The ICON Foundation has released its ICON Development Update for the month of April.
So, let’s see what ICON accomplished last month.
ICON 2.0
On the ICON 2.0 front, Goloop v1.2.4, the latest update to ICON’s Go-powered blockchain engine, was released on the mainnet.
Governance2 SCORE was also released to the mainnet.
What’s Governance2 SCORE, you ask? Well, from the ICON Foundation:
“This update to the network’s governance SCORE introduced a new proposal format that supports multiple proposals in a transaction, added an applyProposal method, and enhanced parameter handling on SCORE updates.”
ICON also approved and activated the CPS Network SCORE Designation. This apparently allocates a portion of the ICX issuance to the CPS treasury.
There was also an update to the preptools Python package, seemingly to reflect the new governance SCORE.
Speaking of SCORE… not to be anal or anything, but aren’t we supposed to stop using that term? I believe the preferred nomenclature is “smart contract framework for ICON.”
BTP
ICON said it made “significant progress on the architectural design of BTP” in April.
Perhaps the most significant is the completion of an initial design for the BTP fee system. The design uses a fixed fee determined “when a call is made to the Arbitrary Call Service.”
An Arbitrary Call Service “offers a framework for making generic cross-chain smart contract calls, which provides developers with the flexibility to make unique and complex cross-chain dApps that are not bound by the limitations of a purpose-built bridging service.”
The foundation’s goal is for the system to support variable fees based on data size.
The ICON Foundation also made progress in its BTP integration with Algorand, with the Message Broker contract on the Algorand side close to completion. To learn more about Algorand, check out our profile of this key BTP partner.
Meanwhile, the Foundation completed BNB Smart Chain and Harmony integrations into ICON Bridge, the interim BTP solution. The Foundation is now “performing additional testing and monitoring as we prepare for launch.”
What Next? And WHEN BTP?
This Month, the ICON Foundation will update ICON 2.0 as needed, continue to develop BTP, finish the Algorand BTP integration and continue testing BNB Smart Chain and Harmony integrations in ICON Bridge.
They write, “We are excited to continue working on bringing BTP and ICON Bridge to life in May.”
OK, we know what you’re going to say.
Yes, they said the exact same thing last month.
We even titled a post, “Bringing ICON Bridge to Life in April.”
However, there is reason to believe ICON Bridge really will go live this month.
You’ll recall upcoming DeFi game Wonder Game — the game formerly known as Wonderland — recently announced it would use ICON Bridge to facilitate cross-chain NFT minting between ICON and Harmony.
We also know that Wonder Game wants to launch its first NFT sale in early May using ICON Bridge. UPDATE: Wonder Game just posted this:
So, Wonder Game is saying you can use ICON Bridge to mint NFTs during pre-sale/public-sale on May 14 and 16.
Make of that what you will.
