DFINITY has released the alpha phase of the mainnet Mercury in December 2020. Internet computers will become part of the public Internet, and it is expected to release ICP tokens to holders in the first quarter of 2021.
Original Title: “An Important Step in Improving the Public Internet-Internet Computer “Main Network” and a 20-year Roadmap to Change the Track of Network Development”
Written by: DFINITY Foundation
On December 18, 2020, based on the milestone of Mercury, the DFINITY Foundation initially realized the decentralization of the main Internet computer network. This scientific achievement enables the Network Neural System (NNS) to carry thousands of independent data centers and data centers. Millions of special node machines.
Internet computers have expanded the functionality of the Internet from connecting billions of people (via the TCP/IP protocol) to providing a public computing platform (via the ICP protocol) for millions of developers and entrepreneurs, and created a revolution New ways to build websites, enterprise systems, pan-industry platforms, DeFi applications and open Internet services.
Similar to the birth of the ARPANET network in 1969, Internet computers were started by four nodes located at Stanford University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Santa Barbara, and University of Utah. The birth of the Internet computer network is based on seven independent data centers spread across the United States, Germany, and Switzerland, allowing the ICP protocol to weave together the nodes and their computing capabilities running in these secure and professionally managed data centers. Since the launch of Autonomous Network, Internet computers have created more than 400,000 blocks, and NNS (Network Neural System) is preparing to settle in 32 independent data centers by the end of the first quarter of 2021, and establish a settlement of 100 by the end of 2021. , The goal of entering thousands of independent data centers by 2030.
The Network Neural System (NNS) now controls the network of Internet computers and is responsible for coordinating the management tasks of maintaining the network, such as introducing new independent data centers and new node machines in existing data centers to increase the computing power of the network, and upgrade Node machine to update the network protocol and so on. Once the operating conditions of “Genesis” are triggered, in the first quarter of 2021, more than 50,000 ICP token holders will begin to participate in network governance.
The DFINITY Foundation is composed of world-class cryptographers, distributed systems and programming language experts and other accomplished team members. They have a total of nearly 100,000 academic citations and 200 patents. After four years of concentrated research and development and many breakthroughs in the fields of advanced cryptography and computer science, our team has finally built the first blockchain computer that runs at network speed but has unlimited capacity.
January 6, 2021, Palo Alto and Zurich-After years of in-depth research, development and breakthroughs in the field of advanced cryptography and computer science, December 18, 2020, based on the milestone of “Mercury”, DFINITY Fund The conference has initially realized the decentralization of the main network of Internet computers. This scientific achievement enables the network neural system (NNS), an algorithmic governance system, to carry thousands of independent data centers and millions of special node machines.
This means that the main network of Internet computers has now been born and is hosted by independent standardized node machines installed in independent data centers. These node machines are under the control of NNS-this has created the world’s first Internet speed The running blockchain can be expanded unlimitedly to host any number of smart contracts to calculate and store any amount of data. At the same time, the network is controlled by the open algorithmic governance system of NNS, thus ensuring that the Internet can return to its free and open source.
Internet computers have expanded the capabilities of the Internet from connecting billions of people (via the TCP/IP protocol) to providing a public computing platform for millions of developers and entrepreneurs (via the ICP protocol), and created a revolutionary new Ways to build websites, enterprise systems, pan-industry platforms, DeFi applications and open Internet services. Now, entrepreneurs, companies and government agencies can choose to deploy software and services directly on the public Internet, or continue to use proprietary and insecure servers controlled by technology giants.
Dominic Williams, the founder and chief scientist of the DFINITY Foundation, said: “The DFINITY Foundation was established to explore a big issue-the Internet is a decentralized network that connects everything, but whether its functions can also be extended to become Mankind builds the main computing platform for all information systems? In this regard, we are pursuing to build an “Internet computer” to expand the functions of the public Internet through advanced and novel blockchain networks, without using traditional technologies such as cloud services, databases or firewalls. Ultimately, the “Internet computer” allows entrepreneurs and developers to reimagine the way and content they wish to build. This is a brand new model that will change everything.
The Alpha phase of the Internet computer mainnet is officially released
Mercury is the last of the five milestones of Internet computers, representing that Internet computers will become a part of the public Internet, and ICP is used as a supplementary Internet protocol to TCP/IP.
