The DFINITY Foundation Launches Three ‘Transformative Upgrades’

The DFINITY Foundation, a major contributor to the Internet Computer (ICP), has launched three “transformative upgrades.”

According to the press release shared with Cryptonews, the upgrades slash transaction latency, improve developer tools, and enable “vast” on-chain data storage.

Therefore, they make on-chain blockchain applications “extremely” responsive, more scalable, and developer-friendly, it claimed.

“These three milestones are a great advancement of the Internet Computer Protocol,” commented Jan Camenisch, CTO and Cryptographer at DFINITY.

Something’s in the works… 👀

Hint: It’s related to the tech milestones now live. pic.twitter.com/3Cfyi5YdQH

— DFINITY (@dfinity) November 13, 2024

“By cutting latency to about half, increasing throughput, and increasing storage even more, we have enabled developers to build a much broader range of applications fully on-chain.”

According to Camenisch, the team widened “the gap to all other protocols even further” and “made the life of developers much easier” with the new protocol capabilities around canister treatment.

Tokamak, Beryllium, and Stellarator

The three major upgrades are called Tokamak, Beryllium, and Stellarator – each offering real-world solutions for blockchain projects, the announcement stated.

The ICP plans to use these three to position itself as the preferred choice for developers building decentralized applications (dapps).

Specifically, the announcement noted dapps that require high performance, extensive data handling, and enhanced tools.

The team argued that the upgrades would “address some of the most pressing challenges in the blockchain space.

Today is the day

3 big milestones are LIVE: Tokamak, Beryllium, & Stellarator 🥳

ICP’s latest milestones bring Web3 users closer than ever to Web2-level performance & scale

Key functions:
✅ Reduced latency
✅ Canister devops
✅ Onchain storage

Explore https://t.co/9xWHdF1hP3 pic.twitter.com/7fz548ILQ1

— DFINITY (@dfinity) November 12, 2024

Tokamak is designed to slash network latency. This, in turn, will produce transaction speeds currently available in traditional finance (TradFi), the announcement claims. Subnets are now reaching speeds of over 2.5 blocks per second.

This upgrade has two major benefits, the team suggested. One is that users and developers will have a more responsive network to work with, and the other is opening the door wider for Web3 mass adoption.

Meanwhile, Beryllium provides developers with new tools to streamline their workflows, build, troubleshoot, and deploy apps easily.

These include canister snapshots for data security, improved logging for visibility, and detailed backtraces.

Lastly, the team described the Stellarator upgrade as “a breakthrough in on-chain data storage.”

Per the announcement, it enables each subnet to host over 1TB of memory per canister.

This is notable as it would provide sufficient storage to data-heavy apps that typically struggle with storage issues.

The announcement stated that this upgrade allows developers to build “sophisticated applications requiring large-scale data processing,” thus bringing “a new level of utility to blockchain technology.”

Meanwhile, the Internet Computer stated that it acts as a complete alternative technology stack that replaces the centralized IT stack controlled by Big Tech.

It enables developers to create fully decentralized apps and services that run entirely from the blockchain.

Developers can then push these products into novel areas such as SocialFi and GameFi and “build out the fully decentralized metaverse.”