Impossible Cloud Network: The Foundational Layer for the Next Generation Internet

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Jul 4, 2025MEXC

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Key Highlights:

1) Impossible Cloud Network (ICN) is a decentralized cloud service platform aiming to build a Web3 infrastructure capable of replacing traditional cloud systems.

2) ICN currently offers object storage services compatible with the S3 protocol and plans to expand into CDN, computing, and database modules.

3) ICN integrates resource incentives, network governance, and stable payments through its native token, ICNT.

4) The ICN network is maintained by global nodes. Users can contribute storage resources in exchange for token rewards, ensuring high data security and full on-chain auditability.

5) ICN is considered one of the most promising infrastructure innovators in the DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) space.

The current Web3 ecosystem urgently needs a native infrastructure layer to build and operate on. Existing solutions are not yet Web3-ready, forcing many protocols and projects to run on Web2 cloud services, exposing them to the very centralization risks that Web3 aims to eliminate. At the same time, the current cloud services market faces numerous challenges, including centralization, high costs, vendor lock-in, and data security concerns. Impossible Cloud Network (ICN) offers a decentralized solution built on blockchain and Web3 technologies to address these issues.

ICN aims to redefine how we interact with the internet by leveraging the power of a decentralized ecosystem to build an open cloud. The ICN protocol breaks through the scalability limitations of traditional cloud infrastructure and unlocks boundless innovation at the application layer through a deep, permissionless network of hardware contributors. In doing so, ICN addresses many of the inherent challenges in conventional cloud models, such as high operating costs, security vulnerabilities, and inefficiencies.

1. What is Impossible Cloud Network (ICN)?

Impossible Cloud Network (ICN) is building the foundational layer of the next-generation internet, challenging the dominance of centralized tech giants. Unlike isolated DePIN projects, ICN offers a fully open, composable, and permissionless decentralized cloud infrastructure that integrates storage, computing, and networking to support large-scale applications.

1) Hardware Providers (HPs), Service Providers (SPs), and SLA Oracle Nodes work collaboratively to enhance the integrity and reliability of the network.

2) The Impossible Cloud Network Protocol (ICNP) governs ecosystem operations through a token-based economic system, incentivizing contributors and ensuring efficient resource allocation.

3) The ICNT token is used to reward hardware providers and SLA oracle nodes, grant service providers access to network resources, and support network stability through staking mechanisms.

By advancing both technological and economic efficiency, ICN aims to accelerate the adoption of fully decentralized cloud services, offering a flexible, low-cost, and secure alternative to centralized cloud solutions. The project has received backing from prominent investors including 1kx, Protocol Labs, HV Capital, and NGP Capital. Positioned to become the foundational layer of the future internet, ICN is poised to power the next wave of cloud computing, AI agents, enterprise software, and digital ecosystems.

2. ICN Tokenomics

ICNT is the native digital asset of the Impossible Cloud Network (ICN). As the fundamental unit of value within the ecosystem, ICNT plays a central role in enabling service access, incentivizing contributors, and facilitating various network interactions.

ICNT is widely used across the network for accessing resources, rewarding participants, and ensuring security. What sets it apart is its direct connection to a rapidly growing B2B commercial ecosystem. The total supply of ICNT is capped at 700 million tokens.

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2.1 ICNT Token Allocation Details

Category	Amount (ICNT)	Percentage	Description
Network Node Incentives	140.0M	20.0%	HyperNodes and delegated staking mechanisms play a vital role in securing the network, ensuring integrity, and supporting ecosystem growth. Rewards are distributed to HyperNodes based on their contributions.
Cloud Service Developers	37.8M	5.4%	Allocated to reward cloud service developers for their early-stage contributions to the project.
Partners	77.0M	11.0%	Used to initiate foundational ecosystem development, including community activation and early user incentives.
Investors	150.5M	21.5%	Distributed to investors who participated in previous funding rounds.
Ecosystem Development	70.0M	10.0%	Supports ICN's long-term growth through ecosystem funds, partnerships, and other development initiatives.
Network Expansion	70.0M	10.0%	Used to incentivize participation and promote widespread service deployment across providers and regions, helping to build a robust ecosystem.
Core Team	154.7M	22.1%	Allocated to the ICN founders, current and future team members, with specific vesting schedules determined by individual contracts.

