We’re Thinking Big in 2019
An update on the growth of the Cardstack Framework
We’ve hit the ground running this new year, applying all our framework progress from 2018 to the development of several use cases already under way.
A collaborative community content management system, crypto asset portfolio management platform and media metadata registry are currently in the works — and that’s just the beginning.
Here’s a preview of the first tech demo, with others planned soon to show off the new features we’ve built and explain how other developers can build similar applications.
If you’ve watched Chris’ latest project update video, you can apply to get an exclusive look at what we’ve been working on.
Is decentralization enough?
Chris argues in his last blog of 2018 that by fixating on decentralization, the crypto community could be missing the forest for the trees.
We need to rethink the Web 3.0 experience. Rather than trying to rebuild the Internet’s infrastructure from scratch, we should use what we already have — and redesign the Web’s basic unit of user interaction.
Instead of web pages and apps, we’re all about cards: modular objects that represent data from any part of the Web, including the decentralized Internet — and connect directly with each other.
It’s worth reading Chris’ explanation of why this idea is so powerful.
Card UI: a design system for Web 3.0
Card-based design is more than just a fancy frontend. It’s a system that allows self-sovereign users to participate in shared experiences.
Cards are modular “carriers of truth” representing any data, that can interact with other cards and be moved in and out of public and private spaces, while retaining consistent ownership.
We’ve created principles of card movement and placement: we call them Card Deck, Card Space, Card Flow, and 4 Edges. They work together to form the universe that allows cards to exist.
Curious? Learn how Card UI works and enables use cases like decentralized organizations, tokenized assets, and more.
Use case: media rights
We demoed our latest Card UI progress recently in an initial preview of the next use case of the Cardstack Framework, a decentralized media metadata registry.
A media rights platform adjudicates claims of ownership from multiple players. We do this by combining the flexibility of a version control system with the certainty of a blockchain.
We allow participants to store media files and metadata off-chain (initially cloud storage, later IPFS). These can then be submitted, edited, and approved using Git actions, which we represent using Card Flow. Git commits — which determine “consensus” — are recorded to a Hyperledger Sawtooth blockchain for finality.
The network for this registry is managed by Cardstack partner dotBC, with Warner Music Group providing test data as one of the first participants of this network.
Updated project roadmap
Our project update includes a revised roadmap that illustrates our full-stack efforts.
This development frontier shows how every time we move to the right on our roadmap, we’re moving up the stack. Every new feature builds on the layers beneath itself.
So far we’ve tackled most of the foundational work that makes the rest of the Cardstack vision possible. On the UX front, we’ve created the Card Space architecture and built dozens of card types. Some of these cards already power our official site, and the editing tools are live and in testing. Demos are around the corner.
More from The Team
Developer Tobias Bieniek is the newest developer of the Cardstack Team, adding to our growing number of experts from the open-source community. Tobias’ previous experience includes working as a software engineer for telecommunications company QSC AG and contributing to Ember CLI as a core team member.
Cardstack attended the 2018 Hyperledger Global Forum in Basel, Switzerland mid-December to meet with other Hyperledger community leaders and demo our latest progress.
Cardstack was highlighted in a November Forbes op-ed as a top project helping to facilitate the move toward decentralized tech.
Chris’ op-ed in Bitcoin Magazine, the publication founded by Vitalik Buterin, was the #1 trending story on Reddit’s r/CryptoCurrency near the end of 2018.
2018 numbers at-a-glance
- 2,796 Git commits
- 51 articles
- 21,062 claps on Medium
- 8,201 upvotes on Reddit
- 13 team members added
- 22 events attended
- 34 media interviews with Chris
Stay in the loop
Apply for early membership in our new development-focused Discord, where the most up-to-date conversations about Cardstack’s technology are happening. We want to hear what you bring to the conversation!
Learn More
- From Speculation to Utility by Chris Tse
- Growing a Healthy Software Ecosystem by Lead Developer Ed Faulkner
- How the Cardstack Framework Powers Decentralized Applications
- The Cardstack White Paper
- https://cardstack.com/
