South Korea’s ICON (ICX) blockchain project has released details of its ongoing grant program designed to support initiatives that will benefit the network. Set to be a monthly series of updates, the reports will provide information on any new approved grants and updates on existing beneficiaries progress.
As well as providing a comprehensive list of the grants already approved in 2020, ICON have restated their assessment framework and review processes for anyone who wishes to apply for future funding.
Enhancing the Ecosystem
ICON – who perhaps best encapsulated the initial coin offering (ICO) crowdfunding model during the bull run year of 2017 – have made a number of enhancements to their ecosystem over the last 6 months and the new grant reports will bring extra transparency to the building blocks still being formed.
Each request for grant funding is subjected to a proposal review that evaluates a number of key areas. These range from broad considerations such as will the initiative “benefit the ICON Network and/or community” to more specific concerns like “are the deliverables and milestones verifiable and tangible?”
Applications are welcome from any area of the ICON ecosystem, including projects relating to education, infrastructure, DApps, community and service provision. Approved grants are paid in the ICX token and vary in the amount awarded depending on the perceived benefit and scale of the application.
In the first few months of 2020, ICON report the following data:
- January: 9 applications received and 2 approved
- February: 13 applications received and 4 approved
- March: Currently ongoing – 2 approved to date
One of January’s cohort, Devblockchain.tech, are scheduled to launch their educational platform at the end of this month and according to ICON will have benefited from 245,000 ICX tokens split over 3 instalments since being accepted into the program.
