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ICP has quietly become the 18th most valuable digital asset.<\/p>\n
Internet Computer Protocol Founder Dominic Williams says enterprise will be key for ICP to continue growing after the token tripled in the past three months.<\/p>\n
ICP has quietly become the 18th most valuable digital asset after starting<\/a> 2023 as the 34th largest. Most of the growth came in 2023\u2019s final quarter as ICP\u2019s market capitalization jumped over 300% to $5.59B from $1.39B.<\/p>\n Williams said developing solutions for large companies may be key to the protocol\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt’s not just about web3,\u201d he said. \u201cThe vision for the Internet Computer is also about enterprise.\u201d ICP bills itself as \u201cserving webpages through smart contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n The project uses WebAssembly, a code format that allows for high-performance web-pages which exist inside a form of smart contract which ICP calls \u201ccanisters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur objective is to enable people to create absolutely any kind of backend system or any online system exclusively from smart contracts,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n The founder went on to say that cybercrime is becoming a huge cost \u2014$6T<\/a> in 2021\u2014 which smart contracts can help mitigate.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernments are beginning to hold IT directors, organizations, responsible for hacks,\u201d he said, noting that Uber\u2019s Chief Security Officer was sentenced<\/a> to three years of probation earlier this year for obfuscating a hack.<\/p>\n Crypto has long been on the receiving end of criticism as an industry looking for a problem to solve. The clunky user experience, hacks, and rampant speculation has made it hard for many people to see the value in the space.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Start for free<\/a><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Williams sees ICP as an antidote to many of those criticisms \u2014 the founder showed The Defiant a wallet<\/a> which abstracts away the use of a browser extension like MetaMask, being responsible for custodying funds.<\/p>\n The DFINITY founder emphasized that extensions like MetaMask can be tampered with. He also highlighted that many crypto applications really host their frontends on centralized offerings like Amazon Web Services.<\/p>\n \u201c[Internet Computer] is about full stack decentralization,\u201d Williams said. \u201cEverything from the user experience to the data processing and storage.\u201d<\/p>\n While someone who bought and held ICP since early 2023 is sitting on large gains, the digital asset hasn\u2019t always been a good investment \u2014 zooming out, ICP launched in 2021 at over $100 per token \u2014CoinGecko giving an all-time high of $700\u2014 only to drift below $3 in 2023.<\/p>\n ICP launched in 2016 and raised an initial coin offering (ICO) of $3.9M in 2017. The DFINITY Foundation subsequently raised over $100M in later venture rounds from investors like a16z, Polychain, and Multicoin Capital.<\/p>\n The project has aligned itself with the wave of interest in AI which came in the last year on the back of ChatGPT\u2019s release \u2014 the DFINITY Foundation launched<\/a> a $5M grant for projects developing AI solutions on ICP.<\/p>\n One of ICP\u2019s major initiatives is an integration with Bitcoin which went live in 2022. The feature allows the protocol to create real Bitcoin addresses and send the cryptocurrency through apps built on ICP.<\/p>\nWebsites With Smart Contracts<\/h2>\n
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Fighting Cybercrime<\/h2>\n
Recent Initiatives<\/h2>\n