Cardstack - platform for smart-contract developers

What is Cardstack

Cardstack is the experience layer of the decentralized internet.

What does this mean?

The project aims to allow users to chain cloud apps (think Apple or Google app stores) with DApps creating what is essentially a new customized app made of multiple apps. It is calling itself the experience layer because its main focus is on improving the user experience of using multiple apps for a single workflow.

What are cards?

Cardstack wants to take every app or dApp that you use and break them down into their basic actionable components. Cards are the basic output of apps.

Facebook has a newsfeed, a social network (friends, etc) and a messenger. Each of these could be a separate card. Cards can be created for any type of service, cloud or decentralized and they can be stacked to create an all in one solution.

The main benefits of creating a stack of cards are:

• Use one token to pay for all services that require payment.
• Gather data from multiple apps without having to access each individually.
• Make one payment for all services required for accomplishing a task.
• Pay for only what you use.
• Seamlessly tie blockchain and non-blockchain apps together.

MISSION   

Cardstack’s mission is to build an economically sustainable software ecosystem that fights back against the rampant lock-in mechanisms of centralized platforms.  

 SOLUTIONS

•  THE EXPERIENCE LAYER: Cardstack is building a new experience layer that helps users orchestrate their interactions across the (d)Apps they use, ushering in the age of mass market adoption of decentralized technologies in an open ecosystem
•  CENTERING THE INTERNET AROUND THE USER: The new approach to orchestration must put the users at the center and let them act as their own hub, so that interactions with applications and services flow through a software stack controlled by the users. 
• TURNING SERVICES INTO TANGIBLE CARDS: The necessary orchestration can be made intuitive by turng each state of an application into a “card”, which is a visual embodiment of the key information, suggesting the next course of action via chaining of related cards.
• BRIDGING BLOCKCHAIN AND CLOUD SERVICES: These cards become the primary unit of interaction between the users and many variants of competing services, which run locally, in the cloud, or on a blockchain and fulfill the different aspects of users’ needs.
• ENABLING PROGRESSIVE DECENTRALIZATION: Behind the facade of cards, the process of decentralizing the software ecosystem can be done piecemeal, allowing for drop-in replacement of common cloud services when blockchains are ready to act as substitutes.  

Cardstack mission is to save and continue the evolution of Ethereum smart-contracts

According to Vitalik Buterin, “The code is the law”. Freedom to write and run decentralized applications led to errors that resulted in users losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

The attempt to solve the problem with hardfork led to the emergence of Ethereum Classic. Further attempts to solve this problem of code vulnerabilities can lead to mass-cloning of the blockchain. The same happened to Bitcoin, the number of copies of which has exceeded 50. The lack of options to deal with bugs led to a split in the team of cryptocurrency developers.

Cardstack is an accelerator that funds the creation of decentralized applications, rather than taking payment for launching them, as is the case with the Ethereum network. At the same time the Cardstack platform is connected with the Ethereum blockchain, which ensures reliability of the project.

The amount of earnings of a smart- contract author is calculated by analytical miners who conduct parallel code audit. Decentralized applications can be from any industry, their value is determined and paid by users themselves, attracted by the opportunity to combine different smart contracts in the same operating environment.

Cardstack ecosystem

The Cardstack project works in the Ethereum network, and is designed to encourage the development of reliable, compatible blockchain-based applications, so the platform combines:

• Consumers
• Developers
• Analytical Miners

Participants are linked via CARD token — Cardstack users pay for access to smart contracts with it, and analytical miners and application developers are paid in CARD. To start the system, attract miners and ensure the development of decentralized applications, most of the funds raised through ICO will be spent to stimulate these processes.

At Crypto is Fun we have thought of a use case:

Musician
An electronic musician creating can create a Cardstack that allows them to open their Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and utilize software synthesizers, vst plugins and samples from a selection of decentralized and centralized libraries.

Although from different libraries, Cloud Apps and DApps the musician will pay for the use of each synth using CARD tokens. When the song is complete the musician would like to publish the song to ITunes and have royalty payments be sent in the correct amounts to each artist involved.

Who will use it?

The great thing about Cardstack is that anyone that uses multiple Apps & DApps to complete a single workflow will find it useful. At it’s core Cardstack is a platform for users to customize and simplify their workflows so the potential audience is enormous.

