What is the Internet Computer (ICP)? A beginner's explanation!
Summary
TLDRThe Internet Computer is a decentralized cloud network that operates on the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), an open-source program. It consists of nodes running ICP, forming subnets that power canisters—modules for creating decentralized applications. These canisters can serve websites, handle transactions, and interact with users directly, eliminating the need for intermediaries. The network uses a unique consensus model, allowing for scalability and trustless communication between subnets. This system aims to revolutionize the internet by providing a more secure, efficient, and decentralized platform for applications and services.
Takeaways
- 🌐 The Internet Computer is a decentralized cloud network with three main components: the network itself, the ICP token, and the ICP protocol.
- 💰 ICP is a cryptocurrency with utility in the network, used for computation payment and governance participation.
- 📈 Nodes in the Internet Computer are high-requirement data centers that run the ICP protocol, maintaining the network's operation.
- 🔗 Canisters are the building blocks for decentralized applications on the Internet Computer, allowing for direct user interaction and interoperability.
- 🔄 Canisters can be upgraded, unlike traditional smart contracts, which can only be replaced, offering flexibility for developers.
- 🔐 Controllers have the power to manage canisters, with options ranging from single developers to community-governed DAOs.
- 🔒 The Internet Computer uses a novel consensus model based on threshold cryptography, ensuring secure and decentralized decision-making.
- 🔑 Each subnet in the Internet Computer has its own public and private keys, enabling trustless communication and a scalable network architecture.
- 📊 The Network Nervous System (NNS) manages public keys of all subnets, simplifying user interaction with the network.
- 🚀 The Internet Computer has the potential to scale indefinitely by adding more subnets, each with its own consensus mechanism.
- 🔍 Users are encouraged to do their own research and interact with the Internet Computer to form their own opinions.
Q & A
What are the three different things referred to by the term 'Internet Computer'?
-The term 'Internet Computer' refers to a decentralized cloud network, the ICP cryptocurrency token, and the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), which is the open-source program running on the network's nodes.
How does the ICP token serve utility within the Internet Computer network?
-The ICP token can be used to pay for computation, or staked to participate in the network's governance, earning rewards for the user.
What is a canister in the context of the Internet Computer?
-A canister is a well-assembled module that runs on the Internet Computer network, allowing users to interact directly with it by sending messages, which can represent actions like transferring tokens or posting on social media.
How does the Internet Computer address the issue of intermediaries in decentralized applications?
-The Internet Computer allows canisters to serve websites directly to users, eliminating the need for centralized cloud servers and associated intermediaries, thus reducing security risks and trust requirements.
What is the reverse gas model, and how does it benefit users?
-The reverse gas model means that canisters have a cycle balance and pay for computation using their own balance, eliminating the need for users to have a wallet and pay fees for smart contract execution.
How can a canister be upgraded, and what are the implications for developers and users?
-A canister can be upgraded by its controllers, who have full power over it, including the ability to delete or update the code. This is beneficial for developers as it allows for bug fixes and feature additions, but it also raises questions about who has the authority to update the canister.
What is the consensus model used by the Internet Computer, and how does it differ from Proof of Work or Proof of Stake?
-The Internet Computer uses a new consensus model developed specifically for it, which is neither Proof of Work nor Proof of Stake. It uses threshold cryptography and public-private key pairs to reach consensus across nodes.
How does the Internet Computer ensure that a bad actor cannot change the state of a canister?
-All nodes run the Internet Computer Protocol and must reach a consensus on the state of the canister. This makes it impossible for a single bad actor to cheat and change the state without being detected by the network.
What is the Network Nervous System, and how does it simplify the process of verifying transactions on the Internet Computer?
-The Network Nervous System is a subnet that stores all the public keys of other subnets. It can create certificates on these public keys, allowing users to verify transactions using just one public key, significantly reducing the data required compared to traditional blockchain networks.
How can the Internet Computer scale, and what does this mean for its potential as a decentralized platform?
-The Internet Computer can scale by adding more subnets, each running its own consensus. This allows for increased capacity and the potential to become the first blockchain to scale to infinity, though the network is still young and its claims need to be proven.
Outlines
🌐 Understanding the Internet Computer
This paragraph introduces the concept of the Internet Computer, highlighting the differing opinions about it as either a scam or a revolutionary technology. It explains that the term 'Internet Computer' refers to three things: a decentralized cloud network, the ICP cryptocurrency token, and the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) which is open-source software running on nodes. The paragraph also describes the physical requirements for nodes and how they communicate over the Internet to form the network, as well as the role of subnets and canisters in the ecosystem.
💡 The Functionality and Flexibility of Canisters
This section delves into the capabilities of canisters, which are modules that run on the Internet Computer network. It compares canisters to smart contracts and explains how they enable the creation of various applications, such as messaging apps, social media platforms, and NFT collections. The paragraph also discusses the unique features of canisters, like the ability to serve websites directly and the reverse gas model, which eliminates the need for traditional wallets and intermediaries. It touches on the upgradeability of canisters and the concept of controllers who manage them.