On December 18, 2020, the main network started by executing the initial encryption setting routine. NNS then took over and is responsible for coordinating ongoing network management tasks, such as introducing new independent data centers and The new node machine is used to increase the computing power of the network, and the node machine is upgraded to update the network protocol.
Similar to the birth of the ARPANET network in 1969, Internet computers were started by four nodes located at Stanford University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Santa Barbara, and University of Utah. The birth of the Internet computer network is based on seven independent data centers spread across the United States, Germany, and Switzerland, allowing the ICP protocol to weave together the nodes and their computing capabilities running in these secure and professionally managed data centers. Since the launch of Autonomous Network, Internet computers have created more than 400,000 blocks, and NNS (Network Neural System) is preparing to settle in 32 independent data centers by the end of the first quarter of 2021, and establish a settlement of 100 by the end of 2021. , The goal of entering thousands of independent data centers by 2030.
The Holy Grail of Encrypted Currency-Chain Key Technology
One of the main dissatisfaction with blockchain is its lack of speed, and the biggest preconception is that its slow speed is intentional. The root of this thinking can be traced back to the first blockchain, Bitcoin, which takes an average of 30 to 60 minutes to complete a transaction. A few years later, Ethereum used an updated proof-of-work mechanism (POW) to speed up the processing speed, but these are far from the network speed required to achieve a satisfactory user experience.
Internet computers break these performance barriers by applying Chain Key technology, which enables Internet computers to complete transactions that modify the state of smart contracts (that is, update data hosted in cyberspace) within 1-2 seconds. Although this is a huge improvement, it is still not enough to allow blockchain developers to build a competitive user experience within a few milliseconds. Therefore, Internet computers divide the execution of smart contract functions into two different types, namely “update call” and “query call”. The update call is a call method that we are already familiar with. It takes 1-2 seconds to complete the execution, while the query call is different because any changes they make to the state (ie, the developer’s memory page on the WebAssembly container) are executed Will be discarded afterwards. Essentially, this allows query calls to be executed on the “edge” in milliseconds.
In the case of running an open version of Reddit on an Internet computer, when a user browses the forum, a custom view of the hosted content will be formulated by executing a query call and provided to the user’s web browser, and the query call is made to nearby nodes It only takes a few milliseconds to run, which provides an excellent user experience. However, when the user wishes to post occasionally or give incentive tokens to the poster, this will involve an update call and will take 1-2 seconds-this is a delay within the acceptable range, and may also be regarded as an Amazon (Amazon) Key payment, and preset credit card can be overwhelmed by the active implementation of payment smoothly.
Dominic Williams, founder and chief scientist of the DFINITY Foundation, said: “Internet computers are the third largest innovation in the blockchain field. The first innovation is Bitcoin, which introduced cryptocurrency and is now playing the role of digital gold. Second One innovation is Ethereum, which introduced smart contracts and is now driving the DeFi revolution. The third major innovation is the Internet computer, which is the first real blockchain computer, and it will reimagine how we use A block chain of seams and unlimited capacity is used to build everything. Within the Internet computer protocol, Chain Key technology makes this possible-a combination of dozens of computer science breakthroughs, such as Random Beacon , Probabilistic Slot Consensus (Probabilistic Slot Consensus,), Advanced Consensus Mechanism (Advanced Consensus Mechanism), Network Neural System (NNS), Subnets (Subnets), etc., making Internet computers the first Internet computer to run at network speeds and have unlimited capacity Blockchain computer.”
The Unfinished Road to Genesis
The Mercury milestone now puts Internet computers on a short distance to the final “Genesis” decentralization stage, which involves NNS releasing ICP functional tokens to holders in the form of voting neurons, and will trigger proposals in the process After opening, the opening time is expected to be in the first quarter of 2021. Once the demand for “Genesis” is triggered, more than 50,000 ICP functional token holders will begin to participate in network governance, or disband their voting neurons to release ICP functional tokens and convert them into Cycles for enhanced computing To maximize its purpose. However, in order for NNS to trigger “Genesis” on the basis of realizing the best interests of the Internet computer network, we must go through some barriers and steps, such as:
- DFINITY Foundation open source all relevant source codes to the public domain
- Publish technical and design information related to ICP, including a complete description of Chain Key encryption and Protocol Math
- Successfully passed other security audits and stress tests
- Release other technical features to enhance the developer experience
- Publish an end-to-end “open Internet service” sample dapp in the form of CanCan (the open version of TikTok) to help entrepreneurs further improve their projects
- Disseminate detailed information about the physical network of Internet computers and their participants
- Provide support services for third parties who wish to provide node machines or participate in network construction
- Provide detailed information about the newly formed Internet Computer Association.
