AMA Recap: CRYPTO MINERS X INTERNET COMPUTER

Internet Computer is a general-purpose blockchain that hosts canister smart contracts. It is designed to provide a World Computer that can replace traditional IT and host a new generation of Web3 services and applications that run solely from the blockchain, without the need for traditional IT. It can also play the role of Web3 orchestrator, by interacting with traditional blockchains. The Internet Computer is a blockchain that enables developers, organizations, and entrepreneurs to build and deploy secure, autonomous, and tamper-proof canisters, an evolution of 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 blockchain’s protocols leverage novel chain key cryptography to combine multiple subnet blockchains into a single blockchain. This allows it to horizontally scale the total volume of hosted canister smart contract, and their computations and data, without limit. These smart contracts run at web speed, and with web-levels of efficiency, and uniquely, thanks to the blockchain architecture enabled by chain key crypto, can process HTTP requests and directly and securely serve interactive web experiences to the end-users of web3 services, without need for trusted intermediaries (whereas on other blockchains, the web experience users interact with is generally built on centralized, insecure and trusted servers or cloud computing services). The fundamental unique feature behind ICP in their application of decentralized technology to the Internet. The project seeks to return power to developers and ordinary users of the Internet space, enlisting the support of those who host and participate in the network. The purpose of Internet Computer is to extend the current public Internet by introducing Chain Key Technology, a set of cryptographic protocols that consists of several components, namely: Threshold Relay (a consensus model), Non-Interactive Distributed Key Generation or NI-DKG, Network Nervous System or NNS (an on-chain governance system), and decentralized identity a.k.a. Internet Identity.

We hosted an AMA session with Internet Computer on 15th August.

Mr. Ramsy was the host from Crypto Miners and Mr. Dieter and Mr. Manu was the guests. They shed us with the features and functions of Internet Computer.
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Segment 1️⃣: Introduction

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Hello everyone 👋 Welcome to Our Special AMA session With Internet Computer

To help us learn more about ICP, We are lucky to be joined By Mr. Manu and Mr. Dieter

Hey Guys 👋

Dieter M Sommer:
Hi everybody!

Manu:
hello!

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Welcome here guys

Dieter M Sommer:
It’s a pleasure to be here!

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Thanks for joining with us today ❤️

Manu:
thanks for having us 🙂

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
I’m pretty sure that our Community is very much excited to learn more about ICP ✌️

So let’s get started if you guys are ready!!

Dieter M Sommer:
We are ready!

Manu:
im ready! fire away

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
First of all Please Make a concise and brief introduction about Internet Computer.
How it is playing its role in development of on chain web3 and HTTP smart contracts?

Manu:
our vision is what we call “blockchain singularity”. In short, that means we think smart contracts are a super powerful way of running software, and we want to make it very practical to run things as a smart contract on a blockchain, such that more and more software can benefit from the security of smart contracts. To do this, we try to make the internet computer as efficient as possible, scale out infinitely, serve web directly (so both backend and frontend runs on blockchain), reverse gas (so users can easily access services running on the blockchain), etc

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Thanks Manu for this great start about ICP 👍

Now let’s see our second question from this segment

2. What are the features of Internet Computer that makes it superior and special as compared to its competitors?

Dieter M Sommer:
* Securely hosting the complete Web experience for dApps, so both the backend and frontend run on blockchain.
* Having all data on chain, even images related to NFTs, video, audio etc. All other blockchains use AWS for storage, for example.
* Scales without limits by adding subnets: Each subnet is its own blockchain that makes progress independently of the other subnets. Subnets communicate with each other through asynchronous messaging.
* Very energy efficient.
* Exciting new features coming: native bitcoin integration, and smart contracts that can make HTTP requests to web2.
* Very low fees.
* Flexibility: different subnet sizes, depending on use case.

Easy and secure authentication with Internet Identity.

Manu:
In addition to what Dieter already said, i also think the “network nervous system” is very cool: this is a huge DAO that governs the internet computer, and changes to the system can only be made after the token holders approve (by voting on proposals).

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
That’s impressive 👌

3. Can you share about Internet Identity which is a blockchain authentication framework.
Also tell us dApps making in IC. Give us some dapps or examples of products that are running on IC?

Dieter M Sommer:
Internet Identity is one of many authentication solutions used on the Internet Computer. What’s unique about it is the fact that it uses the secure chips in your devices. This way you don’t need to memorize a password, you can simply use the fingerprint sensor on your laptop or facial recognition on your smartphone.

