The Cardano Rust project has created a toolbox of Cardano’s cryptographic primitives for third-party developers written in the Rust programming language. It is IOHK’s first open-source project, providing a library of wallet and node functions – and a wallet for Ada, the most precisely engineered cryptocurrency yet. IOHK’s engineers aim to open up Cardano to more developers with an open-source library and encourage the worldwide community to build up this resource.

Introducing the #Cardano Rust project – toolbox of Cardano’s cryptographic primitives for third-party developers written in the Rust programming language. Our first open-source project, providing a library of wallet and node functions, & a wallet for Ada https://t.co/hwFvMTIKD0 pic.twitter.com/vKXnuGlqfY — Input Output (@InputOutputHK) October 1, 2018

A lightweight way into Cardano

Rust is a lightweight, portable and ‘blazingly fast’ language. It compiles to the web, iOS and Android, platforms that are popular with many third-party developers. The Cardano Rust project sits alongside the Haskell-based Cardano settlement layer as an open-source sandbox for developers who want to build and integrate their own apps, including products for mobile devices. With the command-line interface wallet is a development kit. The repository is open and the aim is for the project (known internally as Prometheus) to develop into a thriving community. In time, the Cardano Rust project will become open to many more developers as programming languages are added in addition to Rust. There will be regular updates as the project progresses.

Charles Hoskinson, IOHK’s chief executive, sets out the thinking behind the Cardano Rust project

In summary, this open-source library opens up the Cardano blockchain to a wider range of third parties. They will be able to build wallet applications, integrate new or existing products into the platform and speed up the decentralization of the Cardano system.

News source: https://cardanorust.iohkdev.io