[Issue #2] ICON Newsletter: Keep Calm and Stake ICON

Dear ICONists, Last week, we discussed ICON's ecosystem on the surface including enterprise adoption

[Issue #2] ICON Newsletter: Keep Calm and Stake ICON By ICON Newsletter • Issue #2 • View online Dear ICONists, Last week, we discussed ICON's ecosystem on the surface including enterprise adoption and community contribution. We had an extremely positive response from our community. If you missed it, be sure to catch up on our Issue #1: Our Fast-Growing Ecosystem. This week, let's go beneath the surface and dive into staking and rewards. ICON Incentives Scoring System (IISS) is the technology that powers the entire ICON ecosystem through the staking and reward mechanisms. IISS is what incentivizes new development and activities in the network. And, if you've been away, you'd be pleasantly surprised about everything happening on ICON today. Thanks, Min Kim, ICON Foundation Council

Best DPOS blockchain in the market

We believe we've built the best Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPOS) blockchain in the market today. But, don't just take our word for it. Michiel Mulders, a blockchain developer and writer who worked with BigchainDB, Stellar, Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum, compared some of the best-known DPOS cryptocurrencies on the market today. Check out how ICON compares to EOS, Tron, NEO, and Cardano below: ICON Decentralization: 4/5 Rewards: 4/5 Community Contribution: 3.5/5 Incentives: 4.5/5 EOS Decentralization: 1.5/5 Rewards: 1/5 Community Contribution: 2.5/5 Incentives: 1/5 Tron Decentralization: 2/5 Rewards: 4/5 Community Contribution: 2.5/5 Incentives: 2/5 NEO Decentralization: 1/5 Rewards: 2/5 Community Contribution: 2/5 Incentives: 1.5/5 Cardano Decentralization: 4/5 Rewards: 4/5 Community Contribution: (To be determined) Incentives: 4/5 As mentioned in the last newsletter, we believe our 'Community Contribution' has increased significantly, which happened after this article was written. You can read the full article below.

A Deep Dive Into DPoS Platforms' Game Theory & Incentives Comparison between EOS, TRON, ICON, NEO and Cardano. hackernoon.com  •  Share

Attractive Real Yield %

According to Staked.us, ICON (ICX) has a 9.7% Real Yield, making it one of the most attractive cryptocurrencies to stake. This is above many other respected cryptocurrencies including Cardano (ADA), Tezos (XTZ), and Cosmos (ATOM). Real Yield takes inflation into account when figuring out the best reward rate for staking. One of the big misconceptions has been that ICON's inflation rate is high. However, Real Yield % provides an apples-to-apples comparison.

ICX circulating supply is at ALL-TIME LOW

Changju Lee, or better known as Dr. ICON, is a real doctor with a Ph.D specializing in quantitative analysis of financial data from Seoul National University. He's been closely monitoring ICON's economic activity since we launched staking ~4 months ago. Although current ICX circulating supply is 515.8 million, the Real ICX circulating supply which takes account of staked ICX is 312.8 million ICX.

Dr_ICON @Dr_ICON_Lee The amount of ICX available in the market is keep decreasing and it is lowest ever. (Circulation amount - Staked amount). https://t.co/41JdykuRLb 12:01 AM - 14 Jan 2020

Stronger-than-expected ICX reward re-staking

This may be obvious, but real ICX supply continues to fall because we are observing strong re-staking activities. We believe this shows confidence in the future of the ICON ecosystem as more and more ICONists are choosing to re-stake their rewards. This is a stronger-than-expected result than what our team estimated in our original model. As Dr. ICON puts it, "This is very good!"

Dr_ICON @Dr_ICON_Lee For last 6 consecutive weeks, the total staking amount has been increased more than 2 million ICX each week. In total of more than 12 million ICX has been staked. Increase in staking amount is larger than reward! When people get rewarded they are re-staking! This is very good! 11:48 PM - 13 Jan 2020

High incentives for social engagement

As more ICONists stake ICX, the stakes definitely get higher. We believe this leads to more ICONists driving social engagement as evangelists of the project. Our community sentiment is positive once again.

LunarCRUSH @LunarCRUSH 4/4 ICON social engagement has spiked multiple times this week to as high as 682,704 unique engagements (likes, retweets, comments, follows, etc.) within a single hour. https://t.co/GUzBk69kCS $icx @helloiconworld https://t.co/OogfLatvhS 11:54 AM - 14 Jan 2020

Growth in the numbers

Although ICON may not be the biggest of the blockchain projects, our numbers are trending the right direction. We are experiencing more users and transactions than ever before. The ICON team is obsessed with creating a sustainable growth engine by continuously improving on user engagement numbers.

blockmove @eublockmove #ICONProject 🔗processed more transactions on the last day of 2019 than it did in the whole year of 2018. We can't even imagine what 2020 is about to bring! 🚀🪐 https://t.co/QKPjRXwuJj 10:13 AM - 2 Jan 2020

Guides to Staking

If you are interested in staking, there have been many guides published by our community members. And if you have any questions, our community on Forum, Telegram, and Reddit are here to help out.

