The DFINITY Foundation, a Swiss not-for-profit organization of world-leading computer scientists and cryptographers, and a major contributor to the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), announces a major upgrade to ICP Ninja, the free browser-only integrated development environment (IDE) for creating and deploying applications on the Internet Computer. The upgrade is set to make the entry to ICP development and deployment extremely easy to developers on all platforms (Mac, Linux, Windows).
Getting started in Web3 is perceived as difficult and associated with a steep learning curve. People think that applications will be slow and do not scale and are not user-friendly because users are required to hold crypto tokens to use them. The Internet Computer Protocol was designed with usability front and center. Applications on ICP are fast, can scale easily, and feel like Web2 to users. With this major upgrade to ICP Ninja, the DFINITY foundation closes the last gap and removes all hurdles for onboarding new developers. ICP Ninja is designed to make building on the ICP network fast and easily accessible. Previously, developers faced challenges such as downloading and mastering various tools or working with Docker containers, both of which required a substantial time investment. With this ICP Ninja release, the developer experience has been transformed through a strong focus on productivity and collaboration. The integration of AI-powered tools, seamless GitHub integration, and many other features make building on the ICP network more intuitive and efficient.
Specifically, the new release focuses on significantly improving the developer and user experience:
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Developer Productivity Enhancements – A completely redesigned editor, live compilation feedback, canister logs, and more.
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AI Learning Assistant – The AI assistant answers any questions about development on ICP, helps and explains canister code, and much more.
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Landing Page Revamp – Here users create new dApps with options for a frontend, backend, or both, or start from a curated template.
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Project sharing – Projects can be shared with others by a generated link.
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Login with Internet Identity and GitHub – Grants access to extra features and allows the export of projects to GitHub.
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Saving projects – Allows users to work across different devices or to return at a later time.
Jan Camenisch, Chief Technology Officer at DFINITY Foundation, said, “This is an update that truly aligns with our mission to make building on ICP possible for anyone. ICP’s unstoppable, tamperproof and privacy-preserving nature is uniquely positioned to be the protocol of choice for any kind of application that wants to operate with sophistication, security, and scale. Our message with this update is simple: come and build on ICP for yourself, no matter your level of technical ability.”
ICP Ninja is free to use, and in this current iteration, using the Mokoto and Rust languages are accepted – with Python and TypeScript to be included in future releases.
Next ICP Hackathon in March
To demonstrate ICP.Ninja in action, ICP Hub Indonesia is hosting a hackathon throughout March that welcomes developers from the region to showcase ICP’s capabilities by producing their own dApps using ICP.Ninja. Hackathon winners will earn prizes, ecosystem visibility, and a permanent showcase on ICP.Ninja’s landing page.
The hackathon features three tracks, including a track specifically dedicated to decentralized AI, demonstrating the DFINITY Foundation’s continued efforts to support AI innovation in the ICP ecosystem. ICP already boasts a significant decentralized ecosystem, with more than 60 AI-related projects building on ICP.