🔐 Consensus and Scalability in the Internet Computer
The final paragraph explains the consensus model used by the Internet Computer, which is different from proof of work or proof of stake. It uses threshold cryptography to ensure secure communication between nodes. The paragraph also addresses the scalability of the network by adding more subnets, each with its own public and private keys, allowing for trustless communication. The concept of the network nervous system, which stores all subnet public keys, is introduced as a solution to manage the growing number of keys. The potential for the Internet Computer to scale indefinitely is highlighted, with a call to action for viewers to explore the network themselves.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Internet Computer
💡ICP Token
💡Decentralized Application (DApp)
💡Canister
💡WebAssembly
💡Threshold Cryptography
💡Consensus Model
💡Network Nervous System
💡Reverse Gas Model
💡Controllers
💡Scalability
Highlights
The Internet Computer is a decentralized cloud, a cryptocurrency (ICP token), and an open-source protocol.
ICP token has utility in the network, can be used to pay for computation or stake for governance rewards.
Nodes in the Internet Computer network are maintained by independent data centers with high hardware requirements.
The Internet Computer network is composed of nodes running the ICP protocol, enabling the creation of decentralized applications (canisters).
Canisters are similar to smart contracts but are a new concept developed specifically for the Internet Computer.
Canisters can serve websites directly to users, eliminating the need for centralized cloud servers and wallet transactions.
The reverse gas model allows canisters to pay for computation using their own balance, removing the need for user fees.
Canisters can be upgraded, unlike traditional smart contracts that require redeployment for changes.
Controllers have full power over canisters, including the ability to delete or update code.
The Internet Computer uses a new consensus model, different from proof of work or proof of stake.
Threshold cryptography allows subnets to create signatures on behalf of the network without revealing the private key.
The network nervous system stores all subnet public keys, simplifying user verification of transactions.
The Internet Computer can scale by adding more subnets, each running its own consensus.
Subnets can communicate trustlessly with each other using their public and private keys.
The Internet Computer aims to be the first blockchain to scale to infinity.
The network is still young, and its claims need to be proven through practical use and research.
Transcripts
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so what exactly is this thing called the internet computer well if you look on the internet you
will find people telling you know it's a scam I mean just look at the token price but you might
also find people that are extremely excited about the internet computer they think it's a
revolution and it's going to transform the way the internet works if you're feeling confused
right now that's totally normal that's why today will take a few minutes to understand
how the technology works so you can build your own opinion before we start we need to precise
something because the term internet computer is used to talk about three different things
the first one is a network the internet computer is a decentralized cloud we'll talk a bit more
about that in the next few minutes the second one is the token ICP is a cryptocurrency
you can buy it on exchanges and trade it like any other coin the token has utility in the network
you can burn it to pay for computation or you can stake it to participate in
the governance and earn rewards for that finally ICP stands for internet computer protocol which
is a program it's actually the program that runs in the node that power out the network
the code is open source you can find it online it is currently researched and maintained by
the definitive Foundation but other contributors are welcome to participate nodes are maintained
by independent data centers and they have pretty high requirements in terms of hardware
here you can see the inside of a node you can see the RAM and the CPU
here you have multiple nodes that are being installed
finally this is what the nodes look like when they are running and powering the network
let's review what we've seen so far the internet computer is composed of nodes those nodes are
connected over the internet and they communicate between each other they all run the ICP protocol
this enables a network to exist we call this network the internet computer
on top of it we can create decentralized application using canisters actually the
ICP token is built into one canister which is called the ICP Ledger The
Ledger is responsible for processing transactions minting and burning ICP tokens
the internet computer is divided into subnets you can see five of them right now
each subnet Powers a number of canisters and each subnet is powered by a number of nodes
at this point we've understood that the internet computer Powers canister but what is a canister
a canister is basically a well assembly module if you are not familiar with webassembly there
will be another video dedicated to explaining webassembly but for the moment just bear with me
any long wedge that compiles to webassembly like rust motoko or even typescript can be used to
write code for canisters users directly interact with canisters by sending messages those messages
can represent actions that you will take on the network like transferring your token mincing an
nft or even posting on social media canisters can also interact with other canisters by sending and
receiving messages this enable interoperability between different Services a canister can be used
to create almost any kind of application you can create a messenging app like openshot a social
media application like discover or even an nft collection like BTC flower and many many more
if you are familiar with other ecosystems like ethereum Solana Avalanche or even near you might
be thinking that canisters and smart contracts are very similar and this is true they share a lot of
properties however canisters are a completely new concept canisters were developed specifically for
the internet computer and they can do things that smart constructs cannot do let's see what they
can do let's say that today you want to interact with a really famous decentralized application you
want to interact with unit swap uniswap is powered by smart contracts and those smart contracts are
hosted on the ethereum network so you as a user need to find a way to interact with the network
you will likely go on the website and download the web page unfortunately the web page is not still
on the ethereum network the web pages are still on a centralized Cloud Server something like Amazon
web services for example also you will need to pay fees for the execution of the smart contract
torpedo's fees you will likely need to download the wallet something like metamask for example
to download metamask you will likely go through a centralized store something like the Chrome
extension store and the problem is that metamask cannot directly talk to the ethereum blockchain
metamask also needs an intermediary something like inferior for example the problem with all those
