INTERNET COMPUTER
Cycles / s 
Cycles / s

This is the rate at which cycles are being burned by the network.

Cycles are the digital fuel that powers computation on the network, and they disappear when consumed. When a user buys using a credit card, the payment provider purchases ICP tokens behind the scenes, converts them into cycles, and then charges up the user's hosted software or cloud engines.

1 trillion cycles is worth 1 XDR (known as a Special Drawing Right/SDR), a currency defined by the IMF. 1 XDR is worth about $1.44 USD.

Network market cap 
Network market cap

The network market cap is the number of ICP tokens multiplied by their price. Network users convert ICP tokens into cycles that are burned and disappear (deflation), and they are generated by the network to remunerate node providers operating nodes, and by some participants in network governance (inflation).

ICP tokens exist within network protocol, and enable it to create a network economy without central points of failure.

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§ Wiki · Topic12 entries

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  • May 4, 2026·4 min

    Validation of Candidate Node Machines

    How prospective node operators check whether their planned machines actually improve network decentralization, using the community optimization model and the IC target topology.

  • May 4, 2026·3 min

    Troubleshooting Failed NNS Proposals

    What to do when a Network Nervous System proposal you submitted as a node provider fails to validate or fails to adopt.

  • May 4, 2026·2 min

    Reward Configuration Guide

    How a node provider submits the reward configuration proposal that registers their nodes with the Network Nervous System and starts the reward stream.

  • May 4, 2026·5 min

    Proof of Useful Work

    The Internet Computer's membership and consensus model — dedicated standardised hardware doing real computation, governed by the NNS, instead of hashing or pure stake.

  • May 4, 2026·4 min

    Performance-based Rewards

    How the Performance-based Rewards (PBR) v1 schedule scales monthly node rewards according to block-maker failure rates relative to subnet baseline.

  • May 4, 2026·2 min

    Node Provider Self-declaration

    The identity declaration and good-faith statement a prospective node provider files before the NNS votes on their onboarding proposal.

  • May 4, 2026·4 min

    Node Provider Roadmap

    The end-to-end path to becoming a node provider on the Internet Computer, organized as six milestones from education through ongoing node management.

  • May 4, 2026·9 min

    Node Provider Remuneration

    How node providers are paid — the minting cadence, the XDR conversion, and the reward tables for each hardware generation and geography.

  • May 4, 2026·5 min

    Node Provider Onboarding

    The technical procedure for becoming an accepted node provider on the Internet Computer, from tool installation through NNS proposal and node operator records.

  • May 4, 2026·6 min

    Node Provider Documentation

    How independent operators run the hardware that hosts the Internet Computer — the role, the current onboarding status, the lifecycle from proposal to operation, and the rewards.

  • May 4, 2026·4 min

    Changing the Node Provider or Data-Center Principal

    NNS proposal procedures for replacing a lost or transferred node provider principal, replacing a corrupted node operator HSM, and updating data-center principal records.

  • May 4, 2026·3 min

    Adding Additional Node Machines to an Existing Allowance

    How an existing node provider with unused allowance brings additional node machines onto the network without going through the full onboarding flow.

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