ICON (ICON) is a blockchain platform that is building a protocol that connects blockchain network together. Founded in 2017, the ICON Foundation wants to add a greater degree of decentralization in the blockchain space by making it possible for different tokens to work directly with each other, and access each other’s services and products. ICON also has Don Tapscott as an adviser, co-founder of the Blockchain Research Institute and  author of popular cryptocurrency book Blockchain Revolution. 

Research and development in inter-blockchain capabilities is particularly intense going into 2020, as startups and projects have realized that such a feature would mean greater liquidity, growth and quality for stakeholders in a blockchain network. 

ICON itself points to the example of the healthcare and insurance industries, an example commonly used in the media covering this space. Doctors and healthcare providers can refer to immutable, verified records of a patient that have been registered on the ICON network for the purposes of calculating insurance payments. These payments could then be used for any service on the ICON network like buying stocks or ether.

The ICON Foundation is focusing on this seamless use of data between blockchain networks. It is also open to permissioned networks.

The team employs a number of unique features to ensure a reliable and trustworthy network, and these have to do with its governance system, its transaction fees and SCORE operation, and its ICON Incentives Scoring System. The second refers to its transaction fee policy, and the third its consensus mechanism (Proof-of-Contribution) ands its reputation scoring system. The project’s yellow papers describe these in detail.

The team categorizes their development into 3 categories: blockchain, governance and services. The current focus, for each of these areas, is generally speaking ICON’s interchain protocol, its election and reputation system, and its key management and DEX services.