The Internet Computer
Canistore leverages a variety of DFINITY technologies. Why DFINITY? The Internet Computer is a new technology stack that is unhackable, fast, scales to billions of users globally and supports a new kind of autonomous software that promises to reverse Big Tech’s monopolization of the internet.
ICP
Internet Computer Protocol
DFINITY Technologies
Canistore Model
Canisters
Smarter Contracts
A canister is like a smart contract because its execution is governed by a secure protocol: the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP). A canister is therefore tamper-proof, meaning that its state can only be modified through messages included in the blockchain, which is governed by the protocol.
Additionally, because the execution of canister code is fully deterministic, a canister’s state can be audited in a cryptographically secure way by inspecting the messages in the blockchain.
Subnet Types
Data, System, Fiduciary
To understand the Internet Computer, you have to understand the concept of subnets, which are the fundamental building block of the overall network.
The purpose of a subnet is to host canisters. Canisters run within dedicated hypervisors and interact with each other via a publicly specified API. Inside a canister is WebAssembly bytecode that can run on a WebAssembly virtual machine and the pages of memory that it runs within.
When canisters are uploaded to the Internet Computer, they have to target a specific subnet type, such as ‘data’, ‘system’, or ‘fiduciary’.
As the Canistore model includes governance canisters, it must be hosted on a fiduciary subnet, in order to hold balances of ICP tokens and send cycles to other canisters.
VetKeys
High-Level Overview
VetKeys on the Internet Computer allow developers to more easily perform encryption, threshold decryption, and signing when building dapps on ICP. It is powered by a protocol called vetKD (Verifiably Encrypted Threshold Key Derivation) that allows to derive decryption keys on demand.
SNS
Service Nervous System
Imagine, for example, building a social network like Twitter whose logic and data aren’t controlled by a company, but by a program whose code runs autonomously and verifiably. Its ownership and control can even be tokenized and distributed to its users and developers.
Governance
Canistore Governance Token
Users will be rewarded with the Canistore governance token by simply interacting with the Canistore application. Canistore governance tokens enable the user to vote on project proposals, invest in community projects and earn dividend-like rewards*.
*Rewards are distributed on a time-cycle basis and/or at milestones triggered by application/community growth.