ICON created the world’s most secure interoperability solution to connect all blockchains.
ICON provides a secure, easy way to move money and data between blockchains. All it takes to connect is a set of 4 smart contracts.
ICON’s award-winning software has 86 major government and institutional partnerships, and is being used for various public services.
ICON powers a range of finance, NFT, and gaming products. Use it to build cross-chain apps, and apply for a grant to get paid.
No blockchain is destined to be the ultimate solution. Thousands of public and private blockchains already exist to address specific use cases. Expect thousands more to follow.
There’s just one problem: it’s difficult for blockchains to interact with each other. They’re siloed, incompatible. That limits innovation — and adoption in the real world.
Rather than outcompete them, ICON will connect them all.
1 connection to connect to every blockchain
No hard fork needed, just 4 smart contracts
Transfer money and data between chains
Every transaction is either secure, or it fails
To connect all blockchains in a secure and decentralised manner, ICON was meticulous. While others rushed out bridges vulnerable to hackers, ICON took their time to research, plan, and build a viable long-term solution. Their invention is known as BTP, the Blockchain Transmission Protocol.
More than just another blockchain bridge, BTP is the gold standard for interoperability. It’s decentralised, easy to adopt, efficient at scale, and secured by cryptography.
With BTP, ICON can connect them all.
A blockchain that connects to BTP can interact with every other connected chain. A set of 4 smart contracts is all it takes — no major software upgrades or hard forks needed.
ICON is the hub for BTP. Any blockchain can deploy smart contracts to connect to it, with only minor compatibility changes needed. The more blockchains that connect through BTP, the more valuable ICON’s interoperability network will become.
Blockchain bridges have already been hacked for over $1 billion.1, 2 They’re crypto’s biggest potential point of failure, yet there are no security standards. The creators either place their trust in handpicked operators who can be manipulated, or rely on methods vulnerable to the same hacks as common web services.
BTP only relies on the security of participating blockchains. It uses on-chain “light clients” (mini blockchains contained in a smart contract) to verify that each request is legitimate before it completes a transaction. There are no third-parties to trust, and the entire process is cryptographically secure. A transaction is either processed securely, or it fails.
To learn how it works, read the BTP lite paper (PDF).
BTP is more than just a bridge to transfer assets between blockchains. It includes a cross-chain messaging service called xCall, which allows developers to interact with smart contracts on other blockchains.
xCall is not restricted to BTP: it’s a generic standard that other interoperability protocols can adopt to unlock new cross-chain use cases. xCall transaction fees are converted to ICX and then burned, so ICON benefits even when transactions aren’t routed through BTP.
It takes time to connect blockchains safely. The first BTP connections will take the longest to configure and test, but the speed of adoption will increase as more blockchains with similar codebases connect.
Adoption for xCall is easier. In late 2023, xCall launched on the Cosmos interoperability protocol, IBC, which enabled connections to Archway and Neutron. Connections to additional blockchains, including Ethereum, Injective, Avalanche, and Optimism, are coming soon.
You can transfer assets between connected blockchains on Balanced.
Legacy blockchains like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin use a consensus method called Proof of Work (PoW), where computers compete to verify transactions and mine cryptocurrency. But it’s notoriously power-hungry. The carbon footprint of one Bitcoin transaction is equivalent to 73,900 hours of YouTube. 3 It consumes more power than 163 different countries4, so many governments want to regulate it.
The entire ICON Network consumes less power than one Tesla Model 3.* It uses Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), which incentivises people to stake ICX and choose who gets to verify transactions and govern the network. DPoS uses 99% less energy than PoW, and is considered to be the most decentralised, energy-efficient consensus method.
*Per hour. Based on 100 ICON nodes using the recommended server on AWS at 100% capacity (14.37kWh)5, versus a Tesla Model 3 driving 100km/hour (15kWh)6.
ICON was built for enterprises first. It has 86 major partnerships, and has onboarded numerous government entities and institutions. With the help of ICON’s technical partner, PARAMETA (formerly ICONLOOP), many businesses use ICON’s technology on private chains. And with BTP, they’ll be able to interact with any connected blockchain.
Enterprises are notoriously slow to adopt technology. To speed things up, ICON’s smart contracts use Java: a general-purpose coding language found on 97% of enterprise computers, and used by over 9 million developers.8 And PARAMETA can help businesses launch a custom, interoperable blockchain through the PARAMETA Framework.
MyID is a PARAMETA product that uses the ICON blockchain. It’s a digital ID authentication service that confirms your identity without breaching your privacy. You can use MyID to verify your age, open a bank account, apply for insurance, prove your qualifications, access buildings, and more.
MyID is available through a suite of apps, which are used by more than 900,000 people and 56,000 businesses in South Korea.9 To make sure MyID is widely adopted as a standard, the MyID Alliance was formed. It has support from 86 major institutions and businesses, including Shinhan Bank, Saramin, POSTECH, and the South Korean government.
ICON powers a selection of high-quality finance, NFT, and gaming products. Many offer governance tokens (“shares” with voting rights) as an incentive to participate.
The finance hub for ICON. Exchange crypto, provide liquidity, and borrow a stablecoin known as bnUSD.
A low-fee NFT marketplace owned by its community. In the top 15 for most-used NFT platforms.
The blockchain technology you work with dictates the functionality your app can provide, and how many people will adopt it. That’s why you should use ICON. Its technology is fast, affordable, and easy to work with. And through BTP, you can make your app accessible to users on all their favourite blockchains.
Build your product directly on ICON with Java smart contracts. Or add xCall to an existing app, so you can leverage ICON’s network of connected blockchains — without rewriting your codebase.
Want to get paid to work on an app, game, NFT project, or marketing initiative? If you have a good business case that benefits the ICON ecosystem, apply for a grant to get funded.
ICX is the official currency of ICON. It’s required to make payments, use apps, and interact with other blockchains. Its 3.99% inflation rate is low for the industry. And because transaction fees are burned, it will become deflationary as adoption increases.
Unlike most cryptocurrencies, ICX has a low risk of price manipulation. It’s not majority-owned by investment firms, so it’s not at the whim of VCs who aim to profit at the expense of everyone else. Nor do a few wallets hold the majority of the tokens. Instead, ICON has taken a grassroots, sustainable approach to growth to ensure that ICX survives long term.
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3.99%
The transaction fee varies depending on how you use the blockchain.
ICX transfer fees cost 0.00125 ICX ().
Asset transfer fees average 0.007 ICX ().
Smart contract interaction fees average 0.2 ICX ().
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~ 2 seconds
Learn how to set up an ICON wallet, buy ICX, and use apps and services on ICON.
