Greetings, fellow shitcoiners, I hope that everyone has been enjoying the fruits of the latest altcoin bullrun.
Besides a couple of sparse mentions here and there I have been unable to find any detailed discussion concerning what I believe to be one of the most well-connected, fundamentally sound projects in the entire crypto space, one which I fully expect to enter the top 10 market caps and perhaps beyond in the months to come.
I am of course speaking about ICON (ICX): the national blockchain platform of Korea.
![[Image: ICX-Banner.jpg]](https://crushcrypto.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ICX-Banner.jpg)
Note: a lot of the information that I post below is either quoted or paraphrased from this site, which contains the most extensive research on this project that I have found so far. I highly recommend checking it out if you want more detailed information after reading this post.
What is ICON?
The ICON network is a smart-contract blockchain platform that has the goal of being the universal blockchain platform for all Korean industry. Despite the extremely high extent of regulation on cryptocurrency in Korea it gained all the necessary approval to run its own ICO, making it the first project to do so in the entire country.
According to its whitepaper the network will be designed to be blockchain-agnostic, and will theoretically allow for easy transfers of information and value between various different blockchain networks, allowing it to adapt to changes in the cryptocurrency landscape in the future.
Expanding on this:
It is also (in theory) designed for scalability, with its consensus algorithm (Loopchain Fault Tolerance) being capable of handling thousands of transactions per second, multi-channel transactions, and more (more details can be found in the whitepaper).
As you can see, the ambitions of this project are rather lofty, so why would we believe that they have even the slightest chance of being successful, both in terms of adoption as well in terms of fulfilling the promises laid out in the whitepaper?
First, let's address the connections of this project:
What about its backing, and does it have any partnerships already?
![[Image: Spec-R-ICON-partnership-300ppi-Final-V2.png]](http://spec-rationality.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Spec-R-ICON-partnership-300ppi-Final-V2.png)
I find it no exaggeration to say that ICON is one of THE most well-backed, well-connected projects in the entire crypto sphere.
Let's discuss backing first:
ICON is developed by a company known as theloop, which had its inception as a joint venture between 3 big Korean universities (Korea University, Sogang university, and Sohang University of Science and Technology) and DAYLI financial, a multi-billion dollar Korean financial firm. So, backed by multibillion dollar company, top Korean Universities, check.
Now let's talk about partnerships:
Korean Financial Investment Association (KOFIA)
KOFIA is the sole self-regulatory organization of the Korean financial industry, and theloop is the its only technology partner. They are already working together to launch a blockchain-based personal authentication service called 'ChainID', which will reduce the costs of the identity authentication process and provide higher levels of security. This is a project that will be integrated with the ICON network, and will be the first of many that will emerge from this specific partnership (more projects already planned in 2018-2020 already).
The list goes on, but I think I've made my point that they already have huge established partnerships with a lot of exciting national projects being built on the ICON network, as well as impressive levels of backing and connections.
More information on already established connections here, or in the first link at the start of this post.
What about its team?
And now we will address the most important question:
Why should I invest now?
![[Image: attachment.jpg38291]](https://rooshvforum.network/attachments/attachment.jpg38291)
I can answer this with respect to both the short-term and the long term.
The short-term to mid-term:
- They are launching their blockchain platform (i.e. mainnet release) on january 24th. While we are still 3 weeks off from this I believe hype will start to kick in very soon and we will see good gains on the current price.
- Annual conference: they are hosting the ICON annual summit a week after the mainnet release (should be february 1st), in which they will discuss amongst other things the roadmap for the project, as well as dapps being built on the network. Thus high potential for hype announcements.
- Release on big Korean exchanges: as of now there are no Korean exchanges (i.e. exchanges with which Koreans can buy crypto with fiat) that list ICX. It is likely that this will occur after the mainnet release.
