Project Review — Building the Bridges of ICON (ICX)
Watching the development of Icon has been very exciting and I believe the work really begins once we move into this new software architecture. As we soon approach the launch of 2.0, I want to highlight some of the key bridges I would like to see this year through the Blockchain Transmission Protocol (BTP).
For the record, Icon is an interoperability protocol so when I refer to bridges, this is the integration between Icon and an external blockchain. Icon has already announced bridges into Polkadot (Acala, Moonbeam, Edgeware, and Plasm) with a goal to be the most bridged blockchain by end of year.
As I’ve shared many times on Twitter, there are a handful of projects I would like to see connected to the Icon network. The main three being Ethereum, Binance, and Solona.
In this article, I will breakdown why I think each of these three projects would be a great fit for an Icon partnership. Along with their ecosystem size, I’ve also targeted these three projects based around spotlight timeline. From older chains to newer, I believe these three cover a wide range of the blockchain timeline from pre 2017 to the future.
Ethereum — The Past
When it comes to alt coins, Ethereum is king. In my opinion, this project paved the way for many other projects to enter into blockchain through their network. Currently, we have seen many talks around the high gas prices due to network congestion with an unknown timeline on a solution. I think that is a clear problem for the growth of the cryptocurrency space and can be a simple fix with the help of the Icon network. This bridge would be beneficial to both parties as it will help solve the high gas fees for Ethereum users and also generate more use-case and exposure for Icon.
Binance Coin — The Current
Binance has been a hot topic in 2021 given it is one of the largest exchanges to date. Binance Smart Chain (BSC) was launched to allow for developers to build on their network, similar to Ethereum. The benefits of building on BSC is that they have a well built infrastructure with smart contract functionality and compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Their focus was to support the rich universe of Ethereum tools and Dapps and makes it easy for developers to port their projects with them. Why I believe BSC is a great bridge for Icon is that the majority of older projects (2017 & Prior) seem to have launched on ETH while newer projects are utilizing BSC. By Bridging both blockchains (ETH & BSC), it allows us to capture both the old and new.
Solona — The Future
Along with BSC, Solona has taken the spotlight this year as one of the hottest blockchains on the market. Solona markets itself as a fast, secure, and censorship resistant blockchain providing the open infrastructure required for global adoption. At 50K TPS and their grant program to help kickstart projects on SOL, this project will grab the attention of new developers looking to enter the space. I believe this would be beneficial to the Icon network because SOL is one of the fastest growing chains sitting at 126 projects built on their network. In my opinion, SOL will soon take the spotlight from BSC and hold a strong position in the blockchain space. This will also help bring developers over to build on the Icon network which has a similar grant program. Out of all the platform coins, I believe that SOL can be seen as the future.
Conclusion
As you can tell, I’m very excited about the 2.0 launch and the chance to witness Icon proceed down the path of its mission, to Hyperconnect The World. This will be a huge year for Icon and I believe the excitement is just around the corner. These three projects are just my opinion, so will of course fully support whatever route the foundation decides to take. In the meantime, it’s fun to speculation on what we can expect in the coming months. Hope you find this helpful.
Follow on twitter at UnDisclosed0x for live updates.
Disclaimer:
NO INVESTMENT ADVICE — The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
We hold a position in $ICX / $BALN
