Node operators process transactions and receive token incentives. These independently owned high-spec node machines around the world are connected via Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), creating a self-sovereign network not reliant on any cloud services. Advanced cryptography allows any application or service to be run on the network in a decentralized manner via smart contracts.

The Internet Computer is a decentralized cloud blockchain, where apps can be built fully onchain, using AI, or by coding. Try caffeine.ai & icp.ninja.

ICP tokenholders own and govern the protocol. They currently take (burn) all of the total transaction fees paid by users (revenue). ICP Holders can stake their ICP on the Network Nervous System (NNS), an advanced fully on-chain DAO that facilitates liquid democracy. Staking ICP allows users to submit proposals, vote on proposals, and earn rewards for their participation in governance. Internet Computer's investors include Polychain, Scalar Capital, Amino Capital, etc.

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Internet Computer

# Internet Computer Number of neurons Methodology

## 1. Overview

The number of neurons metric measures the total count of neurons in the Internet Computer's Network Nervous System (NNS) on a daily basis. Neurons are fundamental governance units that allow ICP token holders to participate in network governance by voting on proposals. This metric tracks the growth and adoption of the Internet Computer's decentralized governance system over time.

## 2. Data sources

The calculation relies on externally collected governance statistics from the Internet Computer blockchain:
- **Governance statistics**: Daily aggregated statistics from the Internet Computer's Network Nervous System containing total neuron counts
- **External scraper data**: JSON-formatted governance metrics collected and stored by an external scraping service that monitors Internet Computer governance statistics
- **Daily snapshots**: End-of-day snapshots of governance metrics including the total number of active neurons

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Raw data extraction
- **Purpose**: Extract daily neuron count data from scraped governance statistics
- **Logic**: The calculation begins by parsing JSON-formatted daily governance statistics. Each record contains a `daily_stats` array with governance metrics for different days. The system extracts the `governance_neurons_total` field which represents the total number of neurons on that specific day. The `day` field provides the timestamp for each data point. All records are tagged with 'internetcomputer' as the chain identifier and 'day' as the timestamp grain.
- **Key fields**: `day` (timestamp), `governance_neurons_total` (neuron count), `inserted_at` (data collection timestamp)

### Component B: Data deduplication
- **Purpose**: Handle cases where multiple data points exist for the same day
- **Logic**: Since the scraper may collect data multiple times for the same day (due to updates or corrections), the system applies deduplication logic. For each unique day, it ranks all available records based on their `inserted_at` timestamp in descending order, selecting only the most recently inserted record. This ensures that the latest and most accurate neuron count is used for each day.
- **Key fields**: `row_number` (ranking based on insertion time), with only records where `row_number` equals 1 being selected

### Final aggregation
- **Combining components**: The deduplicated daily neuron counts are passed through Token Terminal's standard metric finalization process
- **Currency conversion**: Not applicable for this count-based metric
- **Time aggregation**: Data is already aggregated at the daily level from the source. The finalization macro applies gap-filling logic using a 'fill_zeros' strategy, meaning that any missing days in the time series are filled with zero values
- **Final calculation**: The final metric value for each day is the `governance_neurons_total` count from the most recent data collection for that day, with appropriate metadata fields added for business categorization (business_line: 'Blockchain', market_sector_id: 'blockchains_l1', business_segment_id: 'blockchain')

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

Total number of staking accounts in the governance system.

Internet ComputerICP

Number of neurons

Number of neurons

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