Because the IC was built to be general purpose, we already see many different dapps in all kinds of categories.
* DSCVR is a social media platform that is built a 100% on-chain that hosts portals (similar to subreddits) that can be NFT gated for different communities
* Entrepot is the largest NFT marketplace hosted on the IC with 100+ collections and 300GB+ data stored directly on-chain making the phrase “NFTs are just overpriced links” obsolete

* Cubetopia is a Minecraft-like game where each of these worlds built by users are NFTs themselves that will later be tradable. What’s interesting about this game that it too runs fully on-chain including the game engine and the data of these NFT worlds.
* Plethora is a 3D platformer (similar to Fall Guys) that allows users to compete on different tracks, having their best time recorded. Each week, players with the best times can win NFTs that are dropped into their connected wallet.

Manu:
Some cool dapps that everybody here can try out are dscvr (https://dscvr.one/, similar to reddit), Distrikt (https://distrikt.io/, somewhat like twitter), sonic (app.sonic.ooo, a dex), openchat (oc.app, an on-chain messanging service), and https://plethora.game/ is what Dieter mentioned

and https://mqkdm-zqaaa-aaaah-ablsa-cai.raw.ic0.app/ is a minecraft style game. All of these run fully on chain!

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
4. Now tell us about the native token $ICP, what are its usecases and utilities in Internet Computer ecosystem? Also provide with us the tokenomics

Manu:
Happy to!

ICP is a utility token. ICPs are burned by converting them to “cycles”, which is similar to ethereum’s gas, so you use cycles for running smart contracts on the internet computer.

Node providers are rewarded in newly minted ICPs.

Finally, the internet computer is governed by a big DAO that we call the Network nervous system (NNS). By locking (“staking”) ICPs, you receive a “neuron”, which gives you voting power in the NNS. The NNS controls all changes to the IC, eg replica software upgrades. By participating in the NNS, you get voting rewards in the form of minted ICPs. You can read more about the NNS here https://internetcomputer.org/how-it-works/network-nervous-system-nns/.

also https://internetcomputer.org/icp-tokens/ gives a nice overview

Dieter M Sommer:
Here’s a link to a resource on our tokenomics: https://www.dfinitycommunity.com/beginners-guide-to-understanding-icps-tokenomics/

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Let’s hear our last question from this segment

5. what important updates and developments we’ll get in coming months and years in Internet Computer ecosystem?

Manu:
Great question, we are working hard on a lot of new features that I’m super excited about!

Building on what Dieter said, we want to enable canister smart contracts to natively hold real bitcoin (on the bitcoin blockchain). To do that, we need the ability for canister smart contracts to read the BTC blockchain, but also to be able to securely sign transactions. For this we’re working on a feature “threshold ECDSA”, which gives the smart contracts access to a signing key, which is securely held by all the replicas via threshold cryptography.

We did a lot of research on this topic first (you can read the academic papers https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/506 and https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/1330, not for the faint of heart :)). This is already live on our mainnet (but experimental) and will be fully stable soon. This allows integrations between ICP and many other systems

If you want to read more about the bitcoin integration and threshold ecdsa features, https://internetcomputer.org/bitcoin-integration gives a lot of info

We are also working on a feature called “service nervous system”. This allows dapp developers to let a DAO control their dapp, similar to how the NNS governs the internet computer. This also lets devs raise funds and ensure their dapp is fully decentralized yet upgradable.

Dieter M Sommer:
Integration with the Bitcoin network
* Trustless integration model without bridges based on threshold ECDSA. Canister smart contracts can directly hold bitcoin on the Bitcoin network, query their corresponding UTXO sets, and send Bitcoin transactions.
* Available already as a beta with Bitcoin Testnet integration.
* Bitcoin Mainnet will become available in the coming months.

We are enabling canister HTTP outcalls which will, for the first time in blockchain history, allow a smart contract to directly make HTTP calls to Web 2.0 servers. This has the potential to replace oracles for many use cases. So your DeFi contract can now, without an oracle, fetch exchange rates from CEXs.
This will be revolutionary and is to be released shortly!

We will be working on an integration with the Ethereum network, similar to our Bitcoin integration. It will also build upon threshold ECDSA to sign transactions and allow for a trustless integration.
This integration can bring all ERC-20 tokens over to the IC and therefore help our DeFi landscape to get huge amounts of liquidity over to the IC. This long-awaited feature will be a true game changer for the IC.

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Thanks Guys for this well detailed introduction about ICP:)

And that’s the wrap up of our the first part of the AMA session ✅

Let’s now proceed to our Twitter Questions section

i hope you guys are ready for that!!

Dieter M Sommer:
Yeah, we are ready!

Manu:
lets do it

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
So let’s roll…

Segment 2️⃣: Twitter Questions

1: Internet Computer dapps have the “reverse gas model” where users can interact with a dapp without having to pay tokens, can you detail the function that this reverse gas model brings to your ecosystem? Are they pioneers in this system or has it already been used, if so, what are the significant results that benefit the user?

