Nov. 30 2024
The Importance of the Internet Computer Protocol in the Development of the World Computer
Summary: This article explores how the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) advances the vision of a decentralized World Computer.
In their recent essay, Lei Yang, Robert Drost, and Namik Muduroglu shed light on a transformative concept in the world of blockchain technology: the World Computer. This vision presents a decentralized, global computing system where anyone can run applications, store data, and engage in digital interactions without relying on a single centralized entity.
Source: user.fm
What is a World Computer?
The concept of a World Computer emerged as blockchain technology evolved. Bitcoin, the first successful blockchain, revolutionized the coordination of money by enabling peer-to-peer payments without the need for a central authority. Ethereum expanded on this idea by introducing smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps), creating a more generalized blockchain platform. This laid the groundwork for the concept of a World Computer—a decentralized, globally distributed platform capable of running applications and hosting data in a way that is accessible and secure for everyone.
A World Computer is not owned or controlled by any individual or company. Instead, it is managed by a decentralized network of computers across the globe. This decentralized structure ensures fairness, transparency, and resilience, allowing applications to operate without the need to trust centralized intermediaries. The World Computer concept goes beyond digital currency by integrating financial services, providing guaranteed digital property rights, and offering global access to users who previously lacked such opportunities.
Historically, before blockchain, coordination was a significant challenge. Computers facilitated interactions, but trust had to be established through centralized intermediaries or personal connections. This reliance on centralization created monopolies and data silos. However, blockchain offers a new way of coordinating digitally, empowering individuals with direct control over their data and assets.
In 2015, Ethereum introduced smart contracts and expanded blockchain use to support complex decentralised applications, thereby conceptualizing the World Computer. These Turing-complete blockchains embedded trust into the system itself, removing the need for intermediaries and allowing users to maintain control over their data.
The Role of the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP)
Despite Ethereum’s promise, the researchers’ essay on decentralised computing lacks a discussion of one important actor: the Internet Computer Protocol.
Before discussing the term “World Computer,” it is important to note that Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has recognized ICP as a significant competitor to Ethereum.This is a crucial point to highlight, as it demonstrates that Vitalik Buterin is not only aware of DFINITY but also recognizes the substantial efforts and innovations the team has been building over the years.
Let us now delve into the history of the concept of the “World Computer.”
In 2014, Dominic Williams, Chief Scientist of the DFINITY Foundation became involved with the early Ethereum community. At the time, the concept of a blockchain that could run software (i.e. smart contracts), which stored and processed data within an unstoppable, tamperproof and autonomous on-chain environment, was both revolutionary and controversial within the industry.
At some point, the concept of a blockchain playing the role of a “World Computer” was mooted within the Ethereum community. One interpretation was that such a network would perform a trickle of simple but important smart contract computations for the world. However, Dominic’s interpretation, based on his work, was that World Computer blockchain would inevitably eventually host much of humanity’s systems and services, and all its data and compute, largely replacing traditional IT, and transforming social media, gaming, finance, enterprise systems and many other domains.
In 2015, however, Dominic was a lone heretic, and was largely alone in believing that the creation of a true World Computer blockchain was technically feasible, let alone that it might be capable of successfully playing that role in competition with centralized computing infrastructure. Since Dominic strongly believed otherwise, based on his accumulated technical experiences and work on crypto theory, he decided to dedicate himself to blockchain research that might realize the concept, originally, he hoped, in the form a more advanced Ethereum 2.0. He stopped work on Pebble, and directed all his future efforts towards the realization of the World Computer blockchain vision.
In early 2015, Dominic’s thinking about blockchain design had become more mature, and he began proposing new approaches to consensus, applied cryptography and blockchain network architecture. Around that time, he began using the name DFINITY as a brand for his work, which takes its characters from decentralized infinity.
Through the period 2015 to 2016, Vitalik Buterin, and associates such as Vlad Zamfir, were the Ethereum project’s primary consensus researchers, and were highly focused on developing cryptoeconomic schemes, including under the Casper banner. Meanwhile, Dominic was more focused on finding new ways to leverage advanced cryptography and distributed computing math, and devising alternative blockchain architectures, which might enable a World Computer to be produced. Owing to the long-term nature of Dominic’s work, and it’s more technical approach, eventually it became clear to him that DFINITY should become an independent project.