This point is worth delving into more detail on: first of all, there can be no doubts about an eventual listing on large Korean exchanges, given that DAYLI financial group owns Korea's third largest national exchange (Coinone, 12th globally in terms of volume). Additionally, the incentives for a timely listing will be quite large, given the financial incentives to being the first to list Korea's own national blockchain project.
Now let's talk about Koreans, who are the largest per capita investors in cryptocurrency (the second largest gross crypto market in the world), who are also famous for being the biggest fomo-driven pumpers known to the entire world, having driven and dominated the volume of so many of the massive top-20 currency pumps that we have seen recently (e.g. Ripple, IOTA, Monero, you name it honestly). They are absolutely nuts about crypto and have a track record of driving the most nascent of pumps into parabolic celestial-object-bound trajectories.
As of now, it seems that the general Korean masses are not aware of its existence, just as the western masses who never venture beyond coinbase are doubtless unaware of most of the currencies outside of the very top or most pumped ones.
All they are waiting for is exposure, and I believe that listings on their main exchanges (coinone, coinnest, bitthumb, in order of increasing importance) will be the catalyst for first curiousity, and then fomo to begin. Remember this is not just any project, it is the NATIONAL blockchain of Korea, thus giving it an additional factor to ignite interest in the Korean markets.
The timing on the listings is uncertain: most likely the first will come through in february, or march at the latest.
I expect the gains to be good in the short term with the mainnet launch and annual summit, but they will be nothing in comparison to what will occur when this project catches the eye of the Korean public. I highly encourage all forum members reading this to ensure they are strapped up and ready for the ride well before this point in time.
The long-term
![[Image: attachment.jpg38292]](https://rooshvforum.network/attachments/attachment.jpg38292)
Given what has been discussed already, e.g. the level of backing and partnerships, its first mover advantage, blockchain interoperability, and the passion for crypto in Korea, it has an extremely favorable risk/reward ratio. The potential value of this project is massive, and the odds of failure seem as low as is possible, barring perhaps the worst of black swan events. I believe enough has been said already that would indicate the long-term potential of this project.
And now the final question:
Where can I buy it?
You can buy it on binance, or if you do not have an account on binance (registration is currently not open) then you can find it on OKEX as well.
It is currently listed as an ERC-20 (ethereum-based token), but you will be able to swap them for tokens on the ICON network after the mainnet release.
And that sums it up gentlemen. There may be some concern given that this project started with a market cap of around 40 million dollars back in October, but given all of the fundamentals that have been discussed already I believe this to be of no concern. At a current price of approximately $7.50 per token this project sits at a $3 billion dollar marketcap, I believe it is a matter of time until it hits the top 10 marketcaps, and would not be surprised to see if rise beyond that as things progress.
There are definitely projects out there that could potentially offer better returns, but at a higher risk. Given the low risk profile of this project, as well as its extremely high upside with its adoption as the national blockchain platform project of the most crypto-crazy country of the world, I believe it to be one of the best possible investments available in the current market, and have positioned my own portfolio as such.
That is all, if there are any questions, feel free to ask.
Besides a couple of sparse mentions here and there I have been unable to find any detailed discussion concerning what I believe to be one of the most well-connected, fundamentally sound projects in the entire crypto space, one which I fully expect to enter the top 10 market caps and perhaps beyond in the months to come.
I am of course speaking about ICON (ICX): the national blockchain platform of Korea.
Note: a lot of the information that I post below is either quoted or paraphrased from this site, which contains the most extensive research on this project that I have found so far. I highly recommend checking it out if you want more detailed information after reading this post.
What is ICON?
The ICON network is a smart-contract blockchain platform that has the goal of being the universal blockchain platform for all Korean industry. Despite the extremely high extent of regulation on cryptocurrency in Korea it gained all the necessary approval to run its own ICO, making it the first project to do so in the entire country.
According to its whitepaper the network will be designed to be blockchain-agnostic, and will theoretically allow for easy transfers of information and value between various different blockchain networks, allowing it to adapt to changes in the cryptocurrency landscape in the future.
