What is Internet Computer (ICP)? Internet Computer is a public, smart contract-capable mainnet blockchain on which developers can construct things like decentralized applications (DApps) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The project's coin, Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), plays various roles within the Internet Computer blockchain's ecosystem.
How does Internet Computer (ICP) work?
The Internet Computer blockchain is touted as being a highly scalable blockchain capable of fully keeping up with present-day internet activity. The Internet Computer blockchain has an on-chain governing entity called the Network Nervous System (NNS). The Internet Computer's scalability stems in part from its ability to spread the workload among subnet blockchains, as dictated by the NNS.
The Internet Computer blockchain depends on the Internet Computer Consensus (ICC), its consensus mechanism, for blocks on the mainnet.
The Internet Computer blockchain mainnet went live in 2021. The Dfinity Foundation, a not-for-profit entity established in 2016, is in charge of the Internet Computer blockchain's supporting technology. The Dfinity Foundation has more than 200 people on its team and multiple research centers. The foundation envisions a future heavily based on blockchain and smart contracts.
The ICP cryptocurrency
The Internet Computer blockchain's native asset, ICP, serves multiple purposes in the Internet Computer ecosystem. For example, governance proposals and votes are wagered by “neurons,” which must hold a specified locked sum of ICP. For the ICP crypto's price today in U.S. dollars (USD), see the top of the page, which includes an ICP to USD live price, above the ICP crypto chart.
