Introduction to the ICON Ecosystem: Part 1

In the last couple of years, many prominent blockchain platforms emerged. One of them is ICON, a platform for decentralized applications. 

It is a Layer-1 blockchain that connects multiple unique chains and their communities. 

ICON was founded in 2017 in Korea and gained many supporters. This article will look into the most prominent players in the ICON ecosystem.

DeFi

Omm Finance

Omm is a DeFi platform for borrowing and lending assets. Users can lend tokens to the platform and receive daily rewards. Same way, users can borrow tokens and pay daily interest. 

USDS stablecoin is available on the platform and can be transferred to a bank account to cover day-to-day costs. On top of that, for supplying and borrowing assets, users can earn OMM tokens and participate in the governance process. 

Balanced

Balanced is another DeFi platform where users can provide, borrow and swap assets in Balanced. There is also a native stablecoin, bnUSD, which can be minted, borrowed, or swapped. 

As in the case of Omm, users can earn tokens for activities on the platform to participate in Balanced DAO. 

Optimus

Optimus is a yield optimizer app that interacts with Omm and Balanced. 

Optimus analyses those dapps and offers the best portfolio strategy. Optimus also provides options for staking in the ICON ecosystem. 

Karma Bond

Karma is a DeFi solution that helps other protocols bootstrap liquidity. It’s a bond marketplace where DeFi protocols can list their native tokens at a discounted price. Users can buy them with a short vesting period, thus providing liquidity to those protocols. 

Convexus

Convexus is an automated market maker with concentrated liquidity. It provides liquidity to projects across the DeFi ecosystem. Convexus offers tools that help to concentrate capital at a small range, thus gaining more capital efficiency.

Stably

Stably launched a USD-based stablecoin USDS. It is one of the most commonly used tokens in the ICON ecosystem. 

According to the company, USDS is fully backed by fiat money reserves and can be redeemed by a 1:1 ratio.

IconFi

IconFi is a staking and saving service that provides users with passive income opportunities. 

Projects for Enterprise

Most enterprise solutions on ICON are built by Iconloop — a private blockchain development company. 

Parameta

Parameta is a solution for deploying a blockchain according to business requirements. It provides various modules and tools for building and connecting a new chain in the ICON network.

MyID

MyID is a blockchain-based technology for personal authentication and authorization. It allows corporate clients to build internal solutions for personal authorization. 

There are already real use cases for this technology: Korean industrial giant Posco used it for access control and visitor authentication for its startup space.

CHAIN ID

Chain ID is a blockchain-based digital authentication system that uses a joint consensus among companies participating in the network to establish a certificate that can be easily issued and identified by all the participants.

Broof

Broof is a service for issuing digital certificates. It allows users to issue and share certificates secured by blockchain.

Community

The Iconist

The Iconist is a media about ICON and ICON-related projects. It is a go-to place for the latest news, insights, and people in the ICON ecosystem.

Eye on ICON

Eye on ICON is a YouTube channel that overviews ICON ecosystem developments, interviews prominent people, and explains how the ICON protocol works.

Wallets

Hana wallet

Hana is a multi-chain wallet with dapp support, asset management, and governance available on multiple chains.

Read our guide on ICX staking via Hana. 

ICONex wallet 

ICONex is a wallet supporting ICX and various cryptocurrencies available as a Chrome extension. It offers features that allow for a more convenient and faster user experience.

Read our guide on ICX staking via ICONex. 

MyICON wallet 

MyICON is a wallet available in a web browser and as an app.

Read our guide on ICX staking via MyICON. 

Atomic wallet 

Atomic is a wallet for buying and staking major cryptocurrencies. ICON is one of the available options there.

Exodus wallet 

Exodus is another popular wallet that supports ICON.

Gaming and NFTs 

Gangsta Bet 

Gangsta Bet is a collection of unique NFT Gangsters and Detectives on the ICON blockchain. 

Every character has a unique appearance, name, and properties like classes and skills. Players purchase a random character as an NFT and can change a character’s skills. 

Gangsta Bet distributes GBET tokens daily, which can be used to change the names and skills of characters and generate stories.

Project Nebula 

Project Nebula is an open-world sci-fi strategy game about space exploration. In this game, you can explore the world, colonize and develop planets, improve the spaceship, and compete with other players. Assets and collectibles in the game are NFTs and can be traded.

Craft Network 

Craft Network is an NFT marketplace in the ICON ecosystem. Users can trade and mint NFTs and get CFT tokens for each transaction. CFT tokens allow voting on platform development and impact governance decisions.

NFT Bazaar 

NFT Bazaar is an NFT marketplace in the ICON network with a large digital art collection. Artists have to use Spartan Node’s tokens LambdaX to mint NFTs.

HAVAH 

HAVAH is an interchain entertainment platform. It connects NFTs minted on different platforms and makes them interoperable using ICON protocol. It is a strategic partnership between ICON Foundation, Iconloop, and 2Bytes Corp.

Wonder Game 

Wonder is a collaborative cross-chain GameFi. It was initially launched on the Harmony blockchain, but later it was connected to ICON via the ICON bridge. In this game, players collaborate to gain Mushroom tokens.

Conclusion

The ICON blockchain is developing in multiple directions. It has interesting projects, an active community, and real-world use cases that make ICON a great ecosystem to keep an eye on. 

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our ICON Blockchain Manager on Twitter.