intermediaries is that each new intermediary is a potential security breach is a risk of
censorship and is also an entity that you have to trust so let's see how the internet computer
can solve this issue now let's say that you want to interact with an application that is hosted on
the internet computer let's say that you want to interact with discover the good thing about
discover is that everything is in a canister even the website a canister can serve a website
directly to users because a canister can answer HTTP request that's a huge Improvement it means
we can get rid of the sensorized cloud also you don't need to pay for any computation the canister
has a cycle balance and will use its own balance to pay for computation it's a huge Improvement
because we can get rid of the wallet and all the intermediaries associated with it this is called
the reverse gas model once you deploy your smart contract you can never change the code if you need
to modify something you need to redeploy a new smart contract on the other side a canister can
be upgraded this makes it really useful if you are working on a large project and need to fix
a bug or add a new feature but it also raises a question who is able to update the canister
against her we'll have controllers controllers have full power on the canister they can delete
the canister or update the code at any moment there are three different cases the first one
is the case of a single developer that might be you if you try to deploy something the second case
is the case of a Dao a decentralized autonomous organization usually community members will vote
and accept new updates and the last case is the case of a black hole canister in this case there
is no controller and no one can ever update the code this is similar to a Smart contract
a canister can evolve from one of these skates to another one for example you can start centralized
by controlling the canister and progressively give away the ownership to a community or a doubt
a canister is not Austin in single node otherwise that would defeat the purpose of
having a decentralized protocol canister is hosted in many different nodes some of them
can be good actor but some of them can also be malicious and try to change the state all nodes
run the internet computer protocol and have to reach a consensus on the state of the canister
this makes it impossible for a bad actor alone to try to cheat and change the state of the canister
now that we have understood what is a canister let's try to understand how the nodes reach an
agreement using the consensus like all the centralized protocol the internet computer
uses a consensus model but it is not proof of work light Bitcoin and it is not proof of stake
like ethereum it's actually a new model that was developed specifically for the internet computer
let's see how it works through an example this example we will assume that you want to use the
social media application that is hosted on the internet computer this application as a canister
and you want to post a message so you send your message to the canister and you are waiting for
an answer from the canister to confirm that your message has been posted as we've said before the
canister is hosted in many different notes some of them are good actors but some of them might be
productos thanks to something called threshold cryptography the subnet as a public key this
public key is associated with a private one the private one is divided into shares each node has
a different share of the private key this means that if you combine enough shares you can create
a signature on behalf of the subnet but a note on its own cannot create a signature if you don't
know what is a public key and a private key I really suggest that you do your research after the
video because this is a fundamental topic to the internet computer and also to crypto in general
but for this video you just need to know two things a private key can be used to create a
signature and the public key can be used to verify that this signature was indeed created by the
private key in our example if you know the public key of the subnet and you receive a message with
the signature of the subnet you can verify that this message was created by the subnet and was not
modified by anyone else the message of the user will be propagated across all nodes in the network
then all node will receive the message and they will run a computation on this message
then they will return their result the result can be different at this stage
after that they will sign the result with the respective share of the private key
then they will propagate this information across all the nodes of the subnet assuming that the
majority of the nodes share the same result they will combine their shares and they will create the
signature that corresponds to the public key of the subnet if the user knows the public key of the
subnet the user can be sure that his message has been received and treated by the internet computer
the user can also be sure that the answer has been certified by the internet computer
at this point you might have a question we've said that the internet computer is divided into
subnets and each subnet has its own public key does it mean that the user has to know
all the public keys of all the subnets if the attendance computer is huge enough that could
be thousands of public Keys fortunately there is a solution to this problem there is one subnet
called the network nervous system which stores all the public keys of all the subnets because
this subnet knows all the public keys of all the subnets the subnet is able to create certificates
on the public keys of the subnets which means that you only need to know one public the
public key of this Subnet in order to satisfy any result coming from the internet computer
in theory if you want to verify transaction on the Bitcoin Network without any intimidatory
you have to download the whole blockchain that's approximately 400 gigabyte compare that with the
internet computer we just said that you only need one public key which is 48 bytes that's a huge
reduction in size and it means no intermediary and more decentralization more verification
the internet computer can easily scale by adding more and more subnets each new subnet
will add more capacity to the entire network this is possible because each subnet run its
own consensus you can think of a subnet as its own blockchain now you might be thinking how is
it possible that we have so many subnets and yet we have one network we need to find a way
for subnets to communicate between each other fortunately each subnet has its own public key
and its own private key that means that subnet can trustlessly communicate between each other
they just need to create and sign messages and send those messages between each other
in theory there is no limit to the number of subnets that can be added to the network this
means that the internet computer might be the first blockchain to scale to Infinity
however the network is still young and is claim are meant to be proven
I encourage you to do your own research and try out the network by yourself if you've
learned something today make sure to press the like button and subscribe for more videos
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