The Internet Computer, the Dfinity Foundation's long-awaited platform for smart contracts that run at internet speed, is now live.
Founded in 2016, Dfinity has been working to bring the project to life for five years.
"This is a completely new platform. This is a public platform, it's an extension of the internet. And, you know, eventually, we're chasing blockchain singularity," founder Dominic Williams said in an interview.
The promise of this new system could not be greater.
It launches now with multiple ecosystem companies built to prove out its technology stack, including Enso Finance (a decentralized exchange), Distrikt (a professional social network), Fleek (infrastructure for the decentralized web) and Origyn (a provenance platform for luxury goods), among several others.
With this launch, the 469,213,710 utility tokens (ICP) are live and under the authority of the Network Nervous System (NNS). This means they can move onto exchanges such as Coinbase, which has already announced a plan to list them on its Coinbase Pro product.
Dfinity has funding from Andreessen-Horowitz, Polychain Capital and many others.