The ICON Foundation, known for its work on the ICON Public Blockchain, has signed a strategic partnership (MOU) with the Japanese blockchain consulting firm LayerX (CEO Yoshinori Fukushima). This MOU aims to vitalize the ICON developer community in Japan as well as ensure the integrity of the ICON Network through a code audit alliance.
ICON and LayerX, will co-host hackathons, demo days, and conferences to increase the adoption of SCORE, ICON’s smart contract implementation environment. Also, both will cooperate to accelerate the expansion of global communities inside and outside of Japan.
Additionally, LayerX, also as a partner of ICX Station (global accelerator program sponsored by ICON), will increase the security level by providing code audit for the ICON platform and ICON DApps (Decentralized Applications).
ICON has been sponsoring and operating ICX Station, which is a global accelerator program established in major cities including Seoul, San Francisco, and Singapore. ICON has strived to expand its ecosystem and support promising DApps through various partnerships. In May 2018, ICON also co-founded the joint venture ‘Unchain’ with Line Plus, and has been working to create synergies in structuring Line’s blockchain Mainnet and DApp services.
LayerX was founded in August as a joint venture between news curation app, Gunosy, and advisory service, AnyPay. It is Japan’s leading blockchain company and provides blockchain related services, including services such as integration for enterprise, smart contract audit, consulting and R&D.
Yoshinori Fukushima, CEO of LayerX said: “LayerX is very excited to form a partnership with the ICON Foundation, which has achieved an impressive track record in the blockchain industry. ICON’s core engine, ‘loopchain’, has been used to develop a blockchain authentication system, and is already adopted by major securities firms and insurance industry. We expect it to be utilized in Japan as well, and we will support ICON’s activities in Japan on the technical front.”
Jonghyup Kim (JH Kim), council member of the ICON Foundation, said: “ICON Foundation is pleased to cooperate with LayerX, a leading company with technological capabilities in Japan. Through our partnership with LayerX, we expect various ICON DApp services to further expand their global presence based on the linkage between public blockchain and enterprise blockchain in the future.”
ICON launched in 2017 as a global interchain project. It aims to connect diverse blockchain communities and has been providing an optimized environment for DApp development and implementation. Developers can not only use the open source code and its dedicated developer portal, but also can utilize the ICON Development Network to establish their own TestNet on AWS Cloud. ICON plans to expand its blockchain ecosystem by developing actual business models and services based on loopchain technology, bringing its one step closer to mass adoption of blockchain technology in the real world.