Panel Moderator: Martin Koeppelmann, Panel (from Right to Left): Dominic Williams, Vitalik Buterin, Vlad Zamfir, Jae Kwon, Recorded at the Silicon Valley Ethereum Meetup – October 22nd, 2016
Although the DFINITY project eventually trod its own longer path, important traces of DFINITY thinking remain within the Ethereum project.
The complexity of Dominic’s early technical designs, and general disbelief about the viability of building a World Computer blockchain, made it hard for him to muster support for his ideas, and persuade the Ethereum community to work on implementations. However, in 2016, Dominic was co-founder of a crypto incubator called String Labs. After a DeFi project to produce “mirror assets” was complicated by regulatory concerns, Dominic persuaded co-founder Tom Ding that String Labs should instead incubate DFINITY, and help it become a standalone project. String Labs was primarily backed by Chinese venture capital, which also played a crucial early role in the early years of the Ethereum ecosystem.
At this time, they were joined by Timo Hanke, the developer of AsicBoost, and the CTO of CoinTerra, from the Bitcoin community, and other people. Dominic decided to follow the fundraising example provided by Ethereum, and create a neutral not-for-profit foundation to drive development of a World Computer blockchain protocol. Accordingly, the DFINITY Foundation was formed in Zug, Switzerland, with Dominic as President, in October 2016, later moving to Zürich, Switzerland, when it established a large research center there. The rest, as they say, is history. [Source: wiki]
DFINITY sought to develop a decentralized cloud infrastructure that could compete with centralized systems like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. This infrastructure would enable developers to create internet services and decentralized applications (dApps) on a blockchain-powered network. Given the rapid pace of change in the crypto industry, 2018 now feels almost like 50 years ago, showcasing how ahead ICP was at that time.
The Internet Computer offers numerous unique capabilities that position it as a true World Computer. It provides a foundation for transforming the Internet and delivering new opportunities for builders and users. It is the only blockchain that supports canister smart contracts capable of processing HTTP requests, allowing 100% of online services to run directly from the blockchain and ensuring full decentralization.
Until now, blockchains had to rely on expensive and slow oracles to access off-chain data sources. However, ICP smart contracts can directly connect to Web2 APIs, rendering oracles obsolete. This opens up countless possibilities, such as sending emails, push notifications, and fetching digital assets or fiat prices directly from the blockchain.
This capability is a game-changer because traditional blockchains like Ethereum and Bitcoin operate as siloed systems that cannot natively interact with the internet or external APIs.
The Internet Computer blockchain has replaced the traditional username and password model with a more advanced and secure method of cryptographic authentication. This new approach is more convenient, works seamlessly across all of a user’s devices, and helps protect user privacy. It is based on the W3C’s Web Authentication (WebAuthn) standard and utilizes hardware-based user key protection.
This blockchain excels in two key performance metrics: low latency and high throughput. Unlike most blockchains, ICP does not have a theoretical maximum for transactions per second (TX/s). Its throughput scales horizontally with each added subnet, similar to how cloud computing expands with additional machines. Smart contracts across different subnets can communicate with one another without being bottlenecked by an increasing number of subnets.
Unlike other blockchains, where search engines like Google cannot index smart contracts, the Internet Computer allows smart contracts to be indexed directly by popular search engines. This means that there is no need for developers to rely on centralized cloud providers to store frontends, which often results in a compromise in decentralization. This capability is a hallmark of true Web3.
The Internet Computer provides a comprehensive tech stack for developers. It can host online services and games entirely on-chain without depending on centralized cloud providers. This ensures full decentralization and eliminates single points of failure.
One significant barrier to blockchain adoption for end users is the need to buy and hold tokens to pay for gas fees when interacting with the blockchain. The Internet Computer was designed with mass adoption in mind from the outset. Developers can charge their smart contracts using cycles (the IC equivalent of gas), which means that end users do not need to pay when interacting with these contracts. This design significantly lowers the barrier to entry for users.
Traditional Cloud Computing vs. the World Computer Vision
The advent of cloud computing revolutionized the way digital services are delivered, enabling developers to build scalable, flexible, and accessible applications. Giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud dominate this space, offering powerful infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solutions. However, as groundbreaking as cloud computing has been, it falls short of the World Computer vision in several critical ways:
1. Centralization and Trust Issues
Cloud Computing:
Cloud services are centralized by design. A single corporation owns and operates the infrastructure, requiring users to trust them with their data and services. This centralization introduces vulnerabilities, such as the risk of data breaches, service outages, or censorship.
