Reimagine Everything Using Smart Contracts at Internet Scale
Map courtesy of dfinityexplorer.org
The Internet Computer Association (ICA) is a Geneva-based independent members organization that advocates for the Internet Computer network while supporting and coordinating ecosystem participants.
Expanding the Superpowers of the Internet
The internet is a public network that connects everybody and everything. The Internet Computer extends the public internet so that it can also host smart contracts.
The Internet Computer is a public blockchain that hosts smart contracts that run at web speed, can serve web from cyberspace, run efficiently, and can scale within an environment that has unbounded capacity. Smart contracts are a profoundly new and superior form of tamperproof and unstoppable software. They can imbue systems and services with new properties, enabling the reimagination of websites, systems, internet services and finance.
The Public Internet Can Now Host Humanity’s Websites, Services, and Financial Rails
By aggregating the compute capacity of special node machines run by independent parties in independent data centers around the world into a single decentralized world computer, the Internet Computer creates a vast and unlimited virtual machine.
This virtual machine provides a seamless environment in which an advanced new form of smart contracts can be run. Smart contracts are tamperproof, unstoppable, and can plug into any other contracts within a seamless environment providing for infinite composability and network effects. These smart contracts can run automomously and process values, like data using tokens, among many powerful differences from traditional software. On the Internet Computer, they now run at web speed, serve web, and can scale without bounds.
Using smart contracts on the Internet Computer, you can reimagine websites, enterprise systems, mass-market internet services, finance and much more in revolutionary ways — for example, imagine tokenized social media that creates viral growth flywheels, where the users are owners, and which are managed and run transparently.
Similar to the internet, there is no centralized entity controlling the Internet Computer. It is a truly decentralized public utility governed by the community.
“When you look back on every decade in tech, there’s one thing that really dominated. I think [the Internet Computer] will be the one in this next decade... I think you should take a hard look at this space. Because we’re not only changing the platform on what you build, but we’re changing what you can build. It’s a new kind of platform.”
A Paradigm Shift Made Possible Using Blockchain
The Internet Computer Protocol has leveraged novel computer science and cryptography techniques to create a completely unbounded blockchain that can run at web speed and scale without limits. This represents the biggest jump in innovation in the blockchain ecosystem since the launch of Ethereum.
2009
Cryptocurrency
1st Invention
Playing the role of
digital gold
2015
Smart Contracts
2nd Invention
Powering the DeFi
Movement
2021
Infinite Blockchain
3rd Invention
Reimagine how you
build everything
The Next Generation of Internet Services Will Be Built on the Internet Computer
Venture funds have earmarked billions of dollars to invest in open internet projects.
The world’s most popular social apps, e-commerce sites, DeFi platforms, and even enterprise systems can all be reimagined as truly open and decentralized services on the Internet Computer. A decentralized architecture for your application enables otherwise impossible features like community-driven autonomous governance and tokenization. Decentralized open internet services enabled by the Internet Computer present one of the greatest opportunities of our time.
Some of the Sharpest Minds Previously at World-Leading Institutions Are Contributing to the Internet Computer
We Invite You to Join Us
in Building the Future of the Internet
The independent members of the Internet Computer Association (ICA) together create an Internet Computer ecosystem with the highest possible levels of integrity.
Members consist of geographically distributed and diverse businesses and nonprofit organizations, including data centers and node providers, startups building decentralized services and their investors, participants in decentralized finance, enterprises migrating to the open internet, universities and research organizatons, educators and many others. The ICA continues to welcome new members that support its mission of stewarding the adoption of the Internet Computer.
ICA Charter
Governance
To provide governance of the Internet Computer via an independent, global community of members.
Security and Privacy
To provide the Internet Computer the highest levels of security and privacy available in any decentralized blockchain systems.
Certification and Compliance
To provide infrastructure architecture and definition, certification and compliance, including data centers, networks and systems.
Transparency
To provide transparency and auditability of ICP token economics.
Integrity
To provide Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) assurance and integrity in source and completeness.
Key Member Responsibilities
Data Center Governance
Issue Data Center IDs (DCIDs)
Developer Grants
Issue grants to developers to build software on the Internet Computer for the public good
Stewardship
Steward the Internet Computer ecosystem
The Internet Computer Ecosystem
The Internet Computer brings together a thriving ecosystem of community contributors that are relentlessly working to drive its adoption.
From data centers hosting node machines to node providers and funding partners funding the node machines, through developers building applications to the educators teaching about the Internet Computer — all are unified with a common mission.
Jump to
Data Centers
The Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) makes it possible for thousands of independent node operators and data centers around the globe to contribute millions of node machines to the network.
Data center operators can generate standard co-location fees with minimal risk, and can significantly scale their revenue with the growth of the Internet Computer.
Partial list of data centers working with the Internet Computer:
Do you run a data center?Learn how you can contribute
Node Operators
Tens of millions of dollars have already been deployed by independent parties to install node machines that form the physical layer of the Internet Computer.
Node providers are entities and individuals who purchase, install and operate specialized node machines in exchange for rewards from the decentralized network, paid in month cash-equivalent payments of ICP governance tokens
Interested in running a node?Learn how you can contribute
Researchers
Many leading research organizations and individual researchers and engineers from fields such as distributed computing, cryptography, virtual machines and language design are contributing to the development of the Internet Computer
One such institution is the DFINITY Foundation, a Swiss not-for-profit that is dedicated solely to the research and development of the Internet Computer. The DFINITY Foundation is funded by billions of dollars in endowment funds and has R&D centers in Zurich, San Francisco, Palo Alto and Tokyo, with remote teams in places such as Germany and the UK. The foundation has assembled a stellar team of nearly 200 from academia, the cryptoverse, and leading technology institutions.
Meet some of the researchers working on the Internet Computer Protocol
Jan Camenisch
Cryptography
Andreas Rossberg
WebAssembly
Yvonne-Anne Pignolet
Distributed Systems
Jens Groth
Cryptography
Victor Shoup
Cryptography
Lara Schmid
Information Security
David Derler
Distributed Systems
Andrea Cerulli
Cryptography
Developers
Some of the world’s most popular social apps, e-commerce sites, DeFi platforms, and even enterprise systems are all being reimagined as truly open and decentralized services on the Internet Computer.
OpenChat
Build decentralized social media platforms that can be accessed from any device. You can reward and incentivize users through tokenization, as well as foster collective moderation. Blockchain unlocks a new set of features that promote virality and incentivize users to keep coming back.
OpenChat Technical Demo
CanCan
CanCan is a decentralized video-based social media platform that leverages tokenized governance. CanCan introduces the idea of convertible “reward points” that users can earn in various ways and exchange for governance tokens. CanCan has incentivized, community-powered moderation embedded directly into the application, rewarding users when their favorite creators go viral.
CanCan on Github
Origyn
Origyn is the first pan-industry platform built on the Internet Computer, unlocking new forms of value and collaboration across the luxury goods industry. Origyn supports the creation of digital twins that carry unique biometric signatures that are verified using the Internet Computer. As featured in Forbes and The New York Times, Origyn combines unique digital signatures, tokenized governance, and physical luxury goods, pioneering development across industries.
Origyn.chToken Holders
The Internet Computer is governed by the Network Nervous System (NNS). The token holders can submit proposals to the NNS suggesting changes to the Internet Computer network. Token holders can vote on the different proposals and receive rewards from the NNS for participating in the decentralized governance of the Internet Computer network.
Learn how you can contributeLearn how you can contribute