The Internet Computer’s Sodium Release Brings It Closer to Completion
The Sodium launch event unveiled the open algorithmic governance system that will manage the revolutionary blockchain.
The use of novel cryptography and computer science to create a blockchain hosting unbounded data and computation on-chain represents a profound opportunity to restore an open internet and create entirely new varieties of web services. The Internet Computer is the world’s first web-speed, internet-scale public blockchain. It reimagines not just what’s possible in blockchain, but also the very nature of software and IT, making it possible to build the websites, enterprise systems, internet services, DeFi, and dapps of tomorrow.
The DFINITY Foundation, a Zurich-based not-for-profit, initiated the Internet Computer’s public release schedule in late 2019 with Copper, which introduced the Motoko programming language and the first public version of the DFINITY Canister SDK. This was followed by the Bronze release of our demonstration network in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the welcoming this past June of third-party developers to the Tungsten developer network.
If each of the Internet Computer’s prior releases can be seen as phases of rebuilding earlier eras of computing in decentralized form — terminal-based (Copper), desktop web (Bronze), and mobile (Tungsten) — then Sodium represents the future.
Sodium is the last milestone before the public Internet Computer network comes into being. Later this year, in Q4 of 2020, the Sodium network will silently upgrade itself, becoming Mercury. The Internet Computer network will be running across specialized hardware in numerous independent data centers worldwide, and a new era will have begun.
Bringing the project to this moment has involved relentless human effort, determination, and innovation. We built a machine to build the impossible machine — an organization spread across multiple international research centers and remote teams, with the specialized science and engineering skills necessary to take on the Internet Computer project.
We have created new cryptography and protocols and an open, decentralized environment for interoperable software. We developed Motoko, a language that’s optimized for developing programs to run on the Internet Computer, and we are releasing SDKs for other languages such as Rust. We are creating a growing community of independent data centers.
Our organization is also continuing to grow, incorporating more talent every day into the carefully designed research and engineering processes that have enabled us to get this far. And each day brings more external developers who have begun building for the Internet Computer.
To mark this momentous occasion, on Wednesday, Sept. 30, the DFINITY Foundation hosted an online Sodium launch event from research centers in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Zurich. Thousands of participants watched as DFINITY Founder and Chief Scientist Dominic Williams and team members unveiled the open algorithmic governance system that will manage the network, breakthroughs in cryptography and DeFi, and the token economics behind the Internet Computer.
Following below are a selection of presentations and talks from the Sodium launch event:
The Internet Computer: Token Economics Overview
Remarks by Dominic Williams (DFINITY)
Dominic Williams explains how the Network Nervous System manages the Internet Computer’s token economics, as well as how ICP tokens (formerly known as DFN) and computation “cycles” will be used for governance and to run software, respectively. ICP tokens are primarily governance tokens that can be used in the management of the blockchain network created by the Internet Computer Protocol.
Read more here…
Introducing Canisters: An Evolution of Smart Contracts
Remarks by Johan Granström (DFINITY)
The Internet Computer enables a seamless software ecosystem where different apps and programs communicate and use each other’s APIs. This is made possible by canister smart contracts, computational units that consist of both code and data. Johan Granström, director of engineering, explains how software canisters are a key concept for the Internet Computer, underpinning an open and collaborative internet.
Read more here…
The Secret Weapon for Building Hyperscale Open Internet Services: BigMap and BigSearch
Demo with Dominic Williams and Saša Tomić (DFINITY)
An issue that has persistently challenged other decentralized platforms is the difficulty of storing vast amounts of data in a reliable and cost-effective manner. As of October 2020, it can cost between $3.5–$7 million to store 1 GB of data on Ethereum. Developed by DFINITY, the BigMap library is a back-end service whose scaling functionality is being extended to all Internet Computer applications, meaning exabytes of data can be easily stored and accessed on the Internet Computer. Furthermore, with the full-text search tool BigSearch, enormous quantities of data on the Internet Computer can be easily searched.
Reinventing the Computer Using Advanced Cryptography
Remarks by Jan Camenisch (DFINITY) and Maria Dubovitskaya (DFINITY)
The Internet Computer is a tamper-proof computing infrastructure that enables developers, organizations, and entrepreneurs to build and deploy secure and autonomous software programs. To make this ambitious vision possible, the DFINITY R&D team includes some of the world’s leading cryptographers. Jan Camenisch, VP of Research and Cryptography, has published more than 120 widely cited papers in the areas of privacy and cryptography. He is joined by Maria Dubovitskaya, a cryptographer and engineering manager working on designing provably secure protocols for privacy protection and bringing research into practice.
