• On December 18, 2020, based on the milestone of Mercury, the DFINITY Foundation initially realized the decentralization of the Internet computer main network. This scientific achievement enables the network nervous system (NNS) to carry thousands of independent data centers and data centers. Millions of special node machines.

• The Internet Computer 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 A revolutionary new way to build websites, enterprise systems, pan-industry platforms, DeFi applications and open Internet services.

• Similar to the birth of the ARPANET network in 1969, the Internet Computer was launched by four nodes located at Stanford University, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. The birth of the Internet computer network is based on seven independent data centers across the United States, Germany and Switzerland, allowing the ICP protocol to weave together the node machines and their computing capabilities running in these secure, professionally managed data centers. Since the launch of the main network, Internet computers have created more than 400,000 blocks. NNS (Network Nervous System) is preparing to settle in 32 independent data centers by the end of the first quarter of 2021, and establish a network of 100 independent data centers by the end of 2021. , the goal of entering thousands of independent data centers by 2030.

• The Network Nervous 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, upgrading Node machines to update network protocols, etc. once"Genesis "The operating conditions are triggered, and within 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 the world's top cryptographers, distributed system and programming language experts and other accomplished team members, who have a total of nearly 100,000 academic citations and 200 patents. After four years of intensive R&D and numerous breakthroughs in advanced cryptography and computer science, our team has finally built the first blockchain computer that runs at network speeds, yet is infinitely scalable.

Palo Alto and Zurich, January 6, 2021 -- After years of intensive research, development and breakthroughs in advanced cryptography and computer science, on December 18, 2020, based on"Mercury "At this milestone, the DFINITY Foundation has initially realized the decentralization of the main Internet computer network. This scientific achievement enables the Network Nervous System (NNS), an algorithmic governance system, to carry thousands of independent data centers and millions of special nodes. machine.

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 placed under the control of NNS—this creates the world's first network-speed A running blockchain that can be expanded without limit to host any number of smart contract calculations and store any amount of data. At the same time, the network is controlled by NNS, an open algorithmic governance system, thus ensuring that the Internet can return to its free and open origin.

The Internet Computer extends the function of the Internet from connecting billions of people (via the TCP/IP protocol) to a public computing platform (via the ICP protocol) for millions of developers and entrepreneurs, and creates a revolutionary new The method is to build websites, enterprise systems, pan-industry platforms, DeFi applications and open Internet services. Entrepreneurs, businesses and government agencies now have the choice to deploy software and services securely directly on the public internet, or continue to use proprietary and insecure servers controlled by the tech giants.

Dominic Williams, 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 The main computing platform on which all information systems are built by humans? For this, we seek to build"internet computer"internet computer"internet computer"secondary title"

The Alpha stage of the Internet computer main network is officially released

Mercury is the last of the five milestones of the Internet computer, representing the Internet computer will become part of the public Internet, using ICP as a complementary Internet protocol to TCP/IP.

On December 18, 2020, the main network self-started by executing the initial encryption setup routine, and NNS then took over, responsible for coordinating ongoing network management tasks, such as the introduction of new independent data centers and New node machines to increase the computing power of the network, upgrade node machines to update network protocols, etc.

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The Holy Grail of Cryptocurrency - Chain Key Technology

One of the major complaints about blockchain is its lack of speed, and the biggest preconception is that its slowness is intentional. The roots of this thinking go back to the first blockchain, Bitcoin, which took an average of 30 to 60 minutes to complete a transaction. A few years later, Ethereum used a newer proof-of-work mechanism (POW) to speed up processing, but these were nowhere near the network speeds required for 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. While this is a huge improvement, it is still not enough to allow blockchain developers to build competitive user experiences that can be delivered in milliseconds. Therefore, Internet Computer divides the execution of smart contract functions into two different types, namely "update calls" and "query calls". While update calls are the ones we are already familiar with, taking 1-2 seconds to complete execution, query calls are different in that any changes they make to the state (i.e. the developer's memory page on the WebAssembly container) are executed will be discarded afterwards. Essentially, this allows query calls to execute in milliseconds on the "edge".

In the case of an Internet computer running an open version of Reddit, as a user browses the forum, a custom view of the hosted content is formulated and served into the user's web browser by executing query calls to nearby nodes It only takes a few milliseconds to run on the Internet, providing a great user experience. However, when a user wishes to post occasionally or give incentive tokens to the poster, this will involve an update call and take 1-2 seconds - an acceptable delay and may also be referred to as an Amazon-like Key payments, and pre-set credit cards can be overridden by the aggressive implementation of smooth payments.

