Dfinity poised to launch straight into Top 5 crypto tokens by market cap

On Sep 30, DFINITY announced its final milestone release before the network’s public launch later this year. This release, called Sodium, represents a “feature complete” version of the network. The company also disclosed details about their governance system, called Network Nervous System, or NNS.

NNS will use a proprietary token called ICP to facilitate operations on its “Internet Computer.” At launch, there will be 469,213,710 ICP tokens in existence — a number determined by the quantity of tokens previously issued via pre-sales and other distribution rounds.

While NNS’ most recent fundraising effort offered ICP tokens at a rate of around $4.50, the futures price of the asset is currently over $17. If this hypothetical value holds true, it would give the token a market cap of around $8 billion at launch. A price this high would be enough to place it squarely in the Top 5 on CoinMarketCap.

Williams wouldn’t be drawn on this statistic however, telling Cointelegraph:

“...we are focused on the technology, making sure the Internet Computer functions successfully, and the immense positive impact and benefits it will bring the world, so pay little attention [...] We think in the long term, whereas markets, especially crypto markets, are very volatile and short-term indicators.”

The NNS is an algorithmic governance system which will allow ICP holders to lock tokens within it to create “neurons.” These provide voting rights on proposals which affect the network’s operation. They also give participants rewards in the form of additional ICP tokens.

The independent data centres which run the special node hardware underpinning DFINITY’s Internet Computer are also rewarded in ICP tokens.

DFINITY chief scientist and founder Dominic Williams had this to say about the launch:

“It is the technical solution to the systemic problems big tech have created with their monopoly over the internet [...] The NNS is the catalyst for the open internet we were promised in the 1990s, and it ensures the future of the internet remains open and free.”

DFINITY’s Internet Computer aims to provide a truly decentralized alternative to running and hosting content through big tech’s cloud services. Instead, users directly interact with code held on an immutable blockchain.