While many have come to know the vibrant DeFi ecosystem to largely live on Ethereum, that’s not to say that it’s potential has gone unnoticed by other smart contract platforms.
Early today, Block42 – a blockchain solution’s firm – shared their plans to roll out Liquid ICX, a new form of Icon’s native currency – ICX – tailored towards DeFi-like solutions.
We are excited to present our next project for the ICON ecosystem LICX which will be the base of our DeFi solutions. You can read a short article about it, for any more information reach out to us via our telegram group.https://t.co/fW3IarvEJD$ICX #ICX #ICONProject #Block42
— block42 (@block42_company) March 20, 2020
“We have decided to implement an IRC2 token called Liquid ICX (LICX) that will be the base of our DeFi solutions on the ICON network. LICX price will be pegged to ICX and there will always be a possibility to exchange the two in a decentralized way.”
Why Does This Matter?
While the exact use-cases for LICX are still largely unexplored, we’re assuming this version of ICX can be viewed in a similar light to wrapped Ether (WETH), an ERC20 version of ETH which allows for enhanced usage regard transferability and smart contract compatibility.
For those unfamiliar with why WETH is important, we’d like to highlight notable projects like Kyber Network, Maker and Set Protocol, all of which a flavour of Ether under the hood for a variety of DeFi uses.
Furthermore, DAOs like Moloch and MetaCartel use WETH to submit proposals – further signalling that something like LICX *could* unlock the potential for similar applications to be built on the Icon blockchain.
Why Should I Care?
Icon has long worked to garner a strong relationship with the Korean government, effectively creating a foundation for its citizens to confidently navigate to Icon-based tools and applications in a trust fashion.
Democracy Seoul : Blockchain-based Voting System
Seoul Metropolitan Government introduced blockchain-based voting system on its blockchain platform, #loopchain that is #ICONLOOP ’s self-developed blockchain engine.
eng subtitlehttps://t.co/ms874IX6Em pic.twitter.com/33Kht1ALFV
— mincircle (@mincircle6) March 16, 2020
With the start of DeFi-like initiatives like LICX, we hope to see interesting use cases emerge on other smart contracting platforms like Icon, including popular sectors like lending and DEX trading.
If one thing is for sure, Ethereum has long since established itself as the market leader for any and all DeFi activity.
We’re curious to watch different blockchains offer novel approaches to DeFi uses and are eager to see interoperability make it’s way to the ecosystem at large if novel demand arises.
In the meantime, we recommend keeping up with all things DeFi on Icon via the following page.
You can also join the Block42 Telegram here for more news on LICX.
Cooper is the Editor of DeFi Rate and an active contributor to leading DeFi media outlets like The Defiant, DeFi Pulse, and Bankless. He works with early-stage teams through Fire Eyes DAO to incubate governance models and grassroots community development. He is an ambassador to Set Protocol and an author of a weekly publication called Token Tuesdays. To stay up with Cooper, follow him on Twitter.