# Dfinity
Dfinity (styled DFINITY) is a Swiss not-for-profit organization, the DFINITY Foundation, incorporated in Zug, Switzerland, in October 2016 after informal beginnings in 2015, that builds the Internet Computer, a blockchain-based public computing network positioned as a decentralized alternative to proprietary cloud platforms such as AWS.[1](https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/dfinity/) • [2](https://messari.io/project/internet-computer) The organization describes itself as a Swiss-based not-for-profit with what it calls the world's largest R&D team dedicated to advanced cryptography and distributed systems research.[3](https://dfinity.org/)
| Key facts | |
|---|---|
| Founded | Informally 2015 by Dominic Williams; incorporated as the DFINITY Foundation in Zug, Switzerland, October 2016[2](https://messari.io/project/internet-computer) • [4](https://medium.com/dfinity/the-history-of-the-internet-computer-in-10-steps-1fe956475625) |
| Sector | Blockchain computing; the Internet Computer public network[1](https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/dfinity/) |
| Total raised by 2018 | Just over $195 million, including a $61 million round (March 2018) and a $102 million round (August 2018)[1](https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/dfinity/) |
| Notable investors | Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto) and Polychain Capital[1](https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/dfinity/) • [5](https://siliconangle.com/2018/08/29/andreessen-horowitz-co-leads-102m-round-blockchain-startup-dfinity/) |
| Mainnet | Launched and open-sourced May 10, 2021; native token renamed from DFN to ICP (per Messari; the launch account is DFINITY's own)[2](https://messari.io/project/internet-computer) |
| Headcount at launch | Around 200 people, scaling to almost 300 after launch, mostly in engineering, cryptography, and computer science research (first-party, DFINITY's own account)[4](https://medium.com/dfinity/the-history-of-the-internet-computer-in-10-steps-1fe956475625) |
| Status | Active as of the latest record (Roadmap 2025 milestones through August 2025)[2](https://messari.io/project/internet-computer) |
## What Dfinity builds
The Internet Computer is described by its founder as "a public infrastructure that aims to host the world's next generation of software and services."[1](https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/dfinity/) Dfinity's stated goal is to create an affordable, distributed pool of processing and storage resources spread over many disaggregated computers, on which outside developers build open-source applications; the project branded this vision "Cloud 3.0," a decentralized, non-proprietary network to run next-generation mega-applications.[5](https://siliconangle.com/2018/08/29/andreessen-horowitz-co-leads-102m-round-blockchain-startup-dfinity/) • [1](https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/dfinity/) Dfinity claimed that R&D on such an architecture is 90 percent lower than on traditional ones.[1](https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/dfinity/) Today the foundation frames the Internet Computer as "a tamperproof frontier cloud where AI agents write, deploy, and run" software.[3](https://dfinity.org/)
## Founding and history
Dominic Williams informally founded the project in 2015. In October 2016 the DFINITY Foundation was formed in Zug, Switzerland, as a not-for-profit organization with two Swiss co-founders who contributed the initial capital required for formation.[4](https://medium.com/dfinity/the-history-of-the-internet-computer-in-10-steps-1fe956475625) • [2](https://messari.io/project/internet-computer) A consensus whitepaper was first published in January 2018.[2](https://messari.io/project/internet-computer) By the time the network launched in 2021 the team numbered around 200, growing to almost 300 after launch, with most staff in engineering, cryptography, and computer science research.[4](https://medium.com/dfinity/the-history-of-the-internet-computer-in-10-steps-1fe956475625)
## Funding history
Dfinity raised just over $195 million by August 2018, since its 2015 founding.[1](https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/dfinity/) The rounds on record:
- March 2018: a $61 million round announced, with a16z crypto and Polychain as previous investors in it.[6](https://fortune.com/2018/08/29/dfinity-world-computer/) • [1](https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/dfinity/)
- May 2018: an "airdrop" delivering $35 million worth of Dfinity tokens to early investors to spur adoption, per Fortune's report; the founder's own announcement dates the airdrop to June 2018, and the date remains unresolved between the two accounts.[6](https://fortune.com/2018/08/29/dfinity-world-computer/)
- August 29, 2018: a $102 million round jointly led by [Andreessen Horowitz](https://www.edgepedia.org/andreessen-horowitz)'s a16z crypto and Polychain Capital, joined by a half-dozen other institutional investors; Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch, and SiliconANGLE all reported the amount as US$102 million.[1](https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/dfinity/) • [7](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2018/08/29/crypto-platform-dfinity-raises-102-million-to-take-on-amazon-and-google/) • [5](https://siliconangle.com/2018/08/29/andreessen-horowitz-co-leads-102m-round-blockchain-startup-dfinity/)
## Mainnet launch, the ICP token and traction
On May 10, 2021, at 6PM CET, a software update was pushed to the Internet Computer's nodes, causing its ICP tokens to begin unlocking and allowing the Network Nervous System, the network's on-chain governance system, to begin functioning; the code was open-sourced the same day.[4](https://medium.com/dfinity/the-history-of-the-internet-computer-in-10-steps-1fe956475625) • [2](https://messari.io/project/internet-computer)
At launch, ICP tokens were priced at $500, making all tokens, including locked ones, worth around $230 billion fully diluted.[4](https://medium.com/dfinity/the-history-of-the-internet-computer-in-10-steps-1fe956475625)
On traction, the numbers on record are partly first-party. According to the founder, the network processes the equivalent of three hundred thousand Ethereum transactions a second on many days and has never gone down in production.[4](https://medium.com/dfinity/the-history-of-the-internet-computer-in-10-steps-1fe956475625) Messari, an independent crypto research firm, reports that the Internet Computer has approached 300 billion total transactions processed, which it compares with Solana's cumulative 121 billion.[2](https://messari.io/project/internet-computer) Independent measurements of cost and throughput against Solana, Avalanche, or Ethereum are not present in the available record.
## Controversies and criticism
The main documented controversy is the launch-price episode. ICP listed at $500, implying roughly $230 billion fully diluted, and the founder later attributed that high initial price to manipulation via FTX's ICP-PERP instrument, created four days before launch.[4](https://medium.com/dfinity/the-history-of-the-internet-computer-in-10-steps-1fe956475625) This is a first-party claim from Dominic Williams's own account; the available record contains no independent verification of it, and it also does not contain independent reporting on insider allocation disputes, lawsuits, or decentralization critiques sometimes associated with the project.
## References
1. DFINITY raises $102M from a16z and Polychain for a decentralised 'Internet Computer' to rival AWS, TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/dfinity/
2. Internet Computer, Messari project profile. https://messari.io/project/internet-computer
3. The DFINITY Foundation. https://dfinity.org/
4. The History of The Internet Computer In 10 Steps, DFINITY (Medium). https://medium.com/dfinity/the-history-of-the-internet-computer-in-10-steps-1fe956475625
5. Blockchain-powered 'Internet Computer' startup Dfinity raises $102M, SiliconANGLE. https://siliconangle.com/2018/08/29/andreessen-horowitz-co-leads-102m-round-blockchain-startup-dfinity/
6. Dfinity Raises $102M from Andreessen Horowitz for 'World Computer', Fortune. https://fortune.com/2018/08/29/dfinity-world-computer/
7. Crypto Platform Dfinity Raises $102 Million To Take On Amazon And Google, Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2018/08/29/crypto-platform-dfinity-raises-102-million-to-take-on-amazon-and-google/
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