What is ICP?
ICP is the governance token for the Internet Computer Protocol. The Internet Computer Protocol is a layer one but it’s also a bunch of different technologies all wrapped into one nice name.
Buckle up folks it’s a long read.
Chain Key Cryptography
Lets be honest chain key is le creme de la creme of what makes ICP special and I’m about to do a terrible job explaining it. #YOLO.
First look at this picture.
You see how everything starts at the brain? In ICP the NNS is the brain and each of the appendages: arms, legs, hands, all of them are what some people call “subnets”. Problem with calling them that is the term “subnets” comes with baggage. In traditional network such as Avalanche subnets will have a hard time communicating. In ICP it’s transparent more like a giant blockchain with the added benefit of being infinitely scalable. This is unique to ICP.
This mathematical magic is known as chain key cryptography and it’s what makes this possible.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL FOLKS!!
Because ICP is a bunch of different blockchains glued together by math this same technology can be used to connect it to other blockchains. That means that not only can ICP infinitely grow but it can also integrate other blockchains hence upcoming Bitcoin and Ethereum integrations. So that means ICP can pacman it’s way into being the only chain that matters.
https://dfinity.org/howitworks/chain-key-technology
Network Nervous System
If you are in the know you already heard that ICP is the biggest DAO in the world. The NNS is governance tool that powers said dao. You deposit your ICP and get paid for participating in democracy. Behind the scenes the NNS also has the registry canister where all the configurations are stored for the network. It also does way more stuff but it’s all technical, check out references bellow.
References:
https://medium.com/dfinity/the-network-nervous-system-governing-the-internet-computer-1d176605d66a
Motoko Smart Contract
Everyone loves rust and every major blockchain project is now using rust and Web Assembly. Here is the thing rust is not meant to build applications and it sucks. So Dfinity created Motoko and it’s better. There really is nothing more to be said, github linked.
Internet Identity
I know people are used to using passwords but here is the thing 99% of hacks are caused by bad password (fake statistic). Internet Identity is anonymous authentication framework that all ICP projects can leverage. It presents it’s self as a login button you plug in your authentication hardware and shazam your account is made. This is all possible because of chain key and honestly everyone should be using it. Frankly everyone is going to use it sooner or later whether they like it or not because it’s the API is standard web technology and will become a security requirement in the future.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Authentication_API
This Is getting long
This article is getting kinda long and I probably need to go cook dinner. Plus you really shouldn't just take my word for it. Go read up on the rest of the technology your self.
It’s very cool.
