Many of you have asked me how I figured out that the Internet Computer is not a scam. So many people just say that Jerry's promoting this scam coin, or it's a rug pull, or the tokenomics are bad. Here's how I figured out that everyone who is saying ICP was a scam or a rug pull was either lying about it or simply repeating someone else's lie.
The first thing I did was my own research
The first thing I did is I actually did my own research. I actually went to the Internet Computer website. You'd be amazed how many people don't go to the website when they're researching crypto. So I went to the website and I started to notice some things, like $5 per gigabyte per year for smart contract memory. And I started to see, wait a minute, this is something different. This is a smart contract cloud that hosts everything on chain: data, content, computations, and user experiences. You don't need to use legacy IT.
I was aware that many cryptos were built on things like IPFS, and that the stuff wasn't actually on chain, but I didn't see why that was important, because I didn't know there was an alternative. I did not know that there was another way to build until I found the Internet Computer. And I looked at the website, and I've seen a lot of crypto websites and projects. This one stood out to me. I'm like, wait a minute, you can ditch legacy IT and build tamper-proof, unstoppable Web3 stuff.
Then I went down the rabbit hole on the dashboard
Where I really got down the rabbit hole is I went to the dashboard, and I'm like, wait a minute, this is doing thousands of transactions a second. The computation is massive compared to something like Ethereum and anything else in crypto. This thing has terabytes. This thing has a lot of data stored on chain, millions of internet identities.
And then I started actually using the applications and the technology. As part of my research, I joined OpenChat. And when I started using OpenChat, I realized, oh my God, this is truly special. You have a wallet right in OpenChat. I'm holding all these cryptos in my wallet right now. I can send people crypto effortlessly — I just sent a half ICP in my OpenChat to someone to bully Bassett for giving me a video idea that I liked. I effortlessly sent a half ICP.
Once I started using OpenChat, I read what OpenChat is, and I realized this is built on chain. And because it's built on chain, it has a token with real value. It has capabilities like sending, and you can swap coins. I could swap ICP right now. If I wanted to swap ICP into chain-key Ethereum, I could get 0.005 ckETH for ICP right now, and it just pops into my wallet. Once I started using the technology and I signed in with internet identity, I realized the things other cryptos were hoping to do, talking about doing, ICP has already done — and way, way more. Which then made me more and more curious.
DFINITY is the largest R&D team in blockchain
So I looked up DFINITY, and they're the largest research and development team in blockchain. I'm like, how has nobody told me this before? Out of all these crypto people making all these videos and posts, I had never once heard that DFINITY, the team behind the Internet Computer, was the largest research and development team in blockchain.
And then I started looking up Dominic Williams on YouTube and on X. And I watched the videos, and I saw the things Dominic was talking about. When I started listening to Dominic, I'm like, this guy is the Steve Jobs of crypto. This guy is an absolute visionary superstar in crypto. He sees way beyond what I hear anybody else talking about. His team has built the most technologically advanced project by far in crypto. I've watched hours and hours and hours of Dominic's videos, read his posts, and I researched the Internet Computer.
And then I started using the Network Nervous System. To me this is the most powerful DAO in all of crypto. It is the most used active DAO in all of crypto. Once I started using this, I'm like, holy crap, this is such a sleeper. And then I realized everybody that's saying it's a scam is either clueless or a blatant liar. And why would people blatantly lie about the Internet Computer? Because they've been paid to lie. As someone who's been deep into the conspiracy world, I'm very familiar with all of that.
The more I've used the Internet Computer, the more convinced I've become. I've voted on proposals. I've participated in the Internet Computer's launchpad, which to me is the most advanced launchpad in all of crypto, open to anyone with an ICP account. I did real research. I looked at the governance and the staking. If you want to follow how I keep digging into all of this, I share my newest research in my ICP Crypto playlist.
The Hex comparison that made it click
Joe Parys said to me, explain how Hex pumped so much off of basically great marketing — or let's say effective marketing. "Great" makes it sound like I agree with it. I don't, but it was effective. Hex pumped hugely off of effective marketing and token lockups.
And then I looked at ICP. I'm like, wait a minute. I can lock up my ICP and get 16% annual rewards. And I remembered how much Hex exploded just off of token lockups with no other real value. I looked, and in my opinion this thing is going to rip harder than anything I've seen since Ethereum in crypto — which has done a thousand X and maintained it since I found it. While I slept, I took small profits on Ethereum and didn't see the big vision. I'm like, I'm not missing ICP this time.
I saw that 48% of the ICP was locked up, and that most of the token unlocks — like two thirds of them — have already finished. I looked at the supply. I looked at the circulation, because all the liars and naysayers were saying that the tokenomics were terrible. And I did the calculation myself. You don't have to take my word for it — you can do it yourself too.
Here's all you have to do. You take 5.13 divided by 4.69. That's the all-time supply against genesis, and it works out to about 9% all-time inflation on ICP since Genesis. To all the "unlimited tokenomics" people: it's 9% since Genesis. Now, if you want to look at the last year, which is most relevant, you would divide 5.13 by 4.94, and you get about 3.8% real inflation on ICP in the last year — 9% total since Genesis. So I realized ICP wasn't a scam because I looked. I freaking looked. I looked myself. If you want to go deeper on why the tokenomics actually hold up, I broke this down further in why crypto market caps are a distraction and only ICP is real.
