Internet Computer Has an Ecosystem Problem: Is ICP Safe?

Internet Computer price pulled back on Tuesday as concerns about the cryptocurreency remained. It was trading at $3.85, which was much lower than this year’s high of $4.30. According to Binance, it was the worst-performing cryptocurrency in the past 24 hours.

Ecosystem woes remain

Internet Computer is a blockchain project that was launched with a lot of hype during the crypto hype of 2021. It was designed to be a world computer that uses the blockchain technology to build decentralised applications. 

Internet Computer was well-funded when it was launched. Its parent company, Dfinity, raised over $166 million from investors like Krenex Capital and Village Global. It is headquartered in Switzerland. 

However, despite the hype, Internet Computer has failed to gain significant traction among developers in key web3 industries like DeFi, NFTs, and the metaverse. A closer look at DappRadar shows no dApps built using its platform.

The same is true with other major platform like DeFi Llama and CryptoSlam. The only DeFi platform in Interne Computer is Sonic, which has a TVL of less than $400k. Some of the apps created using its technology like Sonic, Entrepot, OpenChat, and DSCVR have limited number of users. For example, DSVR has over 175k users compared to Reddit’s millions of users. Kinic, a search engine, has done just 3 million searches. This shows that the platform is only niche for now.

Is Internet Computer a good buy?

From a fundamental standpoint, it is always recommended to invest in projects that have an intrinsic value. For example, we know that Ethereum has intrinsic value because of the vast projects it powers and the fees it generates. 

For Internet Computer, it is hard to make a case of investing in it. It has no major applications using its ecosystem as we have described above. Therefore, I would suggest investing in other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Tron, Lido, and Maker that have a use. Better still, we recommend investing in Bitcoin.