The Internet Computer blockchain incorporates a radical rethink of blockchain design, powered by innovations in cryptography. It provides the first “World Computer” blockchain that can be used to build almost any online system or service, including demanding web social media, without need for traditional IT such as cloud computing services. As such it can enable full end-to-end decentralization.
Imagine creating a group chat to organize your next vacation with friends, playing a social game, or interacting with photos and videos uploaded by your crush – social networks are now part of everyday life. However, they pose numerous privacy issues for users, share sensitive information with corporations, and often overwhelm users with advertisements. When you sign-up, you are asked to agree to general terms and conditions, but you cannot influence how your data is used, or what features the services provide.
Web3 has the potential to fundamentally update this old formula. A true World Computer can be used to build anything in a totally decentralized way, including demanding services like social networks. Whereas before blockchains could only be used to build web3 services in conjunction with traditional IT, such as cloud computing services, a World Computer blockchain makes it possible to build services that run entirely on blockchain. This makes it possible to assign control of these services to community DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations). These play the role of digital democracies in cypherspace that mediate the wishes of their online communities regarding economic matters, and how to update and configure the services.
In this new formula, users are becoming both owners of web3 services and also part of the team that runs them – for example by referring other users, to drive viral growth, or helping with important tasks such as content moderation. Because web3 services running on the blockchain under the control of a DAO are fully decentralized, just like a blockchain, they can also tokenize, just like a blockchain. For example, a web3 service might airdrop the DAO’s governance tokens to users that help out, or enable users to send satoshis with a chat message. The purpose of the Internet Computer blockchain is to add World Computer functionality to the public internet. On the Internet Computer, developers can build decentralized online systems and services entirely on the blockchain, without using centralized traditional IT.
Because the Internet Computer is a blockchain, developers build online systems and services using “smart contract” software. Using smart contracts in this application can provide game-changing advantages. For example, because smart contracts are tamperproof, just like the Bitcoin ledger, systems and services do not have to be protected by firewalls to keep the hackers out – solving for the increasing number of hacks afflicting business and society. Another advantage is that web3 services built on the Internet Computer can process tokens, and create new economic rails. For example, web3 can combine social media and DeFi, to produce SocialFi, such as a social network that is fully tokenized.
The Internet Computer provides “canister” smart contract functionality. These can do many new things, including serving interactive web experiences directly to users by processing HTTP requests, creating transactions that directly run on other blockchains using “Chain Key TX”, scaling without limit, and running with efficiency comparable to traditional IT, greatly reducing the harmful CO2 emissions caused by blockchain, and one day, the tech ecosystem generally.
Web3 developers can build DeFi, SocialFi, GameFi and metaverse services. They can process tokens on other blockchains, without bridges, using Chain Key TX. And they can full decentralize systems such as DeFi on Ethereum, by using the Internet Computer to create the interactive web experience, in place of centralized traditional IT, such as cloud computing services.
On the Internet Computer, canister smart contracts uniquely pay for their own computation using a “reverse gas” model. This means web3 users can create sessions with services, which can submit vast numbers of blockchain transactions, such as sending chat messages in a conversation, without requiring additional interaction from the user.
The Internet Computer supports a new blockchain authentication system called Internet Identity. This allows users to use their devices as cryptographic passwords, signing in to online services using the fingerprint sensor on their laptop or Face ID on their phone, as well as traditional devices like a Ledger wallet.
Because web3 services can be built 100% on the blockchain, they can be placed under the full control of community DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations), which perform all configurations and updates. Users can be made owners of online services, and part of the team that runs them.
The Internet Computer network is controlled by an advanced DAO that is integrated into its protocols, called the Network Nervous System, or NNS. This updates the replica (or “client”) software that runs on the dedicated node machines that host the blockchain on an almost weekly basis, driving the rapid evolution of the network.