The resilience of ICON
Welcome to this week’s edition of RHIZOME Wire!
This week, Cryptoslate published an article entitled, “This top crypto company is returning to work as South Korea coronavirus outbreak slows”:
According to Min Kim, the founder of the leading crypto project ICON, all members of his project ‘s team are “back in the office 100% focused on work” in the wake of a multi-week lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19 in South Korea.
This is encouraging for a couple of clear reasons. First, it means that the COVID-19 situation in Korea has subsided enough to allow individuals to return to work. This is positive news from both a public health and economic standpoint. The population is less at-risk of catching COVID-19 and individuals can begin earning a living again.
More specifically, while ICON employees had been working remotely during the crisis, the fact they are now back in the office should do wonders for productivity. While development can be done remotely, it also requires a great deal of communication; nothing can replace the effectiveness of in-person communication.
Other projects have not been as fortunate. The Cryptoslate article continues:
Although the situation is getting better for ICON and presumably other crypto startups based in areas with minimal or shrinking COVID-19 outbreaks, other industry firms have been getting railed by the pandemic, namely the economic effects of it.
Just yesterday, it was reported by Decrypt that ConsenSys — the Ethereum-focused development studio founded by Joe Lubin — had laid off approximately 14 percent of its workforce, equivalent to 90 individuals. Lubin cited “extraordinary uncertainty” forcing the company to “conserve resources,” though this was the company’s second 14 percent layoff in two months.
This is the latest in a series of layoffs in the crypto space.
Also, per previous reports from CryptoSlate, Bitcoin.com, crypto mining firm Bitfarms, mining hardware manufacturer Bitfury, Chainalysis, Elliptic, CipherTrace, and BLOCKTV are amongst the other firms in the cryptocurrency space to have laid off some of their staff in response to the economic effects of the pandemic.
Furthermore, EOS creator Block.one, Ripple, and Blockworks Group, a crypto media and events company, have all implemented a hiring freeze.
Anyone following the blockchain industry has witnessed the gradual (or sometimes rapid) dissolution of projects or companies ever since the market peak in late 2017. Now, as we approach the three year anniversary of that market peak, it’s clear to see that some projects are likely going to be around for the long-run. It’s hard to dispute that ICON is among that group.
This turmoil all brings up recollections of the Dotcom bubble in the late 1990’s / early 2000s. A new form of technology brought a wave of entrepreneurship — nearly any company that had “.com” in the name saw incredible gains and valuations. The subsequent crash brought everyone with it. Everyone remembers the downfall of Pets.com and other similar failures; however, those that had adequate resources and a product worth building weathered the storm:
Not only does ICON have the financial resources to continue marching forward, it also continues to make significant progress on their technology, product, and business development.
What matters most is the trend. Since the project launched, has the team’s productivity increased, or decreased? For many projects launched during the market bubble, they almost immediately began a downward trend — either in terms of resources or development (but very frequently, it was both).
For many others — including ICON — each day has been more successful than the last; based on ICON’s current resources, there will be far more similar days ahead.
News from ICON World
RHIZOME Report EP 18 has been released!
In the latest episode of the RHIZOME Report, William McKenzie and Brian Li discuss LFT2, Min Kim’s AMA w/ BiKi Exchange, IISS 3.0, and more.
ICX Comic #5 has been released!
Funded by UBIK Capital and ICON Foundation, ICX Comics have been delivering great and useful comics for the ICON community. As attention spans of the average person are painfully low (about 10 seconds), concise, and quick information presented in this form is very useful.
Check out their other comics if you haven’t already!
The next P-Rep Community Meeting is coming up!
Daeki Lee of ICX_Station will be representing ICON at Reimagine 2020
Dr. ICON shares statistics on available ICX in the market
IISS 3.0 proposal has successfully passed!
The passing of the latest network proposal represents a monumental milestone for the ICON project. With all the work done by the ICON Foundation, ICX_Station, and all the intensive discussions from other P-Reps and community members; the passing of the proposal shows a truly collaborative effort.
RHIZOME supports the changes and direction of the proposal and voted “Approve”.
ICON Foundation monthly grant update - April 2020
Q1 2020 DApp market report by Dapp Review
ICX Weekly: With Special Guest: Yasha of Block42
Blockchain Industry News
How Black Thursday reshaped the Bitcoin futures market - Decrypt
Black Thursday was a defining blow in a fight for market share among crypto exchanges that began in 2019, which precipitated the struggle for control over the Bitcoin futures market once dominated by the Seychelles-based Bitmex.
EOS-based wallet vanishes, taking $52 million with it - Decrypt
Following the trail, analysts tracked down several other addresses linked to EOS Ecosystem; they too had been completely emptied. Investigators also discovered that the main account had been drained of 19.3 million EOS—equivalent to around $52 million.
Coinbase Launches Price Oracle to Help Reduce Systemic Risk in DeFi - CoinDesk
Available from Thursday, the San Francisco crypto exchange said the feed, or oracle, provides data from Coinbase Pro on the exchange rates for both bitcoin and ether against the U.S. dollar. It is further signed with Coinbase's private key, meaning that when shared across third party services and protocols, the data can always be verified as being from the exchange.
ICON (ICX) Set to Vote on Proposal to Further Decentralize Economic Reward System - BTC Manager
Notably, the proposal is one of the first on-chain governance proposals to date that aims to bring major changes to a blockchain project’s reward allocation structure. The proposal is especially significant as it will encourage all ICON validator teams to collaborate and contribute a part of their current rewards for the long-term benefit of the network. Essentially, it’s a testimony to ICON’s strong community ethos.