Bitcoin Forum

Alert: We're not very optimistic about ICON ICO (ICX) prices going very high (over 5x after ICO in the short run) because of its Bancor protocol price-stabilization" [read: no returns, investors leave, price plummets].

https://www.reddit.com/r/Crypto_ICO_Investing/comments/721psk/not_buying_icon_icx_why_bancor_formula_sucks_for/?ref=share&ref_source=link

This is unfortunate, because we really liked the company and project, otherwise ("The Korean NEO, SWIFT partner, biz focused, etc")

ICON WhitePaper, page 18:

"While stable prices make sense for inter-blockchain business operations, it's not so good for investors, who see the price not going up fast, so they exodus, and price dumps.

"As a blockchain network that links multiple blockchains with their own unique governance, ICON provides DEX based on ICX. It enables transactions among different cryptocurrencies by determining the exchange rate through Reserve based on the Bancor Protocol18.

For transactions between ETH and ICX, DEX can be comprised of nodes with voting rights to Reserve Smart Contracts within Ethereum and ICON. In this case, the price of ICX is determined according to the following equation:

𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝐵𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 × 𝐼𝐶𝑋𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 × 𝐼𝐶𝑋𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒
𝐼𝐶𝑋𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 = 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝐵𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 × 𝐼𝐶𝑋𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

If one purchases ICX with ETH via DEX, the Reserve Balance composed of ETH increases and the ICX Volume decreases, resulting in an increase in the ICX Price. Conversely, buying ETH with ICX reduces the Reserve Balance and increases the ICX Volume, resulting in a decrease in the ICX Price. Please
refer to the Formulas for Bancor system19 for the details on the purchase price and ICX token number calculation.

If ICX is listed and traded on another exchange, its value at the corresponding exchange and the value at ICON DEX may be different. In this case, arbitrage transactions which lead to ETH inflow and exchange will take place, thereby resulting in similar price levels of ICX."

http://docs.icon.foundation/ICON-Whitepaper-EN-Draft.pdf

Hard to justify doing an ICO using the Bancor stack, despite it being an ingenious product.

Bancor's problem wasn't price stabilization; it was the fact it raised $150m in the ICO.  There was nowhere for it to go but down.

Current price estimation https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/icon/ shows that ICX is doing quite good over the short run.

Here's a step by step guide to setting up a wallet and buying ICON tokens: https://getcrypto.info/icon/