Since its launch in May 2021, the Internet Computer blockchain has been marked by zero downtime, processed over three billion blocks, and locked more than $3 billion in the Network Nervous System (NNS) DAO.
According to Electric Capital, the number of developers in the ICP ecosystem increased 12x between 2020 and 2023, despite the mainnet launching only in May 2021.
The Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), a decentralized blockchain network designed to extend the functionality of Web3 by addressing the limitations of traditional blockchains and smart contracts, has released its “Year 4 Internet Computer Roadmap” on the occasion of the 3rd anniversary of its mainnet launch. This new roadmap encapsulates three years of progress and outlines key development areas aimed at positioning ICP as a leader in Decentralized AI and as a central orchestration layer for the blockchain industry.
Since May 2021, the Internet Computer blockchain has maintained a perfect uptime record, processed an impressive three billion blocks, and secured over $3 billion in value within its Network Nervous System (NNS) DAO. This DAO is instrumental in governing the Internet Computer Protocol, ensuring its smooth operation and evolution. The growth of the developer community within the ICP ecosystem has been equally remarkable. Electric Capital reports that developer numbers have surged 12x from 2020 to 2023. In addition, ICP hosts some of the most widely used applications in the cryptocurrency space, including DMail, DSCVR, and OpenChat.
Key Focus Areas in the Year 4 Roadmap
The roadmap for ICP’s fourth year highlights several significant areas of focus, with Decentralized AI and Chain Fusion standing out as major themes.
Dominic Williams, Founder and Chief Scientist of the DFINIY Foundations says, “The Internet Computer is the first and only Third Generation public blockchain. The mission is to drive a “blockchain singularity,” where over time fully decentralized blockchains become the world’s prevailing tech stack, even running secure and unstoppable AI. The DFINITY Foundation and its eminent team of cryptographers, research scientists and engineers, is now pushing ahead with a new roadmap, crafting contributions that will make the network faster, more efficient and more powerful than ever before.
Decentralized AI
The Decentralized AI (DeAI) roadmap for ICP sets out a vision where AI models can be both trained and run directly on-chain. In the current landscape, AI models often function as opaque black boxes, providing little insight into how data is used or how the models generate their responses. This lack of transparency can lead to issues regarding trust and reliability. ICP aims to tackle these challenges through its advanced computational power and sophisticated smart contract capabilities.
Milestone 1:
- Implement faster deterministic floating-point operations, resulting in a 10x performance improvement.
- Introduce Wasm SIMD support, enabling the execution of four floating-point operations with a single CPU instruction.
- Optimize the AI inference engine to enhance performance and efficiency.
Milestone 2:
- Develop a deterministic API for AI computations on GPU.
- Create tooling and libraries to facilitate the development of AI smart contracts.
- Publish a public specification for GPU-enabled nodes.
- Establish AI-specialized subnets equipped with GPU-enabled nodes.
Achieving these milestones will open the door to several innovative use cases, such as:
- AI smart contracts capable of verifying the authenticity of a person’s identity on video, ensuring that a driver’s license matches the person’s face (autonomous blockchain KYC).
- AI smart contracts that can analyze the code of Ethereum smart contracts, providing a verification checkmark if no vulnerabilities such as reentrancy bugs are found.
- LLM AI smart contracts that enable users to interact with smart contracts using natural language, simplifying the user experience.
- Web3 communities that can manage and control AIs through Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
- Ready-trained AIs that can be traded as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
ICP’s initiative to bring AI on-chain and offer users and developers trustworthy AI models is not a recent development. In July last year, the DFINITY Foundation, a Swiss non-profit and major contributor to the Internet Computer blockchain, launched a $5 million decentralized artificial intelligence (DeAI) grant program to support Decentralized AI on the Internet Computer blockchain. Several innovative AI projects, including Kinic, DecideAI, ELNA AI, ICGPT, and Earthstream, are already building on ICP.
Chain Fusion
Chain Fusion is another key highlight in ICP’s Year 4 roadmap. This initiative aims to facilitate direct interoperability with major blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, other Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVMs), and soon Solana, without the need for intermediaries. This direct interoperability will allow developers to create smart contracts that span multiple chains, effectively addressing the fragmentation of liquidity and reducing tribalism within the blockchain industry. The development plan for Chain Fusion includes several critical milestones:
Milestone 1:
- Achieve full support for EVM chains, enabling ICP canister smart contracts to hold and transact tokens on these chains. This milestone will allow ICP smart contracts to interact with EVM smart contracts without relying on bridges or centralized intermediaries.
Milestone 2:
- Fully utilize Bitcoin-native protocols such as BRC20 and Runes. This will enable decentralized support for Bitcoin ordinals and runes, allowing developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) that seamlessly integrate Bitcoin and ICP functionalities.
Milestone 3:
- Add support for Solana, bridging the gap between the Solana network and ICP. This milestone will allow smart contracts on either network to call and interact with smart contracts on the other network, creating a more interconnected blockchain ecosystem.
About the Internet Computer
The Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) is a decentralized cloud 3.0 protocol designed to enable developers to build and run services and enterprise systems directly on a public blockchain network with unprecedented scalability. Services running on ICP are tamper-proof and can interact with the outside world in a trustless manner, whether with traditional Web 2.0 services or other blockchains. This fast, low-cost, and energy-efficient protocol sets a new standard for how decentralized networks operate within Web3.
ICP aims to create a more transparent and reliable AI ecosystem by leveraging its computational power and smart contract capabilities. The Decentralized AI roadmap and Chain Fusion initiative are significant steps towards achieving this vision. By providing robust support for AI and facilitating seamless interoperability between major blockchains, ICP is poised to become a cornerstone of the decentralized web.
The “Year 4 Internet Computer Roadmap” reflects three years of significant progress and lays out a clear path for the future of the Internet Computer blockchain. With a focus on Decentralized AI and Chain Fusion, ICP aims to address key challenges in the blockchain industry and establish itself as a leader in the decentralized web. By achieving the milestones outlined in the roadmap, ICP will enable a range of innovative use cases and create a more interconnected and transparent blockchain ecosystem. As ICP continues to grow and evolve, it will play a crucial role in shaping the future of Web3 and decentralized technologies.
