Already being dubbed the “Ethereum of Korea”, the ICON (ICX) project is a smart contract protocol that wants to “Hyperconnect the World”. ICON aims to build an ecosystem of different blockchains in varying industries and communities, and in the process remove the need for expensive intermediaries. Over time, this should build up into a vast interconnected network, while being both faster and cheaper to manage than traditional iterations. In essence, ICON will allow smart contracts to interact across blockchains by being managed by a higher-level smart contract, based on so-called loopchain technology, as illustrated below.