The Internet Computer for Computer Scientists

To a first approximation, the IC (Internet Computer) is a network of replicated state machines.

Each replicated state machine comprises a subnet of replicas. Subnets may communicate with one another, but otherwise they operate (for the most part) independently of each other.

As in any replicated state machine, a series of transactions is processed. A transaction may come from either an external client or from another state machine in the IC. The replicas in a subnet must run a consensus protocol to order the incoming transactions, so that each replica processes the transactions in the same order.