Manu:
Yeah i think our choice for reverse gas was a very important choice. The reverse gas model allows end users to use an application running on the internet computer without buying tokens / gas, just like in Web 2.0. So it’s super easy to use dapps running on blockchains. The devs can pay for the usage of their canister smart contract. On the IC, gas is called “cycles”.

concretely, it means anybody can just open a link (eg https://dscvr.one/) to an app running on the internet computer, without any hurdles, which i think is a requirement to get mass adoption

hope that answers your question

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
2: ICP tokens allow users to participate in and govern the Internet Computer blockchain network. Can you tell us more about the other utilities of $ICP aside from governance? Also, can you describe to us how the structure of your DAO governance works?

Dieter M Sommer:
Aside from governance, the ICP token can be used for buying cycles, the other native token of the IC. 1SDR worth of ICP can be exchanged for 1 trillion cycles. Cycles are a stablecoin. Cycles can be used for paying for computations. That’s where the reverse gas model explained by Manu above comes in: The canister is charged up with cycles, e.g., by one of the developers. Then, the canister pays the IC when consuming resources of the IC, e.g., for computation and storage for dApps. Users who access the canister never need to pay for cycles.

See here for a solid introduction to how the governance works. https://medium.com/dfinity/understanding-the-internet-computers-network-nervous-system-neurons-and-icp-utility-tokens-730dab65cae8

Manu:
To answer the question about how the DAO governance works: everybody can submit proposals to our DAO, the network nervous system (NNS). You can see concretely what type of proposals they are here https://dashboard.internetcomputer.org/governance. All neuron holders (= “ICP stakers”) can vote on these proposals, and they execute automatically whenever the proposal is accepted by the majority.

https://internetcomputer.org/how-it-works/network-nervous-system-nns/ also has more info on the NNS

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
3: An organization’s security system is crucial. How can the security of a project be improved to prevent hackers? Does your project/business have a unique security system? Additionally, do you provide users and investors any unique security guarantees?

Dieter M Sommer:
We have a multi-faceted approach towards security of the IC, for example:
* Formal proofs wherever possible (e.g., threshold ECDSA, consensus)
* Formal verification of key components of the IC (e.g., the ICP ledger)
* Internal and external code reviews (e.g., by Trail of Bits)
* Security by design, and not as an afterthought
* World-leading team of researchers and engineers
The above measures we take for implementing components of the IC gives us a high assurance of correctness of the system, i.e., that it works as specified.

Manu:
Here is a forum post about one of our external security audits (by trail of bits): https://forum.dfinity.org/t/internet-computer-security-assessment-by-trail-of-bits-third-party-security-audit/10113

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
4:I have explored the Internet Computer Ecosystem and I found out that you featured 82 projects already. What type of projects do you feature and allow on the Internet Computer Blockchain? How can a project apply in your ecosystem?

Manu:
Great question! Anybody can build things on the IC (dev docs to get started: https://internetcomputer.org/docs/current/developer-docs/ic-overview). There are multiple options to raise funds for building on ICP:
- Grants by the Foundation: https://dfinity.org/grants/
- Beacon Fund by PolyChain Capital: https://dfinity.org/ecosystem/fund
- Community Award Program: https://dfinity.org/community/
- Any other crypto VC
- coming soon: Launch your own token with the SNS

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
5)Normally, to access an online service, we identify ourselves through the name and/or email, and at the end by entering a password. How does Internet Computer provide security to protect user data, how or what services to protection of some risk in digital management of consumers?

Dieter M Sommer:
Users of the Internet Computer can use Internet Identity to securely and conveniently authenticate to the IC. When registering an Internet Identity, or II, users get a so-called identity anchor (a number) that acts as a username. One or more (for backup purposes) WebAuthn keys are associated with an anchor which are used for cryptographically authenticating. WebAuthn guarantees that the private key is securely stored in hardware, e.g., your phone or Mac or Windows laptop, and can be unlocked with biometry (e.g., face or fingerprint). This allows for an extremely convenient authentication workflow to dApps on the Internet Computer that works on essentially all modern devices.
This is much simpler than, for example, managing a key as you need to do for Ethereum and thus increases the mass adoption potential for the IC. Also, this is much more secure than username/password authentication as mostly used in Web 2.0 where an attacker can obtain a password, e.g., through phishing, and get illegitimate access to services.

Having different means of authenticating to the IC as shown above shows the flexibility and extensibility of the platform.

Manu:
In addition to Internet Identity, there are many other wallets available as well, eg https://www.stoicwallet.com/ and https://plugwallet.ooo/, and NFID which builds on internet identity https://nfid.one/

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
That’s the wind up of our twitter segment

Dieter M Sommer:
What’s happening next?

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
We can proceed our last segment — Live Q&A , if you’re ready!!

Manu:
that sounds great!

