An economic entity without an owner or controller.

The ICP token derives value from current and expected demand for internet cloud. Onchain apps are powered by cycles, a digital fuel created by transforming ICP — and burned by every computation, creating a deflationary pressure on supply.

The network mints new ICP to reward node providers, whose hardware hosts the network, and to reward participants in governance. That creates an inflationary pressure. Internet cloud is still a new paradigm, but the balance has already tipped deflationary several times. ICP is also used as a digital currency in its own right.

On traditional platforms, a transaction usually means sending cryptocurrency or executing a token swap — and it’s crafted in a wallet that includes a gas payment for the computation it will cause.

On the Internet Computer, every computation a hosted app performs is a transaction. A message sent inside a chat app is a transaction. Even serving a web asset is a transaction. These happen transparently — users can’t craft them themselves, and can’t attach payment.

ICP solves this with reverse gas: the onchain software that powers each app pays for its own computation from a balance of cycles, maintained like a built-in battery that can be recharged. The user never sees the meter.