Internet Computer: The End of Big Tech Monopoly

Internet Computer Protocol poses a threat to the Big Techs, who have monopolized and dominated the Internet.

The Internet Computer is taking back the Internet, one Dapp at a time!

In 2009, the decentralization revolution started with Bitcoin

It then extended with the addition of Ethereum smart contracts. This opened the door to growing development ecosystems like DEX ( Decentralized exchanges), automated market makers, lending, borrowing & hefty interest for stable coins. This consequently gave rise to thousands of crypto coins & projects.

We have come a long way since Bitcoin's inception. With the technological (blockchain in this case) evolution, new functionalities & capabilities are added.  One of these new blockchains worthy of mention is the Internet Computer ( ICP - token).

In May 2021, the main-net for the Internet Computer was launched.

I believe it's the next evolution of Blockchain where the internet itself is decentralized. Independent nodes worldwide serve dApps (decentralized apps) to applications & customers directly, giving almost 100% uptime & security against any data breach or loss.

Cloud computing caused the centralization of the Internet

In 2010 when I started my career, companies used to have big data centers - offshore & onshore. Even the organizations which are not technology companies like GM or Home depot used to (some still do) host enormous in-house data centers. Then AWS came along with cloud computing, transformed this space, and offered Software as a Service (SaaS).

Companies are not required to maintain data centers, they can just buy a service from AWS alike.

Anyone can develop software and deploy it on AWS, which is cheap but only somewhat reliable because software is hosted at a centralized place. They offer 99.9 % uptime, but data/applications must still be hosted in a particular region. Of course, they control the infrastructure to turn it off if required by the government or for other unknown reasons.

The market share for Cloud computing has grown exponentially, and it's still in its mid-phase.

As of 08/20/2021, the global crypto market cap is $2.09T, according to coinmarketcap, with millions of dollars of loans and billions worth of crypto locked in for staking.

The crypto market cap has exploded, and the future potential is significant (just to put it in simple terms). The Internet computer brings out the best of both worlds  - AWS-like architecture with blockchain decentralization & security.

Internet Computer, the Next-Gen Blockchain

Internet Computer brings about the third phase of the evolution of the blockchain, which started with Bitcoin and was later fueled by the "smart contracts" concept by Ethereum. The Internet Computer employs a "canister" approach (smart contracts with memory to store user/other data). It's the next phase of crypto technology, so it isn't easy to estimate the prospect of tech like this, but even 10% of the market share of Ethereum & AWS gives the Internet Computer a pretty large market cap. I would instead take my chances investing in Internet Computer (because it's still in the initial phase and will take some time to mature) than invest in Ethereum or Bitcoin, which have throughput & other limitations.

Internet Computer nodes are not hosted on any cloud!

On the other hand, the Internet Computer allows you to do this natively. When interacting with the Ethereum or Solana's blockchain, we interact with the frontend running on a cloud hosted by big techs like AWS and Azure. This gives them the unique advantage of directly interacting with DApps, using Stripe and other payment API, and generating revenue, making the fundamentals case even more robust.

Every time an application operates on the Internet Computer, it burns cycles pegged to stable currency (unlike Ethereum, which depends on the ETH currency, making it expensive for developers if the ETH price appreciates). As the Internet Computer ecosystem usage grows, more cycles will be burned, making ICP tokens valuable while easily making costs predictable to developers and node operators (since they are paid in ICP tokens ).

Over 500 applications are being developed on this platform. Since it's the most well-funded Blockchain project, they are investing in applications through a $220 Million developer grant.

OpenChat: A truly decentralized alternative to WhatsApp

OpenChat is the first of its kind, and it's downright revolutionary. It's a WhatsApp-like messenger running entirely on the blockchain. It's fully functional with a clean, user-friendly interface and a decentralized messaging service operating solely from the blockchain. Chats will be processed and stored on-chain in "canisters," which are upgraded smart contracts (smart contracts with memory). So one canister per user, one canister per group chat.

This will allow it to scale up relatively fast to accommodate the current and future traffic. OpenChat is currently in test mode for 50,000 accounts ( upgraded recently from the 20,000 tests run limit).

Facebook's new privacy policy for WhatsApp and China's censorship/data collection on WeChat makes OpenChat quite appealing. Free from any government & big tech control, this is open, blockchain secure, private & censorship-resistant.

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