ICON Development Roadmap Update — September 2021

We are now closer than ever to achieving the ICON 2.0 mainnet upgrade. Additional tests are being run to err on the side of caution, but the migration process has already thoroughly been tested on local networks and we are now in close communication with nodes and exchanges regarding details of migration procedure. Our aim is to launch the mainnet by the end of October, which will occur through a network proposal. This will mark the start of the ICON 2.0 era.

The exact block height for the transition will be set according to the network migration progress. Please stay tuned for more information.

BTP Ecosystem

This month we continue to integrate BSC to the Nexus portal. We have completed a custom token transfer from ICON to BSC. We are wrapping up BSC to ICON custom token transfer currently. We have also completed native token transfer contracts and these scenarios will be integrated to the portal shortly as well.

Additionally, we are also starting to stage the Nexus portal to a live network. The BTP smart contracts will first be deployed onto the BTP testnet (https://icondev.io/introduction/the-icon-network/testnet#btp). This is based on the latest goloop engine, the same engine that will be used in ICON 2.0. We will be testing these contracts against MoonBase (MoonRiver testnet) and the BSC custom node. Next we will be migrating the network to the official ICON 2.0 mainnet, MoonRiver on Kusama, and BSC mainnet.

Near Protocol is also close to the finish line. We have started unit and integration testing. We will try to have as much test coverage as possible and conduct proper code review. We are also bringing this integration to the Nexus portal right after.

As mentioned last month, we are talking to several potential BTP partners, and we expect several more networks to join the BTP ecosystem. One thing also worth mentioning is that we’re starting to receive inquiries about BTP integration from other blockchains, voluntarily. This is how we foresee the network should be run. We at ICON will architect BTP and build out the first iterations for the core modules. Future partners should be able to extend on this base architecture and code references to build their chain specific solutions.

ICE Blockchain

We are all getting very excited about the path forward for the ICE Network including ramping up community activities and ecosystem expansion ahead of the launch. October should be a busier month from a communications perspective, and will likely include much anticipated information around the launch. We will share those details as soon as possible. Please stay tuned.