A fast introduction to the Internet Computer
A Fast Introduction to the Internet Computer (ICP)
What is the Internet Computer (ICP)?
The Internet Computer is an open-source crowd computing platform built by the DFINITY Foundation that is designed to address some of the major challenges faced today with the traditional internet of today — such as poor system security, monopolization of internet services and misuse of personal user data.
It is set out to build a modern internet capable of hosting practically any scale of application — ranging from simple smart contracts and DeFi applications to pan-industry platforms and enterprise systems. The system is theoretically capable of hosting “all of humanity’s software logic and data in smart contracts.”
It also represents the third major blockchain innovation, alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum — a blockchain computer that scales smart contract computation and data, runs them at web speed, processes and stores data efficiently, and provides powerful software frameworks to developers.
Who Is the Founder of the Internet Computer?
Dominic Williams is the Founder and Chief Scientist of DFINITY. He is a crypto theoretician, responsible for inventing Threshold Relay, Probabilistic Slot Consensus, and other novel crypto techniques, serial entrepreneur, and early member of the Bitcoin and Ethereum technical communities. Previously, he was President and CTO of String Labs, an incubator for venture-backed crypto projects, early pioneer of DeFi at Mirror Labs, and Founder and CEO of Fight My Monster, a MMO game for children that scaled to millions of users. He also founded several startups such as System7, Airdocs and Smartdrivez. Graduated King’s College London 1st in Class in Computer Science.
How fast is the Internet Computer?
Unlike other existing blockchain, the Internet Computer is the world’s first blockchain that runs at web speed with unbounded capacity (The Internet Computer is the world’s fastest public blockchain at 250k queries per second and 11,500 transaction per second, which is over 11 times faster than Solana — Mike Schwartz, Co-founder at ORIGYN Foundation).
What Does the ICP Token Do?
ICP are native utility tokens that play three key roles in the network:
Facilitating Network Governance: ICP tokens can be locked to create neurons that participate in network governance by voting, through which they can earn economic rewards.
Production of Cycles for Compute: ICP provides a source store of value that can be converted into cycles; which power computation in the role of fuel that is burned when it is used. The NNS converts ICP to cycles at a variable rate, so chosen to ensure users of the network can always create new cycles at approximately constant cost in real terms, such that the cost of acquiring fuel is predictable.
Rewarding Participants: The network mints new ICP to reward and incentivize those playing important roles that enable the network to function, including: a) the provision of voting rewards to those participating in governance, b) the provision of voting rewards; to those operating the node machines hosting the network, and c) other miscellaneous activities.
What Do Cycles Do?
Cycles power computation in the role of fuel. They also have a constant value over the long-term, which contrasts with ICP, whose value will naturally vary over time. Moreover, Cycles will be pegged to the SDR, which is a logical currency unit defined by the International Monetary Fund, and 1 SDR worth of ICP can be converted into exactly one trillion Cycles to power computation.
What Do Neurons Do?
A neuron locks a balance of ICP utility tokens and enables its owner to participate in network governance, through which they can earn voting rewards.
How Does the Internet Computer Network Nervous System Work for Voting?
The NNS works by receiving proposals and deciding to adopt or reject them based on voting activity by neurons; that network participants have created. Neurons are also used by participants to submit new proposals. After submission, proposals are either adopted or rejected, which can happen almost immediately or after some delay, depending on how the totality of neurons vote.
What Makes the Internet Computer Unique?
Unlike on competing platforms, the end user does not pay for the computational outputs of smart contracts (or canisters) on the Internet Computer. These canisters are pre-charged with “cycles’’ and instead pay for their own computations through something of a “reverse-gas” model.
This has several benefits. For one, users don’t have to own any cryptocurrencies to interact with the ICP — eliminating a significant barrier to entry. Users also don’t even need to know that the service they are interacting with is based on decentralized technologies, making the process a seamless experience to what they are accustomed to today.
Instead, data centers receive remuneration for their services in the form of ICP tokens. Some of these tokens are used to charge canisters with cycles. As the computational resource of the Internet Computer, cycles are gradually depleted with the use of each canister, and must be regularly replenished. The cost of each cycle will be set by the network’s governance system, and should tend towards a stable value over time.
This governance system, known as the Network Nervous System (NNS) was first revealed by the DFINITY Foundation in September 2020. The NNS is responsible for “controlling, configuring, and managing” the network. To participate in network governance, users will need to lock up ICP tokens for a given period of time. This process creates “Neurons” which entitle the user to voting on governance proposals to help shape the network and earn governance rewards
The Internet Computer is powered by a four-layered consensus mechanism based around Proof-of-Stake (POS). It consists of an identity layer, a random beacon layer, a blockchain layer and a notary layer. Together, these layers enable provable security and resistance to known attack vectors (like Sybil and 51% attack) while maintaining decentralization and ensuring the network can scale to support millions of participants.
What Are The Prominent Projects on The Internet Computer’s Ecosystem?
The Internet Computer launched with several high-profile entrepreneurs and applications being built on it. These include:
Social
Distrikt — A decentralized, professional social media network
OpenChat — An open version of your standard chat app that is not owned by a large tech corporation
DSCVR — An open version of Reddit
Infrastructure
Fleek — Allows easy building of open web sites and applications. 14,000 websites already running
Pan-Industry Platforms
Origyn — A pan-industry platform for tracking the provenance of luxury goods, starting with luxury watches
Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs)
Unlike other blockchain, NFTs on the Internet Computer have unique advantages over other NFTS because they are 100% on-chain. This means we can do generative image NFTs, create interactive games completely included in an NFT, mint a website as an NFT, or even accrue business revenue in an NFT. These are only possible because the NFTs are 100% on-chain — Bob Bodily, CPO at Toniq Labs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Internet Computer has proven to possess a distinguished characteristics that a blockchain should possess.
Also, with the evolution of web, web3 is fast emerging as the next big deal. Internet Computer will play a huge role in accommodating the majority of what web3 will be offering the world. We are still very early, as the world will be witnessing a digital renaissance.
References
https://coinmarket.com/alexandria/article/what-is-dfinity-icp