ICON operates utilising the Loopchain distributed ledger. Here, blockchains of different communities are connected to the central Blockchain of the ICON Republic called the ‘Nexus’ which then connects all of these blockchains to each other. The native token of ICON Republic is ICX which can be used to utilize the resources on the ICON network, build or use dApps, convert one token to another using the ICX DEX (ICX based Decentralised Exchange), as incentives to Community Representatives (C-reps), and to invest in ICOs launched on the ICON platform. The C-reps determine how independent bockchains interact with the Nexus. This is called Blockchain Transmission Protocol (BTP).