Exploring The Internet Computer Whitepaper: What’s It About?

All great cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Web3 innovations have a well-written and clear whitepaper. The whitepaper is the “holy gospel” that provides a reader with valuable insights into a project’s technology, comparative advantage, business solution, and future roadmap. However, whitepapers are often long documents that include technical language and difficult-to-understand concepts. In this article, I’ll break down the Internet Computer’s whitepaper and highlight some of IC’s most important elements, all so you can have a quick and easy introduction to the project.

(Source: Page one of the Internet Computer’s whitepaper)

Analyzing Internet Computer’s Abstract

The Internet Computer’s whitepaper abstract places a heavy emphasis on smart contracts (mentioned six times), blockchains (mentioned six times), and software (mentioned three times). By this standard and simple fact alone, we have a sense that the Internet Computer is going to offer some type of smart contract and blockchain solution to traditional Web2 software and services.

As a beginner’s tip, when first reading a project’s whitepaper, keeping a close eye on repeated keywords is a good way to begin. Doing this will allow you to read closely and follow what concepts, technologies, and industries the project seek to disrupt or improve. In this case, the Internet Computer’s focus is on smart contract innovation, which is different from something like Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or Ethereum, which all operate in unique ways and with their own purposes.

(Internet Computer Whitepaper Abstract)

Intro To The Intro: What Should You Pay Attention To?

The first headline of the introduction is “unleashing smart contracts.” Therefore, we can automatically assert that the Internet Computer is going to offer a way to truly unleash the power of smart contracts. As we may know, smart contracts on most blockchains are limited in their scalability, decentralization, security, and speed. These issues are all highlighted below in blue, which are the problems that IC seeks to solve (mentioned just above). So this is essentially what IC does, it serves as a new platform for executing smart contracts better than other blockchains. Now let’s move on!

(This is a decent way to annotate a whitepaper, first start off by highlighting the project’s purpose, what pain points it claims to solve, and what the project actually does. These three things will give you a good overview of the asset and platform.)

Final Takeaway For The Internet Computer Solution

So we already know that the Internet Computer is a smart contract platform, but what does that actually mean and what applications and functions do those smart contracts serve? To answer this question, continuing on in the whitepaper we find out that “the IC is designed to act as a complete technology stack, such that systems and services can be built that run entirely on the IC.” This too is slightly difficult to understand as it requires knowledge of what the technology stack is, as well as what exactly IC is referring to in the technology stack, since it could incorporate many things, such as ICT infrastructure, internet services, website, applications, computer software, and the frontend.

So by creating a platform to unleash the power of smart contracts, and by creating a blockchain solution that can serve the complete technology stack, the IC is actively realizing the vision of Web3, which is (for end-users) being able to access services in a transparent way, having secure personal data, and being able to interact with applications in the same way — and for the creators, IC eliminates many of the costs and complexities associated with developing and deploying apps and services. All of these things put together are a giant step toward the Web3 future.