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The Mercury milestone now puts the Internet Computer on the short course for the final "Genesis" decentralization phase, which involves the NNS releasing ICP utility tokens to holders in the form of Voting Neurons, which will trigger proposals when processing It will be opened later, and the opening time is expected to be in the first quarter of 2021. Once the "Genesis" demand is triggered, more than 50,000 ICP functional token holders will start participating in network governance, or disband their voting neurons to release ICP functional tokens, and convert them to Cycles for enhanced computing , in order to maximize its purpose. However, in order for NNS to trigger "Genesis" on the basis of realizing the maximum benefit of the Internet computer network, we must go through some checkpoints and steps, such as:

• The DFINITY Foundation open-sources all relevant source code to the public domain

• Publish technical and design information related to ICP, including a full description of Chain Key encryption and Protocol Math

• Successfully passed other security audits and stress tests

• Release additional technical features to enhance the developer experience

• Publish an end-to-end "Open Internet Service" example dapp in the form of CanCan (an open version of TikTok) to help entrepreneurs further refine their projects

• Disseminate detailed information about the Internet computer physical network and its participants

• Provide support services for third parties who wish to provide node machines or participate in network construction

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20-year roadmap: changing the trajectory of the network for the better

The DFINITY Foundation is a non-profit organization located in Zurich, Switzerland, which oversees research centers in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Tokyo and Zurich - where many of the world's top cryptographers, experts in distributed systems and programming languages ​​are employed, and the team has Totaling nearly 100,000 academic citations and 200 patents, and focused on building advanced experimental technologies 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 Internet from today's proprietary technology, monopoly and closed The Internet, towards an open, fair future, and bringing us back to the promise of a programmable network.

The Internet computer is the first blockchain computer that can expand infinitely and run at the speed of the network, and the DFINITY Foundation aims to continuously improve the technology to adapt to the exponential growth of "open Internet prosperity".

In 5 years, everyone will understand the huge entrepreneurial opportunities that arise when building pan-industrial platforms, DeFi applications, and open network services provided by Internet computers-without the use of cloud services, databases, and firewalls.

In 10 years, the "open Internet" represented by blockchain technologies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Internet Computer, as well as the development of DeFi and open Internet services, will clearly surpass the large-scale monopoly controlled by the technology of technology giants and closed internet. Most importantly, the 99% of the world's entrepreneurial talent living outside of Silicon Valley will have a meaningful way to participate in creating tokenized open internet services and using the distributed internet to fundraise from anywhere.

In 20 years, the "open internet" will be broader than today's traditional internet, harnessing the talents of entrepreneurs around the world and the power of the new programmable web, allowing developers to build projects based on shared data and functionality , without having to rely on providers, and will lay the foundation for large-scale collaboration and innovation among open Internet services.

Dominic Williams, founder and chief scientist of the DFINITY Foundation, said: “Today, we are at the foothills of a huge “open internet boom”, exemplified by the meteoric growth of blockchain and DeFi. If you are a developer , an entrepreneur or an investor, or a business looking for a better way to build software, then the Internet computer will provide unprecedented opportunities. All of this will be accelerated, because the Internet computer is expanding the function of the public network-from the global network extended to all aspects of the public computing platform."

Developers and applications will now officially be migrated to the decentralized public network. In addition, potential investments in the Beacon Fund, managed by Polychain Capital and funded by Andreessen Horowitz and DFINITY, is one of the support mechanisms we have established for developers, new dapps and entrepreneurs.

Systems currently built on Internet computers include ORIGYN, a pan-industrial platform for traceability of luxury goods; LinkedUp and CanCan, open-source versions of LinkedIn and TikTok, respectively; Man-on-line (MMO) games, media platforms, and DeFi applications have also been tokenized.

About DFINITY

About DFINITY

The DFINITY Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Zurich, Switzerland, oversees research centers in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Zurich. Our mission is to make the world a better place by building, promoting and maintaining Internet computers. The Internet Computer expanded the power of the Internet from connecting billions of people to also providing a public computing platform for millions of developers and entrepreneurs, creating a revolutionary new way to build websites in an open, Enterprise systems and Internet services. The public software development platform is created by independent data centers around the world that aggregate computing power using an advanced decentralized protocol called ICP. This generational change is designed to hold back the tech giants and return the internet to its free and open roots and roots. DFINITY was founded in 2016 by Dominic Williams.