2.2 ICNT Token Vesting Schedule

Category	Amount (ICNT)	Percentage	Description
Network Node Incentives	21.0M	15%	Fully unlocked at TGE
	119.0M	85%	Vested over 48 months with a declining monthly unlock schedule
Cloud Service Developers	18.9M	50%	Fully unlocked at TGE
	18.9M	50%	Vested linearly over 24 months (~1.0 M per month)
Partners	38.5M	50%	Fully unlocked at TGE
	38.5M	50%	Vested linearly over 36 months (~1.0 M per month)
Investors	150.5M	100%	12-month cliff (0% unlocked), then vested linearly over 24 months (~6.27 M per month)
Ecosystem Development	35.0M	50%	Fully unlocked at TGE
	35.0M	50%	Vested linearly over 24 months (~1.5 M per month)
Network Expansion	70.0M	100%	Fully unlocked at TGE
Core Team	133.0M	86%	12-month cliff (0% unlocked), then vested linearly over 24 months
	21.7M	14%	Vested over 36 months: 7.2 M (33%) unlocked after 12 months; remaining 14.5 M (67%) vested linearly over the following 24 months

3. ICN's Unique Features

Unlimited Scalability: AI and cloud-computing demand continues to grow, yet traditional cloud services are nearing their scalability limits. They struggle to support dynamic expansion and deter new entrants. The internet needs an infrastructure layer that can evolve with the digital era.

Unrestricted Cloud: Today's internet is dominated by a handful of large providers, limiting opportunities for individuals and businesses to participate in AI and cloud-computing growth. By leveraging Web3 principles, ICN delivers greater trustlessness, data integrity, and accessibility.

Networks Without Sustainable Demand: Many Web3 projects struggle to maintain their networks without a viable path to profitability. ICN introduces a decentralized, market-driven model that adjusts dynamically to ecosystem needs, enabling sustainable growth and economic opportunity.

By uniting hardware providers and developers worldwide, ICN creates a transparent, open, crypto-native ecosystem that fully decentralizes cloud infrastructure. This model empowers protocols and enterprises to access top-tier compute and storage resources without the constraints of legacy cloud, ensuring scalability, security, and high performance while preserving modular composability and user choice.

4. How ICN Works

At its core is the ICN Protocol (ICNP), which serves as the bridge between hardware and software to enable efficient resource flow and seamless collaboration. Hardware providers contribute compute resources such as storage, GPUs, and CPUs, while developers build and deliver cloud services on this infrastructure. Through its decentralized coordination mechanism, ICNP facilitates efficient interactions among these roles, ensuring optimal resource allocation and high-performance network operations.

5. Advantages of ICN

With ICN, project teams can achieve the following:

Deploy genuine Web3 protocols: Build infrastructure based on native Web3 architecture, ensuring both high performance and robust security. Superior performance: Leverage decentralized architecture to enable fair resource allocation and optimize overall system performance. Secure and reliable: Rely on a globally distributed network to eliminate single points of failure and enhance the system's stability and resilience.

6. How Regular Users Can Participate in the ICN Network

The simplest way to engage with the ICN ecosystem and its network economy is by staking your assets into the protocol. Users can stake ICNL (ICN Link) or ICNT across different components of the system to earn corresponding rewards. Beyond generating yield, staking also plays a critical role in securing key network nodes and maintaining the quality of services.

There are two main areas where users can stake and earn rewards:

HyperNode Network: Secures the operational integrity of the ICN Protocol.

ScalerNode Network: A decentralized layer of hardware nodes that provide storage and compute services.

6.1 Staking ICNL to HyperNodes

By staking ICNL to the HyperNode network, you can earn rewards based on the validation work performed by the selected node. As long as your chosen HyperNode fulfills its duties properly, you will continue receiving rewards. However, if the node misbehaves or fails to perform its responsibilities, it will be subject to penalties, including slashing of staked assets.

Due to gas limits on the blockchain, each staking transaction is limited to a maximum of 100 ICNL. If you wish to stake more than 100 ICNL, you will need to submit multiple transactions. These multiple stakes will be bundled and managed as a single unit until they are unstaked.

Note: ICN Link (ICNL) is an ERC-721 NFT token and serves as a core component for securing the ICN system.

6.2 Staking ICNL or ICNT to ScalerNodes

By staking to ScalerNodes, you earn rewards for helping collateralize and support the proper operation of the decentralized hardware network. ScalerNodes receive rewards for contributing functionality and resources to the ICNP protocol, while stakers earn a portion of these rewards by providing liquidity for each node's collateral requirements.

In addition, because ScalerNodes are allocated to builders who reserve them, these nodes earn additional rewards based on their actual hardware utilization within the network. Stakers also receive a share of this additional yield, as their collateral supports the node's ability to deliver services. If a ScalerNode remains offline for an extended period or consistently underperforms below defined thresholds, the ICNT staked by the associated hardware provider (HP) will be subject to slashing.

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ICN is not just a cloud platform, but a transformative step toward a truly open, community-driven cloud ecosystem. It is built to support the most demanding workloads of the future, with a focus on advanced services such as GPU computing for AI and edge data processing, leading the next wave of cloud computing innovation. ICN is a network that grows together with its users, leveraging the power of a global community to build a next-generation cloud infrastructure that is open to all, scalable, and sustainable.

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