South Korean Blockchain project Icon has announced the launch of ‘Fee 2.0’, a new transaction fee system that allows users to access Icon’s Dapp (decentralized application) services without paying transaction fees. The announcement came in an official statement from the company shared with Finance Magnates on July 15.
Previous to the launch of Fee 2.0, Icon dapp users were required to pay fees in cryptocurrency from the moment they began using a dapp’s services. On a practical level, this meant that only users with a certain amount of cryptocurrency were able to access a dapp built on the Icon network, to begin with.
We are pleased to announce that MainNet update is completed today to support Fee 2.0 system. Now ICONists can use virtual step on ICON MainNet.
Read about two main feature, Fee Sharing and Virtual Step;https://t.co/u77oM4GdLT — ICON (@helloiconworld) July 15, 2019
According to Min Kim, Council Member of the ICON Foundation, the update was launched with the intention to create an environment in which “more DApps will be actively operated and used and the expansion of the ICON's DApp ecosystem will be realized.”
Dapp Creators Have the Option to Pay for their Users
But just because dapp users don’t have to pay transaction fees anymore doesn’t mean that they must no longer be paid--it’s just that the newest version of the network makes it possible for others to pay them. Indeed, Fee 2.0’s “Fee Sharing” feature makes it possible for dapp operators to pay the transaction fees on behalf of the dapp users.
If dapp operators may not have enough money to foot the bill for their users right away, Icon has also launched a “Virtual Step” program in which dapp operators pay their dues with funds raised through the process of staking ICX: dapp operators must deposit ICX tokens into their dapps’ smart contracts for a certain period of time in order to earn their Virtual Steps.
“Virtual Step is generated every month in proportion with the quantity of ICX deposited and the duration of the deposit,” the announcement explains.
Are Dapps Becoming More Popular?
While it’s unclear whether or not Fee 2.0 will unlock greater usage of Icon’s dapp network, there growing evidence that dapps are becoming more popular across the industry.
Most recently, this was evidenced by two events: Waves' entry into the dapp sphere, and Samsung’s creation of a software development kit for dapps last week.
“Samsung Blockchain SDK is available to communicate with external blockchain node providing payment solution,” a Samsung official said to Developer-Tech.com. “It can reduce costs to build your dApp except in case if you have your own wallet logics already.”
The Samsung Blockchain SDK has launched! ☄️
Learn more here → https://t.co/EGwYTKTjGU#Samsung #SamsungBlockchain #Blockchain #Cryptocurrency #DApp #OpenAPI #SoftwareDevelopmentKit #SDK #SamsungBlockchainService #SamsungBlockchainKeystore #SamsungDevelopers pic.twitter.com/FpbLIIg6PX — SAMSUNG DEVELOPERS (@samsung_dev) July 4, 2019
