Difference between revisions of "Internet Computer wiki"

Revision as of 18:49, 21 July 2022

Welcome!

This is a general source of information about the Internet Computer (IC), the world's fastest and most powerful blockchain network^[1]. Created for and by the IC community, topics vary from cryptography, network governance, user experience, tokenomics, developer tutorials and more.

Introduction to the Internet Computer

The Internet Computer is a general-purpose blockchain that hosts "canister" smart contracts. It has a completely unique design that reflects a ground-up rethink of blockchain architecture and the application of modern cryptography, which can be traced back to 2015. It was built by the largest ongoing R&D effort in crypto, which has employed many notable cryptographers, computer science researchers and engineers. The blockchain underwent genesis in May 2021 and became part of the public internet. The Internet Computer is powered by novel "chain key cryptography", which allows it to combine multiple "subnet blockchains" into a single blockchain to horizontally scale the volume of smart contract code, computation and data it hosts, without limit. The blockchain runs at web speed, with web-levels of efficiency, and hosted smart contracts can process HTTP requests and directly serve interactive web experiences to the end-users of web3 services.

Through these characteristics, the Internet Computer provides a platform that can be used to build mass market web3 services that run 100% on-chain, without any need for traditional IT, such as databases or cloud computing services. The longer-term objective is that the Internet Computer will completely replace traditional IT, creating a blockchain singularity, in which everything runs fully on-chain in powerful new forms where it is unstoppable and cannot be hacked. The development of the Internet Computer has heralded numerous notable technological developments, such as chain-key cryptography and programming languages such as Motoko. The Internet Computer hosts an advanced DAO within its protocols, called the Network Nervous System, which provides the community with direct control over network governance, and can update the protocol running on its nodes, without requiring the network to fork. The network's utility token is ICP (see Roles of the ICP utility token).

Most common places to start

For a general audience

For a more technical audience

"Internet Computer for Geeks" paper
The "How it works" series with videos and in-depth articles on various topics.
Technical AMAs on Reddit by different IC and DFINITY teams

Internet Identity Introduction

One of the core benefits of building on the Internet Computer is that end users do not need to pay fees or use tokens to access and use dapps. As an alternative to authenticating from a wallet, users can authenticate with an Internet Identity. Learn more information about Internet Identity (II), a blockchain authentication framework supported by the Internet Computer:

IC for Dapp Users

If you use or are interested in using dapps on the Internet Computer, this section will help you understand the user experience benefits of the IC, how to use Internet Identity, or find more IC dapps.

Examples:

See more in Internet Computer for dapp users

IC for ICP Token-holders, Stakers, and Neuron Holders

The Internet Computer is governed by on-chain governance system called the Network Nervous System (NNS). To participate on governance, users need to stake ICP tokens. This section will explain how the NNS works, ICP tokens, staking, voting, rewards, and options for managing one's ICP.

Examples:

See more in Internet Computer token-holders, investors, and neuron holders.

IC for Smart Contract and Dapp Developers

The Internet Computer (IC) is a new platform for executing smart contracts. This section contains information for developers, including links to documentation, developer forums, and relevant dashboards.

Examples:

If you've been programming smart contracts on Ethereum before, you should read The Internet Computer for Ethereum Developers.

See more in Internet Computer for smart contract and dapp developers.

IC for the Curious, Researchers and Blockchain Enthusiasts

This section is for those interested in how the Internet Computer works under the hood. It touches many different subject areas from cryptography, consensus protocols, virtual machines, operating systems, networking, distributed systems, etc.

Examples:

See more in Internet Computer for researchers and blockchain enthusiasts.

For Node Providers

Node providers invest in and operate node hardware, which powers the Internet Computer with processing and storage capacity. Running these nodes in data centers provides the high performance and the cost-effectiveness of the Internet Computer. Every node provider is allowed a limited amount of nodes.

Technical Working Groups

FAQs, Tutorials, and How-tos

Tutorials are guided introductions to user stories, intended for first-time users and characterized by a shallow learning curve. How-Tos are step-by-step instructions for specific, narrow goals.

FAQs

FAQ

Best Practices

Example:

See more in Best Practices

Tutorials

Example:

See more in How-Tos.

Contributing to the Wiki

How to contribute

Anyone can read the wiki. You can also edit pages, all you need to do is create an account. See more in Contributing to the wiki.

References

↑ https://medium.com/dfinity/the-internet-computers-transaction-speed-and-finality-outpace-other-l1-blockchains-8e7d25e4b2ef

[1] ttps://medium.com/dfinity/the-internet-computers-transaction-speed-and-finality-outpace-other-l1-blockchains-8e7d25e4b2ef

[1]

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 ==Introduction to the Internet Computer==
-The Internet Computer is a general-purpose blockchain that hosts "canister" smart contracts. It has a completely unique design that reflects a ground-up rethink of blockchain architecture and the application of modern cryptography, [https://web.archive.org/web/20150914013643/http://dfinity.io/ which can be traced back to 2015]. It was built by the largest ongoing R&D effort in crypto, which has employed many notable cryptographers, computer science researchers and engineers. The blockchain underwent genesis in May 2021 and became part of the public internet. The Internet Computer is powered by novel "chain key cryptography", which allows it to combine multiple "subnet blockchains" into a single blockchain, to horizontally scale the volume of smart contract code, computation and data it hosts without limit. The blockchain runs at web speed, with web-levels of efficiency, and hosted smart contracts can process HTTP requests and directly serve interactive web experiences to the end-users of web3 services.
+The Internet Computer is a general-purpose blockchain that hosts "canister" smart contracts. It has a completely unique design that reflects a ground-up rethink of blockchain architecture and the application of modern cryptography, [https://web.archive.org/web/20150914013643/http://dfinity.io/ which can be traced back to 2015]. It was built by the largest ongoing R&D effort in crypto, which has employed many notable cryptographers, computer science researchers and engineers. The blockchain underwent genesis in May 2021 and became part of the public internet. The Internet Computer is powered by novel "chain key cryptography", which allows it to combine multiple "subnet blockchains" into a single blockchain to horizontally scale the volume of smart contract code, computation and data it hosts, without limit. The blockchain runs at web speed, with web-levels of efficiency, and hosted smart contracts can process HTTP requests and directly serve interactive web experiences to the end-users of web3 services.
 Through these characteristics, the Internet Computer provides a platform that can be used to build mass market web3 services that run 100% on-chain, without any need for traditional IT, such as databases or cloud computing services. The longer-term objective is that the Internet Computer will completely replace traditional IT, creating a ''blockchain singularity'', in which everything runs fully on-chain in powerful new forms where it is unstoppable and cannot be hacked. The development of the Internet Computer has heralded numerous notable technological developments, such as [https://medium.com/dfinity/chain-key-technology-one-public-key-for-the-internet-computer-6a3644901e28 chain-key cryptography] and programming languages such as [https://wiki.internetcomputer.org/wiki/Motoko Motoko]. The Internet Computer hosts an advanced [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_autonomous_organization DAO] within its protocols, called the [[Network Nervous System]], which provides the community with direct control over network governance, and can update the protocol running on its nodes, without requiring the network to fork. The network's utility token is ICP (see [[Roles of the ICP utility token]]).