A Decentralized Software Ecosystem for Everyone

Why Cardstack is a game changer for developers

In an interview with podcast Bad Crypto, Cardstack director Chris Tse spoke about the community the Cardstack Project aims to create, and how he hopes to attract the diverse kinds of developers, designers, and other talent that will be needed to make the ecosystem successful.

Here are four reasons you should build using Cardstack and become a part of the Cardstack community, no matter what your background or blockchain expertise level.

1. Let the Framework do the heavy lifting

Right now if you’re a developer, you have to make a decision — day one — about which path you’re going to take with a project — web, peer-to-peer, mobile, etc.

If you choose the Web, you’ll have to figure out how to monetize, through fees or advertising. If you choose peer-to-peer, you’ll probably have to navigate the enormously complicated undertaking of creating your own token, figuring out smart contracts, and much more.

For someone who just wants to code like they’re used to without signing their life away to the blockchain quite yet, that sure is a lot to ask.

The Cardstack Framework lets developers get started much more quickly.

Chris explained:

“Cardstack provides a framework that has a plug-in system; each plug-in connects to each blockchain of decentralized protocol. It can even connect to the cloud, existing UI or existing cloud services. On top of that, developers, don’t need to be blockchain developers, just great, motivated, application developers who used do web and iOS development now say, Hey, I have a Cardstack framework. It’s like other frameworks I’ve used, and look — I’m doing blockchain application on top of the plug-in framework without having to learn the quirkiness of how decentralized applications are working today.

“There’s no way for those software developers, design firms, and product firms to get into crypto because they have to go way low-level, go into Ethereum and build solidity, which is not really what they do. They build beautiful apps that people find useful and they love.”

2. Rewrite the playbook

The exciting challenge in blockchain development right now is figuring out how to create a user experience that matches or exceeds the offerings from Silicon Valley superpowers. Whoever cracks this puzzle will set the standards for the decentralized Internet of the future.

By contributing to Cardstack, Chris says you’ll be an integral part of the trailblazing:

“The way we make technology easy is we bring developers, product designers and user interface experts and say, “Why don’t you build me a beautiful UI, a component, a module, a tab, an app or what we call “carts,” a block of information that allows you to visualize what is actually going on, on-chain, and then coordinate them?”

3. Collaborate across disciplines

Because the Cardstack Hub makes it easier for people from diverse backgrounds to participate in blockchain development and design, Chris emphasized that you’ll get to engage in a much more vibrant and robust community than those we’ve seen coming out of Silicon Valley.

“What we believe is that you just can’t have one team with a bunch of engineers building all the tools for decentralization. If you really believe in decentralization, you’re really looking for a network of people coming in and saying, “Hey, I want to build my version of a Cardstack solution.” “I want to be a Cardstack consulting company.” “I want to do a design agency.” We want to get all those people aligned with building for software.”

4. Build something bigger

When you contribute to the Cardstack ecosystem, you’re doing more than creating a standalone piece of software — you’re building on the open source tools others have provided, and giving back by adding your own. Chris put it this way: