Amid Dogecoin and Shiba Inu Hype, Internet Computer (ICP) Launches With Aim To Decentralize The Web

The token of a decentralized project that calls itself “Internet Computer” has taken the sixth spot in terms of market capitalization on the list arranged by CoinMarketCap.

What Happened: Internet Computer (ICP) — the token of a cloud-computing project initially built by DFINITY, which aims to displace tech giants — traded at $451.50.

ICP traded at a low of $146.45 and hit a high of $737.20 on an intra-day basis, as per CoinMarketCap data.

On May 10 at 10:00 CEST, @dfinity open sourced the #InternetComputer.

Now that the #InternetComputer is launched, the source code of 3 primary components is live: replica, nodemanager, and NNS canisters. pic.twitter.com/iMt7T3vRhd

— DFINITY Foundation (@dfinity) May 10, 2021

The project’s network as well as the special node machines that host the network run under the full control of the Network Nervous System or NNS, according to the project’s blog.

The NNS itself works by allowing users to stake ICP tokens — which play the role of governance tokens. The tokens can be used to generate neurons that are akin to savings accounts.

These neurons can be made to vote manually or automatically by following other neurons in what the project calls “liquid democracy.”

In 2018, the project’s founder Dominic William’s said in a tweet that the internet has become more “monopolistic and corporate.”

At the time, Williams gave the example of Facebook Inc FB as an internet giant that runs services that act as “necessary.” He pointed to Amazon.com Inc AMZN unit Amazon Web Services, and Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG subsidiary Google as examples of “massive players” that perform most cloud/hosting functions.

Why It Matters: The launch of the Internet Computer and its governance token takes place at a time when meme coins such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and SHIBA INU (SHIB) with little underlying utility are dominating discussion boards and market capitalization charts.

See Also: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)

SHIB has spiraled 2088.56% in a seven-day period and traded 146.8% higher at $0.00003454 at press time.DOGE was down 10.91% at $0.47. DOGE is now the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, while SHIB is at no. 16, according to CoinMarketCap.

See Also: Here's How Shiba Inu (SHIB) Rally Is Different From Dogecoin

Zurich, Switzerland-based DFINITY, has raised $166.9 million, according to Crunchbase data.

DFINITY pitches the Internet Computer as a “revolutionary public network” that provides a “limitless environment” for smart contracts that run at web speed on its website. 

The project claims it will allow for the building of everything from Decentralized Finance or Defi to mass market tokenized social media services that run on-chain.

The Internet Computer is sometimes referred to as “Ethereum’s crazy sister” and has some parallels with Ethereum’s “World Computer” aspirations, according to Messari.

Ethereum (ETH) traded 4.46% lower at $3,907.78 at press time. The apex cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), traded 6.43% lower at $55,191.84.

As of press time, no markets that trade ICP were listed on Messari or CoinMarketCap.