Internet Computer

The Internet Computer is a blockchain network designed to run complete software systems on chain rather than only settling transactions. Applications deployed to it, including their front ends, data, and business logic, are served directly from the network, so a user can load a website from the blockchain itself without a conventional cloud backend.

The protocol was developed by the DFINITY Foundation over several years of research and launched its mainnet in May 2021. Its architecture divides the network into subnets, each a set of independent node machines running the same computation and reaching agreement through threshold cryptography. Smart contracts are called canisters and can hold both code and state, respond to HTTP requests, and pay for their own compute through a reverse gas model where the developer, not the user, funds execution.

Consensus and token mechanics

Nodes are operated by independent providers across different data centers and jurisdictions, and the Network Nervous System, an on-chain governance system, decides which nodes join which subnets, when protocol upgrades ship, and how rewards are paid. ICP holders participate by locking tokens into neurons, where longer lock-up periods carry greater voting weight and higher rewards.

ICP has no fixed maximum supply. New tokens are minted to pay node providers and voting rewards, while ICP is burned when it is converted into cycles, the unit used to pay for computation. Net supply change therefore depends on the balance between reward issuance and compute demand.

Position in the ecosystem

The network markets itself as sovereign cloud infrastructure, with an emphasis on running AI and agent workloads under tamperproof guarantees. It also supports chain-key signing, which lets canisters hold and sign for assets on other chains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without a traditional bridge.