ICP/USD: Convert Internet Computer (ICP) to United States Dollar (USD)

Internet Computer (ICP) is a blockchain technology that aims to revolutionize the design of blockchain systems. It is designed to function as a "World Computer" blockchain, capable of hosting almost any online system or service, including demanding web social media, without the need for traditional IT such as cloud computing services. This allows for full end-to-end decentralization. The ICP token, the native cryptocurrency of the Internet Computer blockchain, serves three main utilities. It provides a source of "cycles" that power computation, can be staked in the Network Nervous System DAO that governs the Internet Computer blockchain, and acts as a store of value.

The Internet Computer blockchain operates on a network of special computing devices called "node machines". These machines connect to each other using the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), which gives the token its name. The network model used by the Internet Computer is referred to as "Proof-of-Useful-Work". The network has a governance system called the Network Nervous System (NNS), which can remove node machines that fail to produce enough blocks and keep up with the network. The Internet Computer network is composed of "subnet blockchains", which are combined into a single logical blockchain using "chain key crypto". This unique feature to the Internet Computer enables subnet blockchains to have public "chain keys", allowing the blockchains to cryptographically sign all their interactions.

Internet Computer aims to provide a platform for building decentralized online systems and services entirely on the blockchain, without using centralized traditional IT. This makes it possible to assign control of these services to community DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations). Users can become both owners of web3 services and part of the team that runs them. Services like this are already being built today on the Internet Computer blockchain. The Internet Computer also provides many other features that are unique within blockchain. These include HTTP outcalls, which enable smart contracts to securely query other systems over the web, through its network consensus system.

The Internet Computer blockchain was developed by the DFINITY Foundation, headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The DFINITY Foundation was founded in Switzerland in October 2016 to organize the development of the Internet Computer blockchain. The name DFINITY is a shortening of "decentralized infinity," and dates from early 2015. It was first used by project founder, Dominic Williams, to refer to his theoretical crypto work, which he hoped would make a World Computer possible. In February 2017, the DFINITY Foundation ran an early public ICO to raise funds to scale out. This was then supplemented by private fundraising rounds in 2018.