How to stake and vote (Detailed) A comprehensive guide by POS Bakerz medium.com  •  Share

How to stake and vote (Visual) A simple visual guide by iBriz-ICONOsphere iconosphere.io  •  Share

How to stake and vote - Web (Video) A video guide using ICONex Chrome Extension by ICONation www.youtube.com  •  Share

How to stake and vote - Mobile (Video) A video guide using ICONex App by Rhizome www.youtube.com  •  Share

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Have questions about staking and voting? Many answers can be found here. iconosphere.io  •  Share

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SIM-swap charges / Zhao: Coins on exchanges are safer / Cardano hard fork due mid-February

Inside Bitcoin.

Presented by Subscribe | View in browser Market Watch: Bitcoin has seen a drop in value during Monday trading but still remains within the $8,000 mark. Bitcoin SV has experienced another surge in value, jumping nearly 18 percent in 24 hours. Bitcoin: $8,652 (0.02%) // $157.2 billion market cap. Ethereum: $166 (0.33%) // $18.1 billion market cap. XRP: $0.231 (0.77%) // $10 billion market cap. Bitcoin Cash: $338 (1.79%) // $6.1 billion market cap. Top 100 Winner: Bitcoin SV: $301 (17.65%) // $5.4 billion market cap. Top 100 Loser: Centrality: $0.069 (6.60%) // $74 million market cap. Prices are as of 12:30 p.m. ET. 1. An 18-year-old is facing four criminal charges linked to a $50 million SIM-swapping scam that targeted crypto holders. Samy Bensaci, from Montreal, is being accused by Canadian authorities for their involvement in the crime that targeted Americans and Canadians. Among those targeted included Don and Alex Tapscott, co-authors of the book "Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World." According to a report in The Star, Don said that while the hacker had attempted to steal crypto from them, the hack had been unsuccessful. -INFOSECURITY MAGAZINE 2. The co-founder and CEO of crypto exchange Binance has said that for many people, keeping their crypto assets on an exchange is safer than if they held their own keys. Changpeng Zhao made his comments after crypto skeptic and gold bug Peter Schiff announced that he had lost access to his Bitcoin wallet. According to Zhao, "a trusted centralized exchange is SAFUer for most people." However, according to one Twitter user, the remarks from Zhao are ill-timed, stating that Binance was previously hacked. 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Charles Hoskinson, co-founder and CEO of IOHK, the blockchain company behind altcoin Cardano, has said that he expects to see a hard fork for the coin mid-February. During a live stream, Hoskinson said that there was a "pretty high certainty" that the Ouroboros Bizantine Fault-Tolerant Consensus Protocol (OBFT) would be introduced next month. According to a report, however, the CEO didn't answer an inquiry concerning the changes brought on by the upgrade. -COINTELEGRAPH 4. Al-Nasser Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), reportedly received Bitcoin amounting to around $29 million to help fund operations in and out of the Gaza Strip. According to a report from the Israeli International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), the Bitcoin wallet received around 3,370 Bitcoin between October 2015 and July 2019. The report claims that the money was used to avoid sanctions, enable cross-border money transfers, and offer a degree of anonymity. -COIN DESK A MESSAGE FROM WINC Meet the future of wine...   Winc delivers a world of wine right to your doorstep so that you can discover international flavors from the comfort of your couch. Simply answer 6 questions and they’ll pair you with 4 wines tailored to your personal taste preferences. What's more? We're giving Inside readers 40% off their first order! Click here to see your curated wines. 5. Crypto skeptic and gold bug Peter Schiff has admitted that he's lost access to his Bitcoin wallet, claiming that owning the asset was a "bad idea." Schiff took to Twitter to say that his wallet somehow "got corrupted" and that his "password is no longer valid." The crypto community responded in kind, though, with many offering ways to help Schiff restore access. Blockchain.com tweeted a message to reassure him that his "funds are secure" and that they would send a message shortly. -@PETERSCHIFF/TWITTER 6. South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance is thinking about introducing a 20 percent tax on the income of crypto tractions. The finance ministry has reportedly ordered its office of income tax to review a taxation plan on cryptocurrencies. An anonymous official has stated that nothing has been finalized as yet, but that the government may impose a 20 percent tax. -THE KOREA TIMES 7. Singapore-based crypto exchange Zipmex has received a license to operate in Thailand. The platform, which currently operates in Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore, was given the green light by Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the exchange, it had to meet "several stringent conditions" to receive the license, in addition to having shareholder equity of around $1.6 million. -THE BLOCK 8. London-based mining company Argo Blockchain saw a tenfold increase in revenue in 2019 compared to 2018. Listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the company expects revenues for 2019 to total $11 million. In 2018, revenue amounted to $987,000. Despite this, though, revenue fell from $4.7 million in Q3 2019 to $3.45 million in Q4 of last year. Argo Blockchain cited a decline in crypto prices, "increased mining difficulty," and unfavorable foreign exchange rates as the reasons. -PROACTIVE INVESTORS 9. Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Indian Telecoms and IT Minister, has requested that the National Informatics Center (NIC) develop a blockchain-based solution to help improve government schools. The minister has asked the NIC to involve startups that are also in the technology space to help open up doors that could see the NIC "become a big patron of the startup movement." -SOCIAL STORY 10. The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) is working with Whiteblock, a blockchain testing and development company and a member of the EEA, to provide a testing environment for the EEA global membership base. Through the partnership, the EEA will use the Whiteblock Genesis to test the EEA network, the EEA TestNet. -ENTERPRISE TIMES This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three. Connect with her on Twitter.   Ad The daily habit that sets you up for a healthy future. Order Now Ad We're giving Inside readers 40% off their first order! Click here to see your curated wines.

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