What is ICP?

The problem it solves

Most blockchains hold value — they let you move tokens from one address to another. What they cannot do is host the app you use to send those tokens. That app lives on Amazon, Google, or Cloudflare, which means there is a centralised point that can be taken down, censored, or hacked independent of the chain itself.

The Internet Computer changes that model. A canister smart contract on the IC can serve an HTTP response directly to a browser — no server needed. The app and its data live on-chain, governed by the same consensus rules as the tokens it manages.

How it works

The IC is made up of data centres running nodes arranged into subnets. Each subnet runs its own Byzantine-fault-tolerant consensus. Canisters — the IC equivalent of smart contracts — are deployed to a subnet and can communicate with canisters on other subnets via inter-canister calls.

Storage is built in. A canister holds stable memory that persists across upgrades, so there is no need to reach out to IPFS or a database. Computation is metered in cycles, a stable unit derived from XDR (the IMF's currency basket), so gas costs do not swing with ICP's price.

Internet Identity

Instead of private keys or seed phrases, the IC ships Internet Identity — a passkey-based authentication system. You sign in with Face ID, fingerprint, or a hardware key. Each app gets a different derived principal so apps cannot track you across sessions, and there is nothing to back up.

ICPay uses Internet Identity exclusively. The account you see in the wallet is derived from your principal, which is derived from your device credential. No email, no password, no seed phrase.

The ICP token

ICP is the native token. It has three jobs:

• Governance. Staked ICP in the Network Nervous System earns voting rewards and lets holders propose and vote on protocol changes.
• Cycles. ICP is burned to mint cycles, the fuel for canister computation and storage. Burning removes ICP from supply, creating deflationary pressure when usage is high.
• Value transfer. ICP follows the ICRC-1 token standard, which means any wallet or DEX that supports ICRC-1 can send, receive, and trade it — including ICPay.

Chain-key cryptography

The IC's most unusual feature is threshold signing. A subnet can collectively sign data without any single node holding a complete private key — the key is split across all nodes using threshold BLS signatures. This is what makes chain-key tokens like ckBTC and ckETH possible: the IC can custody Bitcoin and Ethereum natively, with no bridge contract that can be drained.

ICP and ICPay

ICPay is an ICP-native custodial wallet. It lives on the IC — the backend is a canister, and the frontend is served from an asset canister. Sending ICP means the canister calls the ICP ledger directly, in the same consensus round as your request. There is no bridge, no wrapped token, and no off-chain relayer.

Because the IC charges cycles rather than gas in ICP, and because queries (read-only calls) are completely free, ICPay can look up balances and search usernames without touching your funds.

Useful links

• Internet Computer — official site
• Whitepaper
• Network Nervous System
• DFINITY on GitHub