The DFINITY Foundation has today announced the Internet Computer Developer Ecosystem Program to support building on the Internet Computer. A total of CHF 200 million is waiting to be deployed to crypto entrepreneurs and developer teams. The program is now open and accepting applications at dfinity.org/grants.
The Internet Computer launched on May 10, 2021. Coupled with the recent release of the Internet Computer Interface Specification and source code, entrepreneurs and developers have already started building crypto startups on the Internet Computer.
Dominic Williams, Founder and Chief Scientist of the DFINITY Foundation, says: “The Internet Computer redefines public blockchain as a platform that can now run smart contracts at web speed, that can serve web directly to users, that can increase its capacity with demand as needed, that is efficient, that governs itself, and that can provide better usability than those systems built on traditional technology. Our aim is to support the reimagination of all systems and services in new forms using smart contracts on an infinite public blockchain, and nothing else. What the world now builds to take advantage of blockchain’s new capabilities shall be an important and fascinating next chapter.”
This CHF 200 million Internet Computer Developer Ecosystem Program compliments the Beacon Fund, a dedicated venture fund supporting entrepreneurs building the future of hyper-scale software and open internet services on the Internet Computer. Announced in September 2020, Beacon is a $14.5M fund led by Polychain Capital and supported by Andreessen Horowitz and the DFINITY Foundation. Applications to Beacon can be made at dfinity.org/ecosystem/fund.
Olaf Carlson-Wee, Founder and CEO of Polychain Capital, says: “Getting in early and trying to capture market share in the network is empirical. I think it is one of the most reliable ways to build a multi-hundred-million or billion-dollar business, both inside and outside the larger blockchain and crypto ecosystem. What I am excited to fund is a service or product that is native to the new system rather than what feels like a porting of an application from Web 2 to Web 3.”
The Internet Computer is already producing applications from ahead-of-the-curve entrepreneurs and developer teams.
Recent developments include:
- OpenChat is the world’s first tokenized, decentralized encrypted messaging service capable of scaling to millions of users. On May 21, 2021, OpenChat launched an alpha prototype to 10,000 users, quickly becoming one of the most trafficked dapps running on a public blockchain.
- DSCVR, a tokenized, open version of Reddit, was built completely on-chain within the first week of the network going live.
- Fleek, an open internet web and app hosting startup, is enabling 11,000 traditional and blockchain-based websites to run on the Internet Computer’s public network . Fleek migrated to run on the Internet Computer from legacy blockchain solutions such as IPFS, Textile, Filecoin, and Ethereum.
- Capsule, a decentralized social media platform, raised $1.5M in seed funding led by the Beacon Fund.
- ORIGYN is launching a pan-industry platform built on the Internet Computer. Starting with the luxury watch industry, ORIGYN identifies and exposes counterfeits to stop brand dilution and erosion from fake products.
About DFINITY
The DFINITY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization based in Zurich, Switzerland, that oversees research centers in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Zurich. Our mission is to build, promote, and maintain the Internet Computer — and by doing so, improve the world. The Internet Computer extends the functionality of the internet from connecting billions of people to also providing millions of developers and entrepreneurs with a public compute platform — creating a revolutionary new way to build websites, enterprise systems and internet services within an open environment. This public software development platform is created by independent data centers around the world combining computing power using an advanced decentralized protocol called ICP. In turn, this generational shift in computing aims to take on Big Tech and return the internet back to its free and open roots. DFINITY was founded in 2016 by Dominic Williams.
About The Internet Computer
The Internet Computer extends the functionality of the internet from a network that connects billions of people (via TCP/IP protocols) to a public compute platform that empowers millions of developers and entrepreneurs (via the Internet Computer Protocol, or ICP) — providing a revolutionary new way to build websites, enterprise systems, pan-industry platforms, DeFi applications, and open internet services. Entrepreneurs, enterprises, and government agencies now have a genuine choice: continue using proprietary and insecure server farms controlled by Big Tech, or securely deploy software and services directly to the public internet.
