Beginner’s Guide to ICON

Blockchain was designed to be a decentralized technology, where no one central authority can pull the strings, where consensus drives decisions. However, of late, centralisation concerns have begun to plague many cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain networks as a few mining pools have begun to amass a majority of mining power, thereby inching closer to centralised control. Now, blockchain and decentralization, must go hand in hand and that is the very vision some players in this market are trying to make sure of. One of them is ICON. In this beginner’s guide, we take a quick look at what ICON is and why we must sit up and take notice of this entrant to the crypto block.

What is ICON?

This South Korean company works with blockchain technology, and seeks to ensure that the different blockchain networks can reach out to one another and exchange elements through a decentralized medium.

Decentralization is its key goal and it seeks to build a group of blockchain networks that can interact amongst each other without compromising on their own autonomy needs. For example, if we were to compare it using a real-world example, we could possibly compare it to trying to create a body like SAARC, where the constituent countries retain their autonomy and sovereignty and yet have a common platform with no authority figure per se, to make interaction possible. Naturally, by building a blockchain network along those lines, ICON wishes to tap into real-world applications that cryptocurrencies usually do not have. Their token is listed with the ticker symbol ICX.Their motto is:

“HYPERCONNECT THE WORLD” and according to their official website:

“The ICON project is building one of the largest decentralized networks of the world.”

Use Cases and Services of ICON

ICON use cases include the building of decentralized applications or dApps. One of them is Blockchain ID, meant for verifying identification info using smart contracts. The Payment and Exchange dApp is meant to make it easier for blockchain networks to exchange payments with one another, using one of ICON’s services, the ICON wallet. On that note, let us have a look at the services offered by ICON.

1. ICONex:

This is the wallet service offered by ICON allowing for storage and rapid exchange of a wide range of cryptocurrencies, obviously including ICX. With an intuitive user interface and a great user experience design, ICONex is a great offering from the house of ICON.

2. ICONick:

This interestingly named aspect of ICON’s services takes care of a long-standing problem that few give voice to: the needlessly long and convoluted wallet IDs. With this service, you can choose your own ID to have convenient and smooth transactions.

3. Blockchain Interoperability Alliance:

Alongside Wanchain and AION, ICON has become a part of this alliance, to make sure interchain interactions and exchanges become smooth and convenient with a smarter structure. A key element to decentralization, interoperability is a goal of this alliance and drives the vision of ICON as well.

What Makes ICON So Great?

The fact that it is a network dedicated to achieving decentralization makes it a great project in theory and beyond. Moreover, the project’s scalability: that it can be used for interchain interactions, for enterprise needs and many more at a scale large or small, makes it extremely attractive. Lastly, its usability, and the fact that it has such an incredibly convenient user interface which can work with other blockchain technology features such as dApps or blockchain smart contracts to enhance its functionality, also makes it a unique project.