Example: Outages in AWS have disrupted major websites and services worldwide, highlighting the fragility of centralized systems.
Impact: Users and developers have little recourse in the event of policy changes or failures by these providers.
World Computer Vision:
A true World Computer eliminates central control. With its decentralized nature, ICP ensures that no single entity can compromise or censor applications. Every service runs on a globally distributed network, providing resilience and trust without intermediaries.
2. Vendor Lock-In
Cloud Computing:
Developers building on traditional cloud platforms often face vendor lock-in, where switching providers requires significant effort due to proprietary systems and APIs.
Impact: This discourages innovation and traps developers within specific ecosystems.
World Computer Vision:
With ICP, services are fully interoperable and portable within its decentralized network. Developers are free from vendor lock-in, building and deploying applications that are compatible across the entire blockchain ecosystem.
3. Cost and Efficiency
Cloud Computing:
Running applications on cloud infrastructure involves ongoing expenses, including storage, computation, and bandwidth costs. These costs often scale unpredictably with user demand, creating barriers for small developers or startups.
Example: For startups scaling their operations, cloud fees can quickly become unsustainable.
World Computer Vision:
ICP reduces costs by eliminating the need for third-party infrastructure. With canister smart contracts, developers pay only for computational and storage resources on-chain, ensuring transparent and predictable pricing. Additionally, the system’s efficiency allows for competitive pricing compared to traditional cloud providers.
4. Transparency and Ownership
Cloud Computing:
Data stored on centralized clouds is subject to corporate policies, and users rarely have full ownership or visibility into how their data is used.
Impact: This creates ethical concerns regarding privacy, data ownership, and potential misuse of user information.
World Computer Vision:
On ICP, all services and data operate on a transparent, decentralized ledger. Users retain full ownership and control over their data, with cryptographic guarantees ensuring privacy and security.
5. Accessibility and Fairness
Cloud Computing:
Access to traditional cloud services is limited by geographic, financial, and regulatory factors. Smaller developers or users in underprivileged regions may find it difficult to compete with large corporations due to high barriers to entry.
World Computer Vision:
ICP democratizes access to computation and storage, offering a level playing field for all participants. Its decentralized model reduces reliance on costly infrastructure and empowers users worldwide, irrespective of their location or resources.
By addressing these fundamental limitations, the Internet Computer Protocol fulfills the promise of a World Computer in ways that cloud computing cannot:
- Fully decentralized infrastructure ensures resilience and fairness.
- Infinite scalability supports applications of any size without bottlenecks.
- Transparent operations empower users with control and trust.
- Reduced costs and friction make it accessible to innovators worldwide.
ICP doesn’t just complement traditional cloud computing—it renders it obsolete for a new era of decentralized, user-centric applications. With its unique capabilities, ICP transforms the internet from a centralized hierarchy into a collaborative and autonomous global ecosystem.
Conclusion
The Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) represents a groundbreaking advancement in the quest for the World Computer—a truly decentralized and global computing system. By addressing the limitations of traditional centralized systems and cloud computing, ICP offers a highly scalable, secure, and efficient alternative that transforms the Internet into a more equitable platform for all.
Unlike traditional cloud computing services, which rely on centralized entities and can be prone to issues like vendor lock-in, high costs, and privacy concerns, ICP delivers a decentralized solution where applications and data are fully controlled by the users. The blockchain-based architecture ensures transparency, security, and trust without intermediaries, fundamentally changing how the internet operates.
ICP’s unique features, such as canister smart contracts that directly interface with Web2 APIs, concurrent execution, and infinite scalability, make it the backbone for the decentralized web (Web3). It’s not merely an alternative to cloud computing—ICP represents the next evolutionary step in the development of the internet, offering a platform where users retain full control of their data, and developers can build decentralized applications without the constraints of traditional infrastructure.
By lowering costs, enhancing performance, and removing reliance on third-party infrastructure, ICP makes decentralized computing more accessible than ever before. This opens up new possibilities for innovators, creators, and users across the globe, irrespective of location or financial standing. It fosters a more open, fair, and collaborative digital ecosystem where control is returned to the users.
As the Web3 ecosystem grows, the Internet Computer stands at the forefront of this transformation, playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of the internet. By realizing the vision of the World Computer, ICP is creating a future where applications, services, and digital interactions are fully decentralized—empowering individuals, businesses, and communities to engage in a more transparent and secure digital economy.
