Last year, members of the Internet Computer community made a significant pledge of nearly $80 million worth of Internet Computer (ICP) tokens to support the decentralization of protocols within the ecosystem. The DFINITY Foundation, a contributor to the Internet Computer network, recently released its 2023 protocol ecosystem report, revealing that the community had committed over 6.5 million ICP tokens to decentralization efforts.
The pledge was made through the Internet Computer’s Service Nervous System (SNS) framework, which enables protocols to become decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Several ICP projects and decentralized applications (dapps) received funding through SNS decentralization, including OpenChat, a decentralized messenger; Dragginz, a metaverse platform; Kinic, a blockchain search engine; Hot or Not, a “Web3 TikTok” platform; Ghost, the first ICP memecoin; Modclub, a decentralized verification-as-a-service platform; BOOM DAO, an on-chain gaming platform; and Catalyze, a social dapp.
Following the implementation of the SNS framework, the daily message count on OpenChat experienced a significant surge after October 2023, indicating its growing popularity. Lomesh Dutta, the Vice President of Growth at DFINITY, praised the success of the SNS framework, highlighting its innovative technology stack and various network integrations.
The report also highlighted the substantial growth in blockchain gaming activity on the Internet Computer, credited to its low transfer fees and high scaling capabilities. Furthermore, the DFINITY Foundation distributed $6.25 million in ecosystem grants to 239 projects across 41 countries in 2023 to support the growth of the ICP ecosystem. The overall network usage on ICP increased by 121% year-over-year, demonstrating consistent ecosystem-wide growth.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) on ICP has also experienced steady growth this year, with the total value locked increasing by 24% to $27 million since January 1, according to DefiLlama.
ICP prices have recently seen a significant surge following the network’s advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). In a video demonstration posted on March 22, DFINITY CEO Dominic Williams showcased a “sophisticated AI running on blockchain” as a smart contract on the Internet Computer. Williams emphasized that AI would play a crucial role in the web3, multi-chain world, and this was just the beginning.
Since the announcement, ICP prices have surged by 50% and reached a two-year high of just under $20 on March 26, according to CoinGecko. However, it is important to note that the asset remains down 97% from its all-time high of $700 in May 2021.