Developers can quickly build and reuse composable apps that integrate with the cloud and blockchain.
Cardstack is powered by a data fusion layer called the Hub. It indexes and orchestrates card data, syncs data with the world, and can be hosted anywhere. When developers import data from an outside source, Cardstack’s "Deck" data model provides them with templates to quickly turn the data into cards.
A card can wrap any kind of data: as simple as a message, as valuable as a payment, as powerful as an app. Cards have encoded rights that govern how they move.
Cards can be edited, saved, and shared using their 4 Edges: customizable tool panels that expand from each card’s perimeter.
Your Cardstack brings your cards together into a single lightweight experience that fully belongs to you. It’s your personal cloud for the new Web.
As you use the Internet, you accumulate data, which you can save as cards and organize into Decks, which are local collections that you own.
A Card Space is an arrangement of multiple cards, often from multiple users, into a living online experience. A Space is a collective truth.
Use Card Flow to lift and place your cards into Decks and Spaces. If your actions require someone else’s input or approval, Flow lets you work to reach an agreement.
Cardstack Token (ERC20: CARD) is the universal fuel for the Cardstack ecosystem, which lets you pay for all the apps and services you need in one go.
The Cardstack Framework is built on Ember and Node.js. It allows developers to quickly build modular, interoperable apps, or cards, through an open-source catalog of features and integrations. Using plugins, developers can extend cards with the power of cloud services, decentralized apps, smart contracts, and much more.
Developers can build a modular Web app using Card Space, by combining and embedding cards or allowing others to submit cards. Card Flow is a Git-based version control system that manages card movements, allowing developers to create collaborative, interactive Web experiences.
In Cardstack, Smart contracts are used for metering and billing, based on ownership rights and usage data, so makers and service providers are rewarded fairly for their work.
The Cardstack Hub is one of the most important parts of the Cardstack architecture — it lets applications easily handle multiple data sources, whether in the cloud, on the blockchain, or somewhere else.
The following blog post is a quick, layman’s introduction to what the Hub is and how it works, based on a loose transcription of the above video.
Note to Developers.
We are working on documentation for the Hub. In the meantime, you can learn more about it...
Are we missing the point of Web 3.0?
For many of us who have already played with blockchains, there’s a deep belief that Web 3.0, or “the decentralized Internet,” is primarily a network of value, with trustless, verifiable transactions for digital assets, synchronized around global ledgers.
It’s common to talk about software “ecosystems” without stopping to think too hard about the metaphor. But the metaphor fits well — just like a living ecosystem, a healthy software ecosystem depends on creating the right preconditions and then reliably maintaining a supportive environment.
And like the plants and animals in a natural environment, software that “lives” inside an ecosystem needs a minimum level of stability to survive. Most of the economic and social value...
Card Folio, the decentralized finance sample app recently demoed to our community on Discord, showcases the Cardstack Framework’s ability to synthesize disparate data sources across blockchains and the cloud. The app’s code has been officially open-sourced, with more documentation on the way.
In a previous post I discussed how the Cardstack Hub integrates with Ethereum. In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to run a Cardstack Hub against your smart contract. For those new to my blog, I’m an Ethereum developer at Cardstack, and I routinely post about fun challenges we are solving.
At Cardstack we are building an application framework for decentralized applications (dApps) that puts user experience first. One of the foundational aspects of our framework is our ability to expose...
Today, we describe updates we’ve made to the Cardstack Hub since the successful close of our TGE.
What is the Cardstack Hub?
The Cardstack Hub is our open-source, Node.js-based data orchestration layer that lets apps easily talk to on- and off-chain data sources. This means...
I’m really excited to write about one of the new features of the Cardstack Hub that we unveiled during our MVP: The Cardstack Ethereum Plugin. For those new to my blog, I’m an Ethereum developer at Cardstack, and I routinely post about fun challenges we are solving.
At Cardstack we are building an application framework for decentralized applications (dApps) that puts user experience first. One of the foundational aspects of our framework is our ability...
Blockchain-based systems like Ethereum are attempting to build a new generation of decentralized applications that could compete with today’s centralized software. This is an important goal — centralization around proprietary software leaves people...
Cards are modular “carriers of truth” representing data. They can not only interact with other cards,
but move in and out of public and private spaces—all while retaining consistent ownership.
Read More...
We need to break up the antiquated concept of the almighty “app” into smaller building blocks, which are in turn chained back together through the user’s choices or the system’s recommendations.
Cardstack White Paper
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The bar has to be a lot higher for dApps 2.0. It can’t just be about one blockchain. We need multiple blockchains. Tokens need to be available to use and easy to get when they are needed. And the dApps should be flexible in how they are hosted and accessed.
Right now, because Bitcoin is a coin, we think we need to have a pocket full of coins to pay for the usage of decentralized apps. We need one coin for this, another coin for that, and so on.
But if you travel as much as I have, you know you don’t want all these different coins jangling around as you go from place to place. You just want a credit card or two. We have to move from a coin metaphor to a card metaphor: Your credit card sorts out what kind of currency a transaction requires after you swipe it. So why can’t we do that to reduce the initial friction of coin acquisition?
Start using apps with zero friction. Exchange tokens and settle the details later.
The second issue is that a lot of these decentralized apps are silos. Each dApp has its own download, its own plugins, and so on. In dApps 2.0, we need to see all of these things as part of one cohesive stack. This way, several layers allow one application to tap into decentralized insurance, decentralized payments, and decentralized dispute resolution. Because that is what, say, eBay does—it does all those three things without you knowing it.
What we need is a user experience that can be orchestrated across many of these decentralized apps, backed by many tokens. And if you don’t have to worry about keeping track of all the tokens, then you can start mixing and matching your frontend experience.
Assemble the best parts into a cohesive experience.
Finally, it’s very difficult to ask users to install some software on their own machine, configure it, make sure they are connected to the mainnet, and then wait six hours before they can make a prediction market bet. Wouldn’t it be great if all of this could be hosted? But then, how would it be decentralized?
The truth is, we should look at a model like WordPress, which can be deployed without being centralized. There is no reason why decentralized apps couldn’t borrow that model—so that all users can take from the open-source codebase, join the network and host it themselves, or pay someone to do it for them.
Meet users where they are. Let them gradually take charge.