Why I put my entire portfolio into ICP
I took an hour or two after my initial research, and after I've looked at hundreds, maybe thousands, of altcoins by now, my first impression of ICP was very positive. So then I put some more serious time into researching it, and I realized this is the real deal. Not only is this not a scam, in my view this is the opposite of a scam in crypto. To me this is the most legitimate crypto out there. There is nothing even close to ICP today. ICP is so far ahead of anything else that, once I realized this, I dumped my entire portfolio into it.
I sold every single coin. I sold all my Bitcoin, all my Ethereum, all my Solana, all my DeSo, and every other crypto I was holding. I sold all of them when ICP was at $3, because my research indicated that to me it was so asymmetric in risk. If you look back at how that's gone for me, I put everything into ICP under $3, and I went all in on it publicly back in October, buying and buying and buying all through October. This is my own experience and what I chose to do, not advice for you. And now, to me, this is nothing compared to where I think we're going. If you're wondering how much is enough, I shared my own framework in 100 ICP is enough, 10,000 ICP is God tier.
Think about this: I discovered the Internet Computer for free. Nobody paid me to talk about it, or not talk about it. I found the Internet Computer for free. And based on my research, after being in crypto since 2014, I've realized that in 10 years in crypto I haven't seen anything ever this promising. In my opinion, Bitcoin was not this promising compared to this. This is the first technology that you could truly rebuild the entire internet off of. In my view this could have a 10-plus trillion dollar market cap one day. I've never seen anything this promising in the history of crypto, with the price it's at versus the technology. Never. The closest I've ever seen was Ethereum in 2016 and Bitcoin in 2014. I've never seen anything this good before. This is my opinion based on my own experience, and you should do your own research before making any decisions.
Why people keep calling it a scam
The last question I'll wrap up with is, well, why do people constantly put out these scam lies about the Internet Computer? Think about what I'm saying. To me, this has the best technology in crypto. There's nothing that's even close to this good. Now think of the implications of that. Think about the amount of money once people who are in Bitcoin go looking for something better and they find the Internet Computer. Think about the money that will flow out of Bitcoin and Ethereum into the Internet Computer.
Think about massive exchanges like Binance. They have a lot to lose if people pull their money out of BNB and put it into the Internet Computer. Think about Solana and all the FTX money and sketchy stuff that went on there. They have a lot to lose if people in Solana realize that, compared to the Internet Computer, it's like comparing dial-up internet to cable fiber optic. You can't hardly build anything actually on Solana — you have to use centralized tech and oracles, and that's expensive and it's vulnerable to security flaws. In my view Solana cannot become like the Internet Computer. Even if they could, it'd take years and years just to get where the Internet Computer is at today.
Imagine all the people who are in Solana. Imagine the people holding XRP, Cardano, and Dogecoin, realizing that instead of holding Dogecoin, you can buy the Internet Computer and earn 16% on something I personally believe has a very high likelihood of appreciating. Now, can you see why there are so many lies and so much silencing and ignoring of the Internet Computer, and why so many people call it a scam?
The Internet Computer is the grim reaper
To me, the Internet Computer is the grim reaper. It's going to annihilate many of these other coins. There's no need for them to exist once you know the Internet Computer, and that's what's happening. The way I see it, the entire rest of the crypto space is looking at the Internet Computer like you might be laying in a deathbed waiting for the grim reaper to come take you home. The Internet Computer is going to consume. It's a singularity that's going to consume most of the rest of crypto. The way I see it, you're either going to move your coin into the Internet Computer and try to make some use case for it there, or make some kind of niche network that can do something and plug into the Internet Computer, or you're going to have your crypto collapse like a house of cards. That's where I see the future going.
So I'm saying that, to me, the Internet Computer is a guaranteed number three one day, and probably number two or number one one day — even above Bitcoin and Ethereum, because the Internet Computer doesn't need Bitcoin and Ethereum to scale. In my opinion the only reason ICP is where it's at is because people don't know any better. Once people know better, the Internet Computer, as we've seen, quickly rocketed from the thirties into the top 20, and I believe it's going to rocket into the top 10 anytime. From there, I think it'll be a steady climb up to number three, number two, then number one. That's my speculation, not a prediction you should act on — I dug into the upside more in why I think ICP can pump to $100 anytime.
So that's how I figured out the Internet Computer is not a scam. I realized ICP wasn't a scam because I did my research. The percentage rewards on the dollar amount, as the ICP price rises, are way more than 16% to me, and that's incredible. If you value my research, I'm a full-time creator here to assist you in building the life of your dreams — a wealthy life, a healthy life, a meaningful life. My website is actually hosted on the Internet Computer, and you can't do that anywhere else in crypto. If you want direct access to me and the rest of the family while I keep researching this, you can join us in the Jerry Banfield Family.