Expanding on this:
Quote:Quote:
The ICON project is underpinned by the philosophy that the value of a blockchain is inherently related to the value/size of the network it connects; this philosophy manifests itself in a visible pursuit of high calibre technology providers and the continued pursuit of tangible industry partnerships.
Enterprise blockchain technology is still in its infancy and as with any new technology, enterprise level adoption can be slow. By sending out their own development teams to work with various industry groups and develop tailored blockchain applications, theloop has not only accelerated the pace of Blockchain adoption but cemented its technology at the heart of that adoption.
The path to success and critical mass will be defined by the ability to build strategic partnerships and coalitions with consortium groups and enterprise initiatives. ICON as the first public ledger iteration of theloop is best positioned to inherit and enhance the network effect of these enterprise chains, particularly given its focus on interoperability.
It is also (in theory) designed for scalability, with its consensus algorithm (Loopchain Fault Tolerance) being capable of handling thousands of transactions per second, multi-channel transactions, and more (more details can be found in the whitepaper).
As you can see, the ambitions of this project are rather lofty, so why would we believe that they have even the slightest chance of being successful, both in terms of adoption as well in terms of fulfilling the promises laid out in the whitepaper?
First, let's address the connections of this project:
What about its backing, and does it have any partnerships already?
I find it no exaggeration to say that ICON is one of THE most well-backed, well-connected projects in the entire crypto sphere.
Let's discuss backing first:
ICON is developed by a company known as theloop, which had its inception as a joint venture between 3 big Korean universities (Korea University, Sogang university, and Sohang University of Science and Technology) and DAYLI financial, a multi-billion dollar Korean financial firm. So, backed by multibillion dollar company, top Korean Universities, check.
Now let's talk about partnerships:
Quote:Quote:
Woori Bank
Woori Bank is a subsidiary of Woori Financial Group, one of the largest commercial South Korean banks (15 000 employees; 9.7 Billion USD market cap). It is working closely with DAYLI Intelligence & theloop to test and commercialize Korea’s digital currency, WeeBee coin, with universities and local governments.
SBI Ripple
SBI Ripple Asia manages a consortium of more than 61 Japanese banks including mega-banks Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), MUFG and Mizuho who leverage Ripple’s enterprise blockchain technology for instant payments and settlement. The new partnership is a collaborative effort to bring Ripple’s enterprise blockchain solution for cross border payment to South Korea.
Korean Financial Investment Association (KOFIA)
KOFIA is the sole self-regulatory organization of the Korean financial industry, and theloop is the its only technology partner. They are already working together to launch a blockchain-based personal authentication service called 'ChainID', which will reduce the costs of the identity authentication process and provide higher levels of security. This is a project that will be integrated with the ICON network, and will be the first of many that will emerge from this specific partnership (more projects already planned in 2018-2020 already).
The list goes on, but I think I've made my point that they already have huge established partnerships with a lot of exciting national projects being built on the ICON network, as well as impressive levels of backing and connections.
More information on already established connections here, or in the first link at the start of this post.
What about its team?
Quote:Quote:
theloop has 11 fulltime employees. Its parent company, DAYLI Intelligence, had 148 employees as of May 2017.
The bios of the core members of the team are listed below:
Jonghyup Kim, Foundation Council – 18 years of experience, previously Engineer at BT Works and Jang Media Interactive.
KJ Eee, Foundation Council – Majored in computer science and engineering at POSTECH University and developed 'SUHOSHIN', the first firewall in Korea. He founded Nomad Connection and has gained 3 million users through P2P Media Service Zimly. Currently, he is the CEO of DAYLI Intelligence.
ICON also has a strong team of advisors, including Don Tapscott, co-founder of the Blockchain Research Institute, Jason Best, co-founder of Crowdfund Capital Advisors, Jehan Chu, Managing Partner of Kenetic Capital.
from https://crushcrypto.com/analysis-of-icon/#tab-con-3
And now we will address the most important question:
Why should I invest now?