Ninety Years Road Map: Change the network track for better
The DFINITY Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Zurich, Switzerland, responsible for overseeing research centers in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Tokyo and Zurich-many of the world’s top cryptographers, distributed systems and programming language experts are hired here. The team owns A total of nearly 100,000 academic citations and 200 patents, and focus on the establishment of advanced experimental technology to improve the public Internet.
At present, the DFINITY team is committed to building and maintaining Internet computers. The launch of the Internet computer public network marks the beginning of the 20-year “open Internet boom”, which aims to change the development trajectory of the network, from today’s proprietary technology, monopoly and closed The Internet is moving towards an open and fair future and returns us to the promise of programmable networks.
Internet computers are the first blockchain computers that can be expanded infinitely and run at network speeds. The DFINITY Foundation aims to continuously improve technology to adapt to the exponential growth of the “open Internet boom”.
In 5 years, everyone will understand the open network services provided by DeFi applications and Internet computers in the construction of pan-industrial platforms, as well as the huge entrepreneurial opportunities that have emerged-without the need for cloud services, databases, and firewalls.
In 10 years, the “open Internet” represented by blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Internet computers, as well as the development of DeFi and open Internet services, will significantly surpass the large-scale monopolies controlled by the technology of the technology giants And closed Internet. Most importantly, 99% of global entrepreneurs living outside of Silicon Valley will have a meaningful way to participate, that is, creating tokenized open Internet services and using distributed Internet to raise funds from anywhere.
In 20 years, the “open Internet” will be broader than today’s traditional Internet, and will use the talents of entrepreneurs from all over the world and the power of the new programmable Web to enable developers to build projects based on shared data and functions , Without having to rely on providers, and will lay the foundation for large-scale collaboration and innovation between open Internet services.
Dominic Williams, founder and chief scientist of the DFINITY Foundation, said: “Today, we are at the foothills of the huge “open Internet boom”. The rapid growth of blockchain and DeFi is a good example. If you are a developer, entrepreneur or investor, or a company seeking to build software in a better way, Internet computers will provide unprecedented opportunities. All of this will accelerate, because Internet computers are expanding the functions of public networks-covering all aspects from global networks to public computing platforms. “
Developers and applications will now officially be migrated to the decentralized public network. In addition, the potential investment in the Beacon Fund, managed by Polychain Capital and funded by Andreessen Horowitz and DFINITY, is also one of the support mechanisms we have established for developers, new dapps and entrepreneurs.
The current systems built on Internet computers include ORIGYN, which is a pan-industrial platform for traceability of luxury goods; LinkedUp and CanCan, which are the open source versions of LinkedIn and TikTok, respectively; In addition, outstanding entrepreneurs and developers have been People online (MMO) games, media platforms and DeFi applications are also tokenized.
From now on, NNS will continue to decentralize the power of the network by adding more independent data centers and node machines, and the upcoming “Genesis” will enable more than 50,000 ICP utility token holders and thousands of Of new participants can begin to participate in the process of network governance.
DFINITY Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Zurich, Switzerland, responsible for overseeing research centers in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Zurich. Our mission is to build, promote and maintain Internet computers, and to make the world a better place. Internet computers extend the capabilities of the Internet from connecting billions of people to a public computing platform that also provides millions of developers and entrepreneurs, thus creating a revolutionary new method for building websites in an open environment. Enterprise systems and Internet services. This public software development platform was created by independent data centers around the world that use an advanced decentralized protocol called ICP to aggregate computing power. The changes passed down from generation to generation are aimed at blocking the technology giants and returning the Internet to its free and open roots and origins. DFINITY was founded by Dominic Williams in 2016.