The core members of the Cardstack ecosystem are:

• End Users – These are the users that are creating stacks of cards for everyday use.
• Makers – Software developers and service providers that contribute cards to the ecosystem.
• Analytic Miners – These miners calculate the amount of rewards that the makers and also the miners receive.

How do fees and rewards work?

The basic structure of fees and rewards is one of the simpler proponents of the Cardstack ecosystem. End users pay to create stacks of cards. The payment goes to create a smart contract that binds the apps into the stack and the rest enters into the reward pool.

The makers pay a registration fee to add their card to the ecosystem and this fee enters the pool as well. A system named Tally will work with analytic miners to track on and off chain app usage and allocate rewards to makers and miners.

Motivation for investing in CARD tokens

Purchasing CARD tokens is an investment in a project that is being developed since 2014. It is a framework for Ethereum, a universal interface “killing” competitors platforms. The startup changes the usual economic model, where the client gets all the profits and actually finance cryptocurrency development. This is uncommon at hte3 very least but in fact — CARD token has a good chance to become one of top 20 cryptocurrencies. And it very well can grow thousands percent after the ICO.

The public ICO of the project will start on May 24, 2018, but developers have already collected $ 27 million of the $ 35 million HardCap during the Pre-Sale. Prospects for the project are obvious to a large number of investors, so those who want to participate in the crowdasle should hurry up.

To join the ICO, go to the WEBSITE and fulfill the KYC-verification. After that, follow the instructions explaining the terms for obtaining the CARD token.

TELEGRAM GROUP
ANN THREAD
BOUNTY THREAD

Social and Hype

The Cardstack Telegram group has 7700+ members. The Telegram is active, it’s moderated by Amazix and the most commonly working moderator is highly knowledgeable about the product. The moderators are quick to provide answers and links to articles and videos about the project.

The team has a handful of Medium articles discussing token metrics, volatility, blockchain acquisition, solidity and wide array of other topics. The Medium blog is one of the best we have seen for content. As mentioned earlier much of the content does skew towards the complex.

What is the role of CARD token?

The utility of the CARD token is:

• Access for End Users – To the Cardstack platform and the ability to create a stack of cards.
• Work Token – Fee paid by Makers (software makers and service providers) to allow their apps and dApps to be a part of the Cardstack ecosystem. Analytic miners also pay a fee to register participation in the Proof of Analytics pool.
• Reward Tokens – Distributed to Makers as a reward for the use of their contributions. Usage is recorded by Tally and reward calculated by Analytic Miners. Analytic miners are also rewarded for contributing to the ecosystem by completing reward calculations.
• Governance – Unused tokens can be staked to a voting pool to vote on some ongoing operations.

Distribution Token

Road-map

What about the team?

The core team is composed of 18 core members ranging from Blockchain developers to graphic designers. Of the 18 members, 12 are of technical backgrounds. The team appears to be highly experienced on the the technical side.

After watching several interviews with Founding Director, Chris Tse, we are impressed with his combination of intellect, technical knowledge, passion and philosophy. He appears to never tire when speaking of the complexities that make up Cardstack.

The technical strength of this team makes apparent one of their few weaknesses, the ability to make things simple for the common person. Chris Tse has spoken on this and has stated that they do plan on working together with a marketing team in the near future. We will say that the overall branding is on point and is consistent throughout all of their platforms.

Links to core team members and advisors are below:

Chris Tse – Founding Director

Ed Faulkner – Lead Developer

Hassan Abdel-Rahman – Senior Blockchain Developer

Justin Thong – Chief Scientist

Overall

This project is taking on the task of simplifying how we interact with Apps, dApps and the blockchain. The goal is to make the blockchain a part of everyday life without the user noticing it. The team has the technical chops to pull this off but needs to provide a level of understanding for the common user. If the project could ELI5 a couple marketing pieces they may be able to hook some individuals that have shorter attention spans or lack of interest in technical details.

To know more about this project, you can visit:

• Website: https://cardstack.com
• Whitepaper: https://cardstack.com/whitepaper.pdf
• Telegram: https://telegram.me/cardstack
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cardstack
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cardstackproject
• ANN Thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2768237.0

Profile : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2005736;sa=summary

ETH : 0x37B6953a3D9c40D5e40Dfc7DA2B8A58223b2a583