Dieter M Sommer:
Awesome!

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
lets see it

Segment 3️⃣: Live QnA
(In this segment group was opened for 60 seconds and Miners sent hundreds of questions. Guest choose some best to answer)

1)Rogina Kazem🥳:
If I use or am interested in using dapps on the Internet Computer, How can I start? Where can find the guidelines on how to use Internet Identity, or find more IC dapps?

Manu:
You can look at https://wiki.internetcomputer.org/wiki/How_to_create_an_Internet_Identity to help you set up an internet identity (although you might also figure it out on your own at https://identity.ic0.app/). Then, you can use your newly set up identity to access eg https://dscvr.one/. Hope that helps!

2) CHUKKY:
The #InternetComputer blockchain recently surpassed 𝟏 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 on Wednesday, July 13, 2021 07:39:14 PM GMT, and currently has a flow of 35.72 bps. Finality in 1–2 seconds 🚀

This is amazing!

Could you please explain to us how does each block within the ecosystem works and processes to achieve this high BPS?

Dieter M Sommer:
Great observation! Yes, we passed 1 B blocks recently. The reason we can such a high block throughput on the IC is our subnet-based asynchronous architecture. The IC comprises a growing number of subnets, each one being its own blockchain that progresses independent of the others. Communication between the subnets is done by asynchronous messaging. As we now have around 35 subnets and each subnet produces one block per second, we get around 35 bps.

3) Matin Bhr:
In August 2022 you have updated your roadmap , i wanna know what are the new incomming features will be add to ICP ecosystem and why did you update your roadmap ?

Also Are you gonna update the roadmap in the future ?

Dieter M Sommer:
We are continuously updating our roadmap to prioritize the most important features the DFINITY Foundation is working on. As mentioned before the 3 most important features we are currently working on and will soon release are:
* BTC Integration
* Outbound HTTP calls
* Service Network System

4) Bakkar:
How strong is internet computer security?
Can you elaborate?

Dieter M Sommer:
We provided some hints at what we do for security further above, this should answer much of the question. Lots of formal work, proofs, code audits, and a great team.

5) Madin tosh:
I want to know how can i participate on Network Nervous System (NNS) staking platform to stake my ICP coins ? Can i send my ICP coins directly from an exchange to this staking platform ? How much is the APY ?

Manu:
I think https://wiki.internetcomputer.org/wiki/Tutorials_for_acquiring,_managing,_and_staking_ICP should contain all the info you need. In short, you need to get ICPs (eg from well known exchanges, like coinbase / kraken / binance / …), set up a secure way to hold your tokens (you can eg use a ledger nano device), then “stake” your tokens, such that you can pariticpate in the NNS DAO and vote on proposals, collecting voting rewards. https://dashboard.internetcomputer.org/governance shows you the APY you can expect, which depends on how long you lock your tokens for. If you lock for the max amount (8 years), the estimated APY is currently 20%.

6) Gregory Sharp:
Too many projects promise miracles but never release any working product or prove any revenue in a short/long release time. Is your project like that? If not, can you tell us, what makes your project different from other projects?

Manu:
essentially all the things we talked about are actually available today, so you can try them out for yourself!

7) ⚡️𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙍𝘾⚡️:
Did you consider community feedback/requests during the creation of your product in order to expand on fresh ideas for your project? Many projects fail because the target audience and clients are not understood. So I’d like to know who your ideal consumer is for your product?

Dieter M Sommer:
Every time we start working on a major feature, we first create a design proposal and post it in our developer forum (https://forum.dfinity.org/). Here we are getting feedback from the most experienced engineers from our community who help shape these features. Once the community and the foundation converge on the design, we start the engineering work on our side.
When the feature has been developed, we put out an NNS proposal, where ICP holders can vote whether to accept this proposed feature. After accepting the proposal, an automatic upgrade executes and updates the Internet Computer.

*This segment ends here*

Dieter M Sommer:
Great questions, thanks!

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
Thankyou so much Guys For your valuable answers and information about Internet Computer ❤️

It Was Pleasure Hosting An Ama With You guys

Time To Conclude Our AMA Section

Is there anything else you would like to share or you want us to know?

Manu:
thanks so much for having us, and for all the great questions! If you want to stay up to date, you can follow https://twitter.com/dfinity for updates

Dieter M Sommer:
It was a pleasure! Thanks for having us!

Ramsy | Crypto Miners:
We Wish all the very best for ICP And The Entire team behind the project❤️🤝

Community, if you would like to learn more about ICP, here are some useful links for you:

Website: https://internetcomputer.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dfinity
Telegram: https://t.me/SCRTcommunity
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/cA7y6ezyE2
Github: https://github.com/dfinity
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/dfinity/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dfinity
Medium: https://medium.com/dfinity-network-blog