The Holy Grail of Crypto — One Public Key for the Internet Computer
Remarks by Jens Groth (DFINITY)
Existing key redistribution schemes have many benefits, but they come with a limitation: they are interactive, raising issues with asynchrony. In other words, if a message from a node is missing, it is unclear if the message is merely delayed or if the node has crashed or has been compromised. Fortunately, public key preservation has a cryptographic solution, and it is possible to redistribute secret keys. Jens Groth, principal researcher, explains how the DFINITY R&D team has invented a new noninteractive key redistribution protocol.
The Internet Computer’s Revolutionary Consensus Protocols
Remarks by Manu Drijvers (DFINITY)
Every piece of software on the Internet Computer is executed by many computers around the world instead of just one. This approach requires a consensus protocol: to maintain a coherent state, the different computers, or replicas, must reach consensus on which inputs to process and in which order. Bitcoin and Ethereum use this approach successfully, but they currently spend enormous amounts of energy in the process of reaching consensus, and you have to wait minutes or more before your input is processed. Manu Drijvers, cryptography researcher, explains how the Internet Computer can process many inputs and do so with minimal latency.
Read more here…
Internet Computer Token Wallet for Cycles and ICP Tokens
Demo with Enzo Haussecker (DFINITY)
Not to be confused with a wallet to manage private keys, wallet canisters build on the low-level system API provided by the Internet Computer’s WebAssembly-based virtual machine. In practice, wallet canisters are just a thin layer of abstraction around this API, but end-user experience amounts to a fully managed datastore for cycles and other tokens. Enzo Haussecker, senior software engineer, explains how a wallet canister allows you to easily view current balances of cycles and other tokens, send cycles and other tokens to other wallet canisters, view recent transactions, and more.
Why Not Open Source TikTok as an Open Internet Service?
Demo with Alexa Smith (DFINITY)
When DFINITY first started working on CanCan — an open version of TikTok — TikTok’s popularity was exploding, and we wanted to show how a decentralized, scalable video sharing app on the Internet Computer was also possible. We didn’t know just how relevant our work and the concept of open internet services would become amid the political battles and public scrutiny that have lately consumed TikTok and Big Tech. Alexa Smith, who manages DFINITY’s developer partner program, demonstrates how a scalable, open video-sharing app can easily be created for the Internet Computer in just 1,000 lines of code.
Airdrop Update and Community-Building on the Internet Computer
Remarks by Andy Bromberg (CoinList)
Sodium marks the last milestone before the Internet Computer’s Mercury release, which will herald the network’s public launch as well as the subsequent distribution of governance tokens. Andy Bromberg will be giving a special presentation regarding next steps for airdrop recipients. Tune in to learn how you can collect your governance tokens when the network goes live.
Investing in Open Internet Services and DeFi Startups on the Internet Computer
Remarks by Olaf Carlson-Wee (Polychain Capital) and Artia Moghbel (DFINITY)
Olaf Carlson-Wee makes a special announcement about funding into the entrepreneurs and startups building open internet services and DeFi applications on the Internet Computer.
Swiss Luxury Watch Industry Reinvents a $35-Billion-Dollar Market on the Internet Computer
Featuring the ORIGYN Project
Starting with luxury watches, ORIGYN enables the universal identification and exposure of counterfeits where the object itself constitutes its own unique identity. In this presentation, ORIGYN founders Vincent Perriard, Mike Schwartz, and Gian Bochsler discuss how ORIGYN is leveraging the Internet Computer to deliver an industry-governed solution to stop brand dilution and create new revenue opportunities.
Demo: ORIGYN Project: Minting a Digital Twin
New Business Models on the New Internet
Remarks by Jake Brukhman (CoinFund)
The Internet Computer represents an enormous economic opportunity to reboot the web — applying advancements in blockchain technology to create a development platform that enables the internet services, enterprise systems, DeFi, and dapps of the future. Jake Brukhman explains how CoinFund, one of the most prominent investors in crypto, identifies teams and technologies that leverage new business models to build the next big thing.
Lessons Learned from the DeFi Boom and Gas Crisis
Remarks by Wilson Withiam (Messari)
The rapid growth of DeFi — $1B in April 2020 to $15B in August 2020 — is an example of the massive potential of decentralized apps. Wilson Withiam from Messari, one of the most respected research firms in crypto, draws comparisons to the ICO boom of 2017 while also exploring what went right this time around.
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