trillion market? We’d have an $87 billion market cap, which — based on circulating supply — would be an ICX price of $151.
Crazy and unlikely? Almost certainly.
But hey, it’s certainly fun to imagine.
News from ICON World
Atomic Wallet has spun up a P-Rep node, staking on Atomic to follow
The final episode of RHIZOME Report has been released!
In this episode, Brian Li and William McKenzie discuss how 2020 has shaped so far for the ICON project and why there will not be any future episodes. Be sure to listen to the discussion in full.
ICONFi is coming in December!
Nonghyup and IBK Bank have been added to Zzeung site
Min Kim has an interview with Ian Balina
Paycoin releases more details surrounding ICX integration
ICX_Station’s network proposal has successfully passed
Blockchain Industry News
Chinese Police Seize 1% of Bitcoin’s Total Supply - Decrypt
The PlusToken Ponzi scheme, which was first ruled on by a district court in China's Jiangsu province this September, reportedly began in May 2018. The scheme advertised a non-existent crypto trading platform, and promised users attractive payouts in exchange for deposits of at least $500 worth of crypto assets. The scheme raked not only raked in 1% of the total Bitcoin supply, but 0.73% of total ETH, and 5% of all DODGE in circulation, too.
Coinbase Will Suspend All Margin Trading Tomorrow, Citing CFTC Guidance - CoinDesk
The San Francisco-based trading platform announced Tuesday that it would prevent customers from placing new margin trades beginning at 2 p.m. PT (22:00 UTC) on Wednesday, while simultaneously canceling any open limit orders.
OKEx set to reopen withdrawals on Thursday as police investigation 'temporarily' comes to an end - The Block
OKGroup, a Hong Kong-listed shell company that was acquired by Xu in 2018 where he serves as a non-executive director, said in an announcement over the weekend that "the relevant investigation by public security authority in the PRC has temporarily come to an end and Mr. Xu has now returned to his normal business functions."