ICP Breaks Many Records Just Hours After Going Live

ICP Breaks Many Records Just Hours After Going Live

 Published: May 17th, 2021

 A crypto token conceived by Switzerland’s Dfinity Foundation has moved from relative obscurity to emerge as the world’s eighth most valuable virtual currency with a market capitalization of more than $36 billion. The token, whose objective is to kill oligopoly on the internet, has broken many records since debuting on virtual currency exchanges worldwide.

According to data from CoinGecko, Dfinity Foundation’s Internet Computer token (ICP) debuted on Coinbase, a U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, on Monday, May 10, and immediately shot to a high of $700. Even though the token later dipped to about $340, it etched records never seen before for a coin that just went live.

According to Messari, a crypto market research, data, and trading tools provider, some 469,213,710 ICPs had been created. These figures mean that the wholly diluted market capitalization based on the lowest recorded price was $160.5 billion.

However, the same Messari report that tabulated the market cap said that only 26% of the created tokens were circulating. Based on the data, the circulating market cap of ICP would be slightly more than $41.5 billion, making it the seventh-biggest virtual currency. According to the Messari data, ICP now sits between Cardano (ADA), which has a market cap of about $55 billion, and Polkadot (DOT), which weighs about $36 billion on the market capitalization scale.

The bevy of trading that followed the listing kept traders constantly busy several days after several cryptocurrency exchanges such as Huobi, Binance, and OKEx included support for the token.

Undoing Internet’s Failings

According to Matthew Leising and Olga Kharif, staffers at BNN Bloomberg, the token and the network it powers hint at the new kind of blockchain that hopes to reinvent how people interact with the internet.

Dominic Williams, the founder of Dfinity Foundation, said that the objective of the Internet Computer token is two-fold; it powers a network that seeks to improve the slow pace of most blockchain networks. Besides, it is meant to eliminate gatekeepers such as Amazon Web Service and Google as the centralized, for-profit systems that websites and the blockchain rely on.

Whereas Ethereum is now the busiest blockchain network, users complain that it is slow because of the nature of the nodes that house it. Ethereum’s pace implies that it can process only 30 transactions per second.

Even though Ethereum is decentralized, the nodes that support its network are patched on cloud-based computing services that Amazon, Google, and some other tech giants offer.

However, Wilson Withiam and Mira Chrisanto, analysts at Messari, said that Dfinity seeks to solve issues that stretch further than blockchain technology. In a research note shared with the clients, the two executives said Dfinity is providing solutions to problems that plague the traditional internet, such as comparatively low data security and the monopoly manifested by big tech companies.

The Internet Computer network and Ethereum are base level protocols. Such networks provide the base that applications need to run.

Dfinity Could Offer Ethereum Another Censorship Resistance Layer

According to the Dfinity team, their project has received increased attention, probably because of its versatile nature. The team added that its smart contract platform has the same pace as the internet and can run the applications on the open web and blockchains such as Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum.

Besides, the platform is capable of censoring every facet of decentralized finance (DeFi). According to Brady Dale, a CoinDesk staffer, if indeed ICP lives to the billing, its feature could be crucial for Ethereum’s most successful application. However, he added that such applications might migrate from the Ethereum network to the ICP platform for good.

All these assertions remain to be seen. The claims for the new platform could not be grander. In a blog posted by the company in September, Dfinity described the new platform as a new kind of blockchain computer with infinite capability and performance rivaling the traditional cloud.

Williams, who doubles as the foundation’s chief scientist, said Dfinity wants to give users a reason to abandon traditional IT and migrate all systems and services to smart contracts. According to the team, the platform takes the blockchain journey to a whole new level.

Williams said that Bitcoin made the concept of digital gold a reality, inventing a whole market. The blockchain environment’s second significant contribution was smart contracts, and Ethereum helped prove that they work, he added. The Internet Computer unveils the third step, which Williams called Infinite Blockchain. According to him, ICP offers a gateway allowing users to do the perceived and the unimaginable.

Perceived Capability Pushing Speculation

The perceived possibilities that Dfinity might deliver are driving fierce speculation causing the price volatility witnessed in the past week.

According to market analysts, the token may settle down as the market matures. At the close of the week ending Saturday, May 15, the price had scrapped about 70% of the loss experienced on Monday, May 10.

Meanwhile, the platform’s long-awaited network for smart contracts that run at the internet speed went live on Friday, May 7, under the keen scrutiny of the Network Nervous System. This autonomous software governs the Internet Computer and manages its aspects, including its economics and network structure.

The platform’s later 1 protocol would provide a decentralized public network that might metamorphose into an extension of the internet. Plans to realize these dreams go on unabated. Seamus Cornwell, the foundation’s spokesman, said Dfinity had raised $121 in direct backing from Andreessen Horowitz, CoinFund, Polychain Capital, Scalar Capital, Multicoin Capital, and Greycfroft Partners.

Besides, the foundation had another $61 million funding round in February 2018. However, the foundation considers the earlier fundraising round as ecosystem funding as opposed to direct backing.

The foundation and its network have debuted on such a great premise with huge expectations hang on their necks; it would be interesting to watch how their progress pan out.

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