Comprehensive Analysis of the Dfinity Ecosystem: ICP Development Research Report

ICP, as a controversial project, has seen its price fall from nearly $2000 at launch to less than $3, causing significant losses for many investors. However, with the recent market recovery, the price of ICP has once again attracted attention, with a cumulative increase of over 4 times, reigniting hope for many investors. Today, we will delve into the development of this love-hate project and its ecosystem.

Project Introduction

Dfinity aims to build a decentralized Internet computer ( Internet Computer ), allowing developers to build and run various applications on a distributed network platform without relying on traditional cloud services, databases, or payment interfaces. Dfinity's vision is to eliminate the role of large technology companies as intermediaries in internet commerce, reshaping the business model and governance structure of the internet.

Conceptually, the Internet Computer is an extension of the existing internet, enabling a global network of computers to provide computing power for running application software. Just as the TCP/IP protocol provides rules for data transmission between endpoints, the Internet Computer relies on the Internet Computer Protocol to define software components, allowing the global network of computers to integrate resources to read, copy, modify, and return application states.

The key points of Internet Computer infrastructure include:

• A security protocol that allows general computing to run transparently over the Internet.
• A network that provides computing power through independently operated data centers
• A globally accessible and scalable platform for running software applications.

Core Technology

Dfinity implements fully decentralized applications on the chain based on canister and chainkey technology. A canister is a container that supports WebAssembly contracts, enabling fully decentralized dapps. Different canisters can transfer and interact with each other, reflecting ICP's anti-gas technology. Users spend cycles through canisters without having to pay fees. The cross-chain technology of ckBTC and ckETH is realized based on chainkey and elliptic curve signatures, enhancing the advantages of ICP, allowing for asset custody within canisters and improving privacy.

Dfinity can build various applications, not limited to fields such as DeFi, NFT, and games, but also supports multifunctional applications like social media, e-commerce, and search engines, thus challenging traditional Web2 applications.

Dfinity enables seamless connectivity, allowing developers to build programs and applications directly on the internet without worrying about middleware such as cloud services, databases, or payment interfaces.

Dfinity has strong performance advantages. When applications need to scale performance, the original container can create new containers or replicate itself. Each additional container increases the overall memory capacity while improving the throughput of update and query calls.

Dfinity can directly integrate the Bitcoin network through Chainkey encryption technology, providing smart contract support for Bitcoin.

Team Background

Dfinity is developed by the largest team in the crypto space, bringing together top distributed computing engineers, cryptographers, and experts in the industry. The project is led by founder and chief scientist Dominic Williams, an experienced entrepreneur and crypto theorist, who pioneered Dfinity's threshold relay (BLS+VRF) and PSC chain technology.

The team includes world-leading cryptographers, mathematicians, and senior engineers, such as the inventor of Stanford BLS technology, the inventors of Bitcoin ASICBoost and p2contract, as well as multi-party computation and cryptography researchers from Yale University and the European EPFL distributed computing center. Currently, the team consists of 129 members and has strong technical development capabilities.

Economic Model and Capital Support

Dfinity has secured nearly $101 million in financing, which will support third-party teams in building applications, tools, and protocols for the platform. Dfinity has established a 20-year roadmap; in May 2020, the Dfinity Foundation announced a $200 million fund to attract developers.

The investors include well-known VC firms such as Andreessen Horowitz(, A16Z), Polychain Capital, Multicoin Capital, Wanxiang Blockchain, and dozens of others.

ICP Token Unlock Data

Currently, the inflation rate of ICP staking rewards has decreased from the initial 10% to 7.21%. Users participating in NNS staking can receive voting rewards and gain more voting power through neuron decomposition or compound interest.

According to the unlocking data, 3.31 million seed round tokens will be unlocked on the 11th of each month before the end of April 2024, amounting to approximately 42 million USD; 2.42 million tokens will be unlocked each month before the end of April 2025.

The total amount to be unlocked is approximately 38.94 million ICP, accounting for 8.6% of the total circulation ( based on a total circulation of 450 million ).

Community Development Status

Dfinity has the NNS( neural network system), which is an open algorithmic governance system that allows community members to participate in network decisions and upgrades through voting. There is also the SNS( community neural network system) based on NNS, which is a decentralized autonomous organization( DAO), enabling community members to create and manage sub-networks and applications, establishing an effective community universal model.

Introduction to Dfinity Ecosystem Projects

1. Mora

Mora is a writing platform based on canisters and IPFS, enabling asset custody. Users have ownership of unique "planets", ensuring data sovereignty belongs to the user. Anyone can fork their own planet contract through open-source code.

Mora launched free inscriptions, attracting a large number of new users to publish articles and mint inscriptions, among which Mora and NnsDAO inscriptions are the most popular.

2. Ghost

Ghost is the first meme token in the ICP ecosystem, launched through the SNS DAO. Under the leadership of a strong community, it has seen a maximum increase of over 100 times. Ghost excels in Twitter marketing and is one of the best marketing teams in the ICP ecosystem.

3. NnsDAO

NnsDAO is the first DAO project in the ICP ecosystem, building the NnsDAO empire by developing ecological projects. An NFT platform, GameFi product ( Texas Hold'em, and a lottery platform ), as well as a Web3 podcast and knowledge education platform have been developed. The identity reputation system runs through the entire ecosystem and is one of the earliest IBO ( broker financing ) products.

NnsDAO has received 5 official Dfinity Grants, with the strongest technical capabilities in the ecosystem. However, the way of building the ecosystem requires a lot of operational resources, leading to relatively slow development.

4. ICscriptions

ICscriptions is the first inscription platform in the ICP ecosystem. Its features include an inscription marketplace, minting function, query function, and an official launchpad. It was recently announced that Mora and NnsDAO inscription trading will be opened.

ICscriptions has both technical development and operational capabilities, with inscription display, transfer, and trading functions all leading the way since Mora's launch. As an emerging project, ICscriptions is backed by strong strength.

ICscriptions is officially applying for funding support, and has not issued any tokens, only issuing the platform inscription ICPHOLDER. The plan is to deeply cultivate the inscription + GameFi track, improving the inscription ecosystem through 5 protocols.

5. ICPswap

ICPswap is a DEX platform based on ICP, providing full-stack financial, market, and DAO services. The total supply of the token ICS is 1 billion pieces, adopting a deflationary model. As the best-performing DEX in the ecosystem, it recently announced a token airdrop, and its token value is worth looking forward to.