I can answer this with respect to both the short-term and the long term.
The short-term to mid-term:
- They are launching their blockchain platform (i.e. mainnet release) on january 24th. While we are still 3 weeks off from this I believe hype will start to kick in very soon and we will see good gains on the current price.
- Annual conference: they are hosting the ICON annual summit a week after the mainnet release (should be february 1st), in which they will discuss amongst other things the roadmap for the project, as well as dapps being built on the network. Thus high potential for hype announcements.
- Release on big Korean exchanges: as of now there are no Korean exchanges (i.e. exchanges with which Koreans can buy crypto with fiat) that list ICX. It is likely that this will occur after the mainnet release.
This point is worth delving into more detail on: first of all, there can be no doubts about an eventual listing on large Korean exchanges, given that DAYLI financial group owns Korea's third largest national exchange (Coinone, 12th globally in terms of volume). Additionally, the incentives for a timely listing will be quite large, given the financial incentives to being the first to list Korea's own national blockchain project.
Now let's talk about Koreans, who are the largest per capita investors in cryptocurrency (the second largest gross crypto market in the world), who are also famous for being the biggest fomo-driven pumpers known to the entire world, having driven and dominated the volume of so many of the massive top-20 currency pumps that we have seen recently (e.g. Ripple, IOTA, Monero, you name it honestly). They are absolutely nuts about crypto and have a track record of driving the most nascent of pumps into parabolic celestial-object-bound trajectories.
As of now, it seems that the general Korean masses are not aware of its existence, just as the western masses who never venture beyond coinbase are doubtless unaware of most of the currencies outside of the very top or most pumped ones.
All they are waiting for is exposure, and I believe that listings on their main exchanges (coinone, coinnest, bitthumb, in order of increasing importance) will be the catalyst for first curiousity, and then fomo to begin. Remember this is not just any project, it is the NATIONAL blockchain of Korea, thus giving it an additional factor to ignite interest in the Korean markets.
The timing on the listings is uncertain: most likely the first will come through in february, or march at the latest.
I expect the gains to be good in the short term with the mainnet launch and annual summit, but they will be nothing in comparison to what will occur when this project catches the eye of the Korean public. I highly encourage all forum members reading this to ensure they are strapped up and ready for the ride well before this point in time.
The long-term
Given what has been discussed already, e.g. the level of backing and partnerships, its first mover advantage, blockchain interoperability, and the passion for crypto in Korea, it has an extremely favorable risk/reward ratio. The potential value of this project is massive, and the odds of failure seem as low as is possible, barring perhaps the worst of black swan events. I believe enough has been said already that would indicate the long-term potential of this project.
And now the final question:
Where can I buy it?
You can buy it on binance, or if you do not have an account on binance (registration is currently not open) then you can find it on OKEX as well.
It is currently listed as an ERC-20 (ethereum-based token), but you will be able to swap them for tokens on the ICON network after the mainnet release.
And that sums it up gentlemen. There may be some concern given that this project started with a market cap of around 40 million dollars back in October, but given all of the fundamentals that have been discussed already I believe this to be of no concern. At a current price of approximately $7.50 per token this project sits at a $3 billion dollar marketcap, I believe it is a matter of time until it hits the top 10 marketcaps, and would not be surprised to see if rise beyond that as things progress.
There are definitely projects out there that could potentially offer better returns, but at a higher risk. Given the low risk profile of this project, as well as its extremely high upside with its adoption as the national blockchain platform project of the most crypto-crazy country of the world, I believe it to be one of the best possible investments available in the current market, and have positioned my own portfolio as such.
That is all, if there are any questions, feel free to ask.
RVF Fearless Coindogger Crew
![[Image: DW0wbh_Wk_AA_C2_W.jpg]](https://image.ibb.co/jDN7cx/DW0wbh_Wk_AA_C2_W.jpg)
