The Internet Computer continues to grow and thrive at a fast pace in 2022. It has done marvelous achievements over the past few years and is set towards greater things in the future. Here are just a few highlights as we reach the halfway mark for the year 2022, and it is not to be considered an exhaustive list:
New Partnerships:
One of its biggest milestones this year was in January 2022 when Dfinity Foundation collaborated with Nuance, a Web3.0 blogging platform of the future. Along with Distrikt, OpenChat, and DSCVR, they make up the pillars of Decentralized Social on the Internet Computer. This is important because the pillars of the Internet Computer are for developers to become free from platform risk and Big Tech controlling our data.
Another important partnership was in February 2022, when Dfinity Foundation announced a partnership with Huobi incubator, the project incubation arm of Huobi Global. Via this partnership, the two will come up with jointly organized global hackathons. It will ensure that Huobi Incubator plays a role in all ICP Web3 projects such as NFTs, Gams, DeFi, metaverse, and dApps.
Technological Achievements:
In March 2022, the DFINITY development team announced that it had made an important update on the Chromium milestone. With the proposal dubbed “Nodes Can Be Reassigned to a Different Subnet,” nodes can now switch between subnets without reemployment.
Another important development was in February 2022, when the DFINITY Foundation announced it had released the Bitcoin integration developer preview. The preview enables developers to write canister smart contracts that utilize the Internet Computer Bitcoin API. According to the Dfinity Foundation, direct integration with Bitcoin will “give superpowers to Bitcoin.”
Once deployed, it will bring advanced smart contracts to the largest crypto coin in the world. Every canister smart contract on Internet Computer will have the full functionality of a Bitcoin wallet. This integration will open up a completely new world of use cases and dApp implementations. It will also enhance the value of the DeFi ecosystem, while creating new Bitcoin-based DeFi platforms that do not rely on intermediaries, thus improving trust.
One way it will improve trust is by eliminating bridges. While blockchain bridges have proven to be a practical solution for different blockchains to communicate, they are not completely secure. The most recent example of the weakness of blockchain bridges was the hack of the Axie Infinity protocol that led to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in digital assets. The Internet Computer direct integration will eliminate this risk.
Ambitious Plans for DFINITY Foundation Founder
Dominic Williams, the DFINITY Foundation CEO, has been keeping busy. In March 2022, he proposed a daring plan that could help to deal with the situation in Ukraine.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Williams explained how Russia is seeking to completely cut off the Ukraine from the internet. While Russia has denied any such plans, various leaked messages show it could accomplish that mission soon.
Williams proposed a blockchain-based solution which would allow Ukrainians to access their bank accounts and other services that are usually available only through a connection to the internet.
The plan would work by setting up several “nodes” in different locations throughout Ukraine where people can go to connect with each other directly via blockchain technology instead of relying on an internet connection that might be unavailable or unreliable at times when they need it most.
The Internet Computer would be the perfect solution to that issue. It has been designed from the ground up as a decentralized version of the internet, which makes centralized control impossible. If it succeeds, it could help to highlight the power of Internet Computer, and highlight the future of the internet that runs on a Layer 1 decentralized blockchain.
While there were definitely bumps in the road, the ambitious projects of Dominic Williams and the teams went off without a hitch. It was a productive year for partnerships, and there is great potential for the remainder of the year ahead. In short, the initiative is dependent on the successful execution by the builders using ICP to create a framework for the new Internet. The long-term vision is not only ambitious but original as well. The positive results we’ve seen so far are encouraging, to say the least. Stay tuned for more.
