Snapshot
- Captured
- 10 September 2026 at 01:56 UTC
- Content hash (SHA-256)
471ff958e680d29d436ffe721141ce2ad3873cb6e0e257ed7e3a2eae45cd6a10
This is the readable text of the page as it was captured. The full web archive (WARC) of the request and response is retained and can be produced on request.
Internet Computer — The New Tech Stack Skip to content Spotlight Build News Documentation Network DFINITY ↗ Ask AI Quick start → Cycles / s Cycles / s This is the rate at which cycles are being burned by the network. Cycles are the digital fuel that powers computation on the network, and they disappear when consumed. When a user buys using a credit card, the payment provider purchases ICP tokens behind the scenes, converts them into cycles, and then charges up the user's hosted software or cloud engines. 1 trillion cycles is worth 1 XDR (known as a Special Drawing Right/SDR), a currency defined by the IMF. 1 XDR is worth about $1.44 USD. dashboard.internetcomputer.org ↗ Canisters Canisters Canisters are tamperproof units of serverless software hosted by the Internet Computer network. Most canisters are standalone applications, but they can also serve as individual units of software within larger systems. They are capable of serving web-based user experiences, and storing and processing large amounts of data. Each canister is a combination of Wasm bytecode that defines its logic, and dedicated persistent memory pages that hold its internal state. Canisters communicate through function calls. Canisters are “software actors” that run asynchronously, allowing scalable high-performance applications to be created on the Internet Computer. Data lives "orthogonally" in memory within abstract logic they define, fueling the modeling power of AI, and delivering a new paradigm where “The Program is The Database.” dashboard.internetcomputer.org ↗ NNS TVL NNS TVL The Network Nervous System (NNS) is the Internet Computer’s open and decentralized governance and orchestration system, and runs as part of the network. Anyone can participate, by handing ICP tokens to the NNS, and receiving voting neurons in return, through which new ICP tokens can be earned, by first increasing the maturity of the neurons involved in voting, and then by eventually using them to mint new ICP. The NNS is one of the largest DAOs in existence, and the only DAO that runs as part of a network protocol to automate orchestration. Its purpose is to play the role of a decentralized and autonomous ICANN for the Internet Computer ecosystem. dashboard.internetcomputer.org ↗ Network market cap Network market cap The network market cap is the number of ICP tokens multiplied by their price. Network users convert ICP tokens into cycles that are burned and disappear (deflation), and they are generated by the network to remunerate node providers operating nodes, and by some participants in network governance (inflation). ICP tokens exist within the network, and enable it to create a self-sustaining network economy without central points of failure. The New Tech Stack Sovereign serverless cloud, for AIware apps that empower agentic nations, enterprises, and people – created by an open, mathematical network Get a cloud engine opencloud.org → Upgrade your agents skills.internetcomputer.org → The Internet Computer is a frontier serverless cloud for AIware apps, created by a mathematical, open network. It combines independently-operated hardware, including hyperscaler hardware, to form a universal tech stack that offers an alternative to traditional tech stacks. Tamperproof apps are immune to infrastructure attacks , always-on, can be auto-scaled, need minimal administration, and are digital assets onchain natives. It’s the ultimate platform for agents that build. § 01 Ecosystem spotlight · Consumer Mass-market platforms already live on the Internet Computer. Explore live apps alongside new platforms in early access and development. Business software Coming soon OpenSaaS — Business apps you own Manage accounting, people, expenses, projects, and customer relationships with business apps you can run and control yourself. Explore OpenSaaS ↗ Cloud hosting Early access OpenCloud — Your cloud, your choice Build and run apps in your own cloud. Choose the providers and locations that host them, with control over where your software and data live. Explore OpenCloud ↗ AI app builder Caffeine — Build through conversation Describe the website or app you have in mind, and let AI build it. Keep the conversation going to refine the design and add features. Learn more → Private sign-in Internet Identity — Sign in privately Sign in to apps with a passkey instead of a password. A separate identity for each app helps keep your activity private. Explore Internet Identity ↗ Digital wallet OISY — Your wallet, in your browser Keep your crypto and digital collectibles together in one wallet. Open it in your browser to view and manage what you hold across different networks. Learn more → Trading platform Play mode MULTI/DEX — Multi-Chain Decentralized Exchange 100% onchain. 