Some ICON-related news from around the web.
Korean Steel Giant Puts VisitMe to Use at New Incubator
South Korean steelmaker POSCO opened a new incubator space at TIPS TOWN in Seoul on Wednesday.
Founded by the Ministry of Startups and SMEs in 2015, the TIPS program nurtures innovative technology by bringing together promising startups with successful venture founders as incubators. The ministry and Seoul’s Gangnam District Office operate five spaces at the program’s home in Seoul’s Yeoksam-ro neighborhood. POSCO is the first private entity to open a space of its own.
Some 28 startups in the field of biotech, materials and AI are moving into the new six-floor accelerator space.
Best of all — at least as far as holders of ICX are concerned — is that POSCO is using ICONLOOP’s VisitMe contactless admission solution to control entry into the facility. So chalk up another use case for ICON’s public chain.
Gov’t to Invest USD 94.3 Million Budget In Blockchain Development, Including DID
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced on Tuesday that its proposed KRW 113.3 budget (about USD 94.3 million) to support the development of blockchain technology had passed its feasibility study.
The government will spend the money over the course of five years starting next year to develop original technologies to boost the capability of blockchain technology and strengthen privacy for the called “data economy.”
More specifically, the project aims to develop consensus technology, improve the security of smart contracts, develop DID-based private data management and ID management, and secure data sovereignty through data management technology.
OK, this isn’t the USD 390 million first reported in May, but it’s still a big chunk of change and further evidence of the Korean government’s commitment to development blockchain technology in general and DID in particular.
The Ministry of Science also recently announced it would support the development of blockchain technology in seven sectors to promote the so-called “contactless economy.” In the announcement, the government said it would begin operating a public-private DID consulting group in the second half of the year.
As this media outlet has previously noted, the ministry’s support plans could provide opportunities for ICON and ICONLOOP given their history of collaboration with government entities and ICONLOOP’s expertise in DID, blockchain-based voting and other sectors of public sector interest.
ICON Development Roadmap Update
The ICON Foundation released its ICON Roadmap Update for the month of June on Wednesday.
The updates include improvements to the ICON network’s governance experience. From the ICON Foundation:
“Based on community requests, we have worked on several features to enhance the governance experience of the ICON network. Based on this feedback, we will soon add P-Rep private key dualizing, staking, and delegating functions in SCORE, multiple unstaking periods, and a function to increase the number of delegations from 10 to 100. Details of each feature can be found below.”
