It was a busy month for the Blockchain ICON team as they continued to work on ICON 2.0, BTP, and ICON Bridge. As part of this article, we will share what the ICON team worked on in June, as well as what their core focuses will be in July.
Blockchain ICON Introduction
ICON was founded in 2017 in order to improve the efficiency and speed of blockchain transactions and smart contract settlements. After launching its mainnet in Q4 2018, ICON has achieved great success.
This is also reflected in their token price. In 2019 alone, the ICX price rose over 3000%. Now ICON is ranked 17 in terms of daily transaction volume. The ICON mainnet is currently running with 100 nodes.
ICON is built on top of the Loopring protocol, which allows the exchange of assets via distributed ledger technology (DLT). The ICON Foundation was created at the beginning of 2018. Its mission is to establish a future where IoT devices and DApps coexist seamlessly on secure networks.
ICON 2.0 Updates
- Goloop received several updates (v1.2.7, v1.2.8, v1.2.9, and v1.2.10) with bug fixes and improvements.
- ICON Foundation submitted the Revision 19 proposal for activating Revision 18 and 19 features. As a reminder, Sub Validators who rotate into block production are also expected to vote on network proposals. We recommend paying attention to network proposals if you operate an ICON node.
- Submitting a network proposal now requires a fee of 100 ICX.
- Improved fee processing framework.
- Fixed fee discrepancy under certain JaveEE conditions.
- Fixed bugs in state synchronization logic.
Blockchain Transmission Protocol (BTP)
ICON was created to connect independent developers and businesses from across the globe through their Interchain Communication Network (ICN).
BTP is a protocol designed to provide interoperability between blockchains using a token bridge system. This allows ICON to connect compatible chains together through tokens without having to rely on third parties such as exchanges or middlemen.
Also Read: ICON Coin Price Prediction for 2022-2026
BTP Architecture
In June, they made significant progress on the architectural design of BTP:
- Completed the reference implementation for the Arbitrary Call Service (xCall), which can be found here. With this specification, developers can deploy their own BTP components to use the ACS, or build with the specification in preparation for the official xCall implementation on ICON Bridge and BTP.
- Implemented a basic fee structure for the Arbitrary Call Service.
- Implemented a core Goloop server for performing integration tests for BTP 2.0.
- Worked on implementation for Solidity and Java Message Verifiers for BTP blocks.
- Worked on implementation for Message Verifier whitelist.
BTP Integrations
WonderGame launched its NFT sale last month using a custom implementation of ICON Bridge to perform cross-chain minting between ICON and Harmony. Harmony’s Horizon Bridge was exploited for approximately $100 million after a successful launch campaign and sale.
ICON Bridge and BTP are not directly affected by this exploit, but it has ripple effects across the entire Harmony ecosystem, from the core team to validators to the community. Due to this, they have decided to hold off on launching ICON Bridge on Harmony for now.
In the next month, we will focus on developing BNB Smart Chain as ICON Bridge’s first integration. We are also streamlining the software development life cycle for ICON Bridge integrations.
NEAR Protocol
Based on the results of additional testing, we have determined that NEAR Protocol is incompatible with the current version of BTP. Currently, our team is supporting NEAR Protocol via ICON Bridge, with future support for BTP 2.0 planned.
ICON Bridge To BNB Smart Chain
We shifted our focus from ICON Bridge to BNB Smart Chain as part of our re-prioritization process.
Harmony
Harmony’s Horizon Bridge exploit is being monitored to determine if it is appropriate to launch the ICON Bridge to Harmony at this time.
Next Month’s Focus
In July, we will focus on the following areas:
BTP Product
- Complete implementation of the Solidity and Java Message Verifiers for testing BTP blocks
- Complete implementation of the Message Verifier whitelist.
- Complete implementation of Relay changes for BTP 2.0
- Write unit tests for new BTP components (Message Verifiers, Message Brokers, Relay components, etc.).
- Execute unit tests for new BTP components.
- Begin writing integration tests for all components.
- Improve the fee structure of the Arbitrary Call Service to account for Relayer fees versus BTP protocol fees.
BTP & ICON Bridge
- Continue streamlining the development process for BTP and ICON Bridge integrations.
- Finalize the ICON Bridge integration with BNB Smart Chain.
- Add a module for NEAR Protocol to the ICON Bridge relay.
- Start testing asset transfers between ICON and NEAR Protocol on ICON Bridge.
BTP and ICON Bridge will be coming to life in July, and we are looking forward to continuing work on them. To stay up to date with the latest developments, be sure to join ICON on Discord!