100% native assets. Yours. Explore MULTI/DEX ↗ Community & messaging OpenChat — Bring your conversations together Stay in touch with friends and join communities in one messaging app, with your data and conversations under your control. Learn more → Drag to explore ↔ Position 1 of 1 . ▷ Play Previous app Next app § 02 Why agents build here Internet Computer cloud has properties that enable agents to build online with greater autonomy. № 01 Tamperproof Serverless software is hosted within mathematical protocols that create the cloud, not directly on servers, and is tamperproof by default, just like the network. A misconfiguration cannot lead to a cyber breach. Immunity from infrastructure hacks allows AI to deploy without oversight from human security teams. ✦ Ask how this works → Read the source ↗ № 02 Fault-tolerant The network cloud replicates the computations and data of serverless software across compute nodes, and the protocol is fault-tolerant. Serverless software does not depend on platform software, such as databases, so AI can build without oversight from human systems administration teams. ✦ Ask how this works → № 03 Sovereign Your cloud is a compute configuration, not a machine. Run on the shared public network, or define a cloud engine — your own subnet — choosing compute providers and locations. Add and remove nodes to move over hardware and auto-scale software without interrupting hosted apps. AI choices don't add lock-in. ✦ Ask how this works → § 03 The self-writing cloud Agents build and update sophisticated AIware for you, while only needing to focus on the abstract logic of your apps and services. № 04 AIware comes for free AI builds using a new kind of software, and new languages. It focuses only on the UX and abstract backend logic of apps. The program is the database, because data lives in persistent memory, and is defined by program logic. AI can see this memory, and dynamically add logic, so AI chat can offer fluid extra functionality. ✦ Ask how this works → № 05 Lossy updates can't happen Upgrading production apps has always been risky, so how can AI be trusted? Program data lives in memory and is defined by program logic. AI must specify how to transform that data on updates. Mistakes that could lead to loss are detectable, and lossy updates are rejected, reducing potential disasters to AI coding retries. ✦ Ask how this works → № 06 Digital assets, trustlessly Increasingly, online commerce relies on digital assets, including stablecoins. Custodying any kind of digital asset securely is hard, but AI is provided with multi-blockchain APIs, and tamperproof key custody and signing, safe even against the physical breach of an underlying compute node. Digital assets are simplified to abstractions. ✦ Ask how this works → § 04 The research program The world's most sophisticated network science, made yours. The Internet Computer was developed by a multi-year R&D program. After initial work, the DFINITY Foundation was formed in October 2016, and has run one of the largest independent research operations in frontier computing since late 2017. Its purpose is to develop internet-scale cloud that hosts a new kind of software — any language that compiles to WebAssembly, plus the domain-specific Motoko language developed in-house. Over the years, the network has benefited from the work of some of the world's leading researchers and engineers in secure distributed protocols, cryptography, execution environments, Wasm, and programming languages. In recent times, an increasing emphasis has been placed on enabling the self-writing internet, where AI generates apps on demand. As the Internet Computer hosts ever more apps and services, it becomes increasingly clear that its time has come. In the next issue Speak with the research team → For partnerships and institutional collaborations. The transition to sovereign cloud, explained → The Conversation · on why Europe is rethinking its internet stack. § 05 Research and resources The research behind the Internet Computer Explore the papers and presentations that explain how the Internet Computer works, why it was designed this way, and what it makes possible. Technical papers Go to technical papers → Decks Learn more → § 06 In the press Recent coverage, announcements, and field notes. Axios Exclusive: UN agency tests alternative to major cloud giants ↗ Exclusive: Pakistan moves towards sovereign AI Axios Pakistan Digital Authority and DFINITY Partner for Sovereign Cloud Infrastructure and AI Software Systems DFINITY Foundation Pakistan digital authority partners with Swiss-based group on sovereign cloud, AI systems Arab News Mission 70 and Accelerating the Internet Computer Economy Whitepaper DFINITY launches Caffeine VentureBeat Monetize apps with Caffeine § 07 Ecosystem spotlight · Government & NGO Institutions building on the sovereign-by-default stack. PDA — Sovereign infrastructure for Pakistan The Pakistan Digital Authority and DFINITY partner to advance sovereign, AI-native digital infrastructure in Pakistan. Read more → UNDP — Universal Trusted Credentials The United Nations Development Programme uses ICP to issue tamperproof, verifiable credentials. Read more ↗ GZA — Europe's tech powerhouse How the Internet Computer plays a leading role in the Greater Zurich Area's technology ecosystem. Read more ↗ Quick start · for human developers Everything you need to ship apps, websites, and services inside the Internet Computer's tamperproof serverless environment. Start building → § For agents Machine-readable copies of “ Internet Computer — frontier computing platform ” Copy Markdown .md ↓ .json ↓ Copy agent prompt © 2026 Internet Computer Terms & policies Privacy policy Source code github.com/dfinity/ic X LinkedIn Youtube Medium GitHub CMC Back to top