Today was the first of three ICONSENSUS live discussions featuring P-Rep candidates. Today’s session featured Philip from BlockVenture Coalition, Steve from weBloc, Steven from Noris and Chris from Portal Network. ICONists had a chance to attend the discussions via live streaming on Youtube and we obtained more information on each candidates’ plans to expand the ICON ecosystem.
Justin, also known as 2infiniti, was present as moderator. Here’s a recap:
On node operation strategy
Portal Network have extensive experience running nodes on several blockchains and have also developed products such as Metamask and MyEtherWallet. They have been testing both the Yeouido Network and Euljiro Network to develop smart contracts on ICON. They are deploying 3 different types of smart contracts that will help maintain ICON’s main service, which includes a universal registry, a registrar contract for each registered domain and a resolver that allows you to resolve domains.
Noris has been actively mining ETH and other coins since 2017. They have been gathering information from multiple nodes and plan on using military-grade security measures to secure nodes.
BlockVenture Coalition have set up a few nodes for some of the funds in their network such as Sutler Ventures, one of the IOST node candidates. They have solid industry relationships with major blockchain security auditing companies such as CertiK, QuantStamp, and Hosho, which would allow them to ensure full security audits. They will be following the recommended node specs provided by ICON.
weBloc have been running their own marketing and PR business for the last five years, given them relevant experience on running nodes and operating servers. Achievements include receiving two series A investments, finalizing their TGE based on ICON smart contracts and using the ICON testnet to develop a voting app (Devote) and an ICX price tracking app (ICON Watch). They are looking to enhance the level of node operation on ICON’s MainNet by working together with players of the ICON ecosystem.
On expanding the ICON ecosystem
Portal Network have two approaches. On the non-technical side, they want to make it easier for average users to adopt blockchain by simplifying the hexadecimal blockchain addresses into more human-friendly text. They want to allow users to send and receive tokens by typing in ‘yourname.icon’, essentially creating subdomains and fixing this UX issue. On the technical side, they are working on KAIZEN, building their Blockchain Name Service on 12 different blockchains to help technical users and developers connect to more easily build DApps and start nodes and smart contracts on top of them. They currently have over 70,000 ICON Name Service (INS) addresses reserved, and will open official registration in June.
“I think this is a great opportunity and great time for ICON and I think the whole blockchain and crypto community overall. If you would like to register your ICON domain and find out more, please visit domain.portal.network,” says Chris.
Noris have been supporting ICON since 2017. Initially charged with helping ICON grow a community in China, they are now focused on fostering blockchain communities offline, particularly connecting talent in San Francisco with the global blockchain movement. They pioneered the San Francisco Blockchain Week with ICON as title sponsor, which attracted over 4,000 attendees, 2,000 of whom were developers. They also organized the Berkeley Blockchain Career Fair, which attracted over 40 blockchain companies and more than 1,000 developers. Moving forward, they wish to keep the traction going and expand efforts in San Francisco and China, which will catalyze ICON’s growth organically.
“P-Reps coming on to support ICON ecosystem will be really, really huge. We started from just doing marketing and community development in China, to now helping ICON become the highlight of some of the most important events in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to send email to ,” says Steven.
BlockVenture Coalition will be focusing on 5 key pillars when engaging with ICON. The first is a University Ambassador Program in which they would host meetups across university groups interested in blockchain to gain large scale development usage of the ICON platform. The second strategy will focus on DApp onboarding, getting the 200+ blockchain projects they’ve met to switch to the ICON platform. The third relates to infrastructure partnership, using their connections to major financial firms, crypto exchanges and others, to form official partnerships with ICON. The fourth pillar is looking to get their 44 venture funds to back ICON and ICON DApps, increasing the success rate of DApps built on the blockchain. Lastly, they are looking to get major companies and publications to integrate ICON into business practices and get mainstream media coverage of ICON.
“You really can’t go wrong voting for anyone here. The way that ICON is doing this is really great, getting people across the world to tap into their strengths and bringing them to the table. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me personally, my email is ,” says Philip.
weBloc is hoping to help ICON expand its ecosystem online mainly through their advertising ecosystem, which will lead to a greater inflow of users onto the ICON MainNet, and is easy to scale. weBloc’s advertising service, to launch next month, will connect advertisers to users and increase the volume of meaningful transactions. As an operating node on the ICON MainNet, they are confident they can expand ICON’s ecosystem and help them have a stronger presence internationally, and most importantly, provide international support for ICON DApps to make data-driven marketing decisions.
“We have a lot of experience launching and operating services and running servers. This means we can not only work as a DApp, but also we can actually support the ICON ecosystem to grow further, as a future P-Rep. Believe in us!” says Steve.
For more information on the P-Rep candidates, see icon.community’s candidate profiles. Don’t miss the next live session, coming up this Thursday, May 30th at 01:00 UTC, featuring Draicon Ball, ICON Nexus, Gilga Capital and Somesing.
Watch the full discussion here:
