ICON Newsletter #41 - Tech Update + ICONFi Launch + Catena.one Accelerator

Dear ICONists,

We’d like to ask our community to encourage other ICONists to subscribe to our bi-monthly newsletter and Medium page. We share a wealth of information about the project through these channels. Unfortunately, we believe less than one-fifth of the subscribers follow these updates. Of course, the numbers are much lower if non-subscribers are accounted for. This is why we’d appreciate your help in getting the word out.

The ICON Foundation is committed to providing the latest, most accurate information. As you may be aware, this does not mean that we can share everything. For example, ICONLOOP is a technology provider to its enterprise clients; therefore, the clients are in control of information. In addition, the ICON Foundation has signed NDAs with many partners. We’d like to ask for your patience and understanding.

We care deeply about our community. We believe we’ve built one of the best crypto communities today as evidenced by our records such as LunarCrush Galaxy Score. We have every intention to improve on what we’ve accomplished.

Sincerely,

ICON Team

We provide a Tech Roadmap Update at the end of every month. We’ve again made meaningful progress in Jan including:

For more detail, please read our blog post.

ICONFi iOS version is finally here! Please download in iOS App Store and give it a 5-star rating. I’m sure the ICONFi team would appreciate it.

We are told that the team is still waiting for the final app store approval for the Android version. So, this should be out very very soon.

There’s a lot of questions floating around. ICONFi’s primary goal for v1 was to make it SUPER EASY to earn ICX Staking Rewards and interest on other major cryptocurrencies. Please remember that ICONFi has big plans and will continue to add new features. We can only wait and see what’s next.

ICYMI, please read ICONFi’s original announcement post. Again, it clearly states that the goal is to “make crypto simple for beginners to create a more inclusive and diverse ICON community.” The post lists out 4 main features for this version:

For more details, please read the full post by clicking below.

Peter Saddington is on the move already. He has launched Catena.one, the ICON network’s ‘ultimate accelerator’. The website boldly states that they “build the bridges to interoperate with multiple cryptocurrencies, blockchains, and communities.” Also, they “increase ICX” presence throughout the digital and real world, as well as attract developers from different ecosystems.

Catena.one joins the list of ICON accelerators after ICX Station and ICON Hyperconnect. Will Catena.one help further accelerate the growth of the ICON Ecosystem? We’re looking forward to this.

ICONbet, a DAO casino on ICON, launched a new game DAOplinko. DAOplinko is a blockchain version of a popular game in Japan called Pachinko (a $300 billion market!!!). Perhaps the best comparison would be a slot machine.

Congratulations to the ICONbet community! Now, there are a total of 8 games on ICONbet.

Remember to follow the local law and regulation. Also, please play responsibility.

It’s not only ICONbet with some good news. ZenSports, a sports bet dApp on ICON, is continuing to expand in the US. According to the ZenSports’ blog post, “Through a deal signed with Boulter Developments LLC, we will become the exclusive online sports betting skin partner of the new casino to be opened up by Steve Boulter later in 2021. This deal will remain exclusive for the next 15 years.”

Congratulations to Mark Thomas and the ZenSports team! This is some exciting news.

That’s right! DeFi is great, but still difficult for non-crypto users. There’s a HUGE OPPORTUNITY.

The Bridge team has been working hard to create seamless fiat-to-crypto DeFi onboarding experience. No chrome extension. No private key storage. No need to buy crypto on exchanges.

And, slowly but surely, the community members are beginning to understand how all of various pieces (Bridge, BalancedDAO, and Omm) all fit together.

ICON’s Min Kim and Ricky Dodds co-authored an article on security tokens. In 2018, the crypto market overestimated the impact of security tokens. 3 years later, Min and Ricky predict that security tokens will make a comeback in 2021 because:

For more details, please click below to read the original article.

We’ve mentioned this in our last newsletter but wanted remind our community. The ICON Foundation is bringing back monthly AMA to address your questions.