After several years of
research, development and numerous breakthroughs in cryptography and
computer science, Dfinity launched the mainnet of its “Internet
Computer” on Dec. 18.

The Internet Computer promises to be the
first blockchain computer running at web speed with unbounded capacity.
It achieves this speed through something called Chain Key Technology,
which splits calls to smart contracts into two types: update calls and
query calls.

Update calls are finalized in one to two seconds,
based on the time it takes for new blocks to be produced. However, query
calls can be executed in milliseconds, as any changes in state are
discarded after execution.

This allows blockchain developers to create user experiences that compete with existing web-based applications. 

Dfinity
founder and chief scientist Dominic Williams explained the purpose is
to “extend the functionality of the public internet using an advanced,
novel blockchain network that also eliminates the need for legacy
technologies such as cloud services, databases, and firewalls.
Ultimately, the Internet Computer allows entrepreneurs and developers to
reimagine both how and what they build — a paradigm shift that will
change everything.”

The release was right on schedule for the
promised Q4 2020 public release date, but where were the fireworks? Why
are we only hearing about this now? And what happened to the millions of
governance tokens?

Well the first thing to realize is that this isn’t perhaps what some would immediately think of as a mainnet.

The
platform is fully functional and decentralized, run purely by its
governing Network Nervous System, and will not undergo any kind of reset
on its path to a “Genesis” version. However, Williams still refers to
the current Mercury release as an alpha.

As such, only a fraction
of the 469 million governance tokens have thus far been issued. These
are held by Dfinity itself, early investors and several other parties,
who will vote the remaining tokens into existence once the requirements
for Genesis have been met.

These requirements include the release
of huge amounts of source code and documentation, along with ongoing
security and stress testing as the network scales. At Genesis, which is
hoped to be reached in the next two to three months, the network will
transition into beta.

The mainnet is currently running on nodes
held in seven independent data centers, across the United States,
Germany and Switzerland. The subnet controlling the Network Nervous
System has produced around 400,000 blocks since the Dec. 18 launch and
is in the process of onboarding 896 nodes by the Genesis transition.

As Cointelegraph reported, the current futures
price of over $21 on ICP governance tokens would put Dfinity just
outside the top five digital assets by market cap. While that may still
be on hold for now, this massive undertaking has just passed another
major milestone.

source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/dfinity-quietly-launched-the-internet-computer-mainnet-last-month