This month, the ICON Republic learned just how important it is to communicate with the public – especially that part of the public that invests – after an unexplained 18 percent jump in the circulating supply of ICX caused considerable consternation in the community.

Markus Jun of Deblock took to Reddit to respond to complaints about communication, delays and other pending issues, while The Iconist’s very own Erik Cornelius did a bit of investigative journalism to get to the bottom of the mysteriously expanding token supply.

Still, the whole affair is encouraging ICON to take a more proactive approach to communication. The ICON Foundation has hired somebody to serve as Head of Institutional Markets and Contributor Relations, is cleaning up its social media accounts to encourage a more welcoming communication environment, and explained what the relationship between ICON and ICONLOOP was, why Part III of the Yellow Paper has been delayed, how the jump in ICX supply happened, and what the deal was (kinda) with the ICX repurchase program (speaking of which…)

On a happier note, ICON completed its official token swap on Oct. 25 with a swap rate of about 96 percent, a rate that seemed to please some in an initially skeptical community.

ICON also demonstrated three DApps it developed in collaboration with Seoul Metropolitan Government, namely, blockchain-based identification, voting and payment systems. Yes, these were just demos, proofs of concept unready for secure applications. Still, they testify to ICON’s strong partnerships with government organizations, one of the reasons why the platform’s future could be bright… the current price of ICX notwithstanding.

ICON has also been busy interacting with the public, attending the Korea Blockchain Expo, Seoul International Digital Festival, Line+Link-Dev and other events. Oh, and the ICON Foundation’s Min Kim spoke at SF Blockchain Week.

This Month’s News in the ICON Republic:

Deblock, ICON’s VC & Accelerator Partner, has announced measures to encourage greater accountability and transparency in projects. ICON’s official advertising protocol, weBloc, will be the first project to comply with the new measures.

Speaking of weBloc, they’ve just released a beta for a new messaging app that integrates a wallet and allows users to transfer and manage IRC-based tokens.

weBloc has also formed a strategic partnership with the decentralized personal data collection platform Airbloc. In particular: “Airbloc’s data exchange, Databloc, will integrate weBloc’s advertisement execution feature as an additional function.”

Blockchain-based supply chain platform TEMCO and blockchain-based last mile logistics solution LogisticsX have signed an MOU to launch the Global Supply Chain & Logistics Alliance, or GSLA, in which members are “able to share resources and insights to build a stronger network of supply chain and logistics blockchain projects and relevant businesses across the world.”

Bitbox, LINE’s own crypto currency exchange, is now listing its own token, LINK, for trading against bitcoin, ethereum and the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin tether.

Wanchain has hooked up with decentralized oracle network Chainlink to “bring access to information typically stored off-chain such as APIs, payment gateways, or feeds of data and information.”

Wanchain has partnered with digital asset management platform Formosa Financial in hopes of bringing “personalized banking and custody services for businesses building on Wanchain and the blockchain space in general.”

Node hosting service Nodesmith lets developers connect to the Aion Network faster. Or as they say in the press release, “The launch of the Nodesmith node hosting service via easy to use APIs is the ideal solution that allows developers to focus on the development of their decentralized application — without the hassle of running any infrastructure themselves.”

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