Cardstack Updates

The tech stack beneath Cardstack The new Cardstack website gives you a detailed overview of the Cardstack technology and architecture. Learn all about our decentralized application server, user experience, SDK, schema, runtime, security model, protocol adapters, integration plugins, module registry, and deployment options. https://cardstack.com/technology

The Cardstack Mission “We are building the alternative to centralized SaaS apps that lock users into the platforms of Silicon Valley’s tech giants.” The new Cardstack website reflects our mission to jumpstart Web 3.0—by offering connections without intermediaries between individuals and organizations through a three-part approach: Open Source, Open Marketplace, Open Protocol https://cardstack.com/

Host it anywhere you want “Similarly to other open-sourced software like WordPress, users can choose any hosting provider to manage and run their Cardstack-based app for them. A large number of hosting providers in the Cardstack ecosystem will ensure that users from around the world get tailored services that fit their budget and requirements.” The new Cardstack website introduces the first hosting provider of the Cardstack ecosystem—Card.Space—and tells you how your company can join the Cardstack membership network. Service providers will benefit from a global software catalog, unified billing & payments, cross-honored memberships, and a token-curated registry. https://cardstack.com/

Code it to do more “Most SaaS products are proprietary, so one company owns your data. Because Cardstack is open source, you own not only your data, but your customized software too.” The new Cardstack website gives you an overview of the benefits Cardstack offers developers—being open source, fully documented, and (due to the underlying CARD Protocol) profitable too! Plus, there’s a detailed list telling you which skills you need to extend Cardstack yourself via UI customization, feature enhancements, or system integration. https://cardstack.com/

Design it to fit your needs “Do it in style. Create templates and themes for others to choose from, while you grow your client base with custom and premium themes.” The new Cardstack website conveys the relationship between designers and users—as users get to choose from a shared catalog of themes, which are created by designers, who in turn get paid for their work based on usage. https://cardstack.com/

Build it on your own “The Cardstack Builder brings the fun (and profit) of building software to non-coders, which is 99.9% of humanity!” The new Cardstack website gives you a sneak preview of our user-friendly app building tool, which allows users to assemble, configure, style, and publish their own apps without writing any code. https://cardstack.com/ If you would like to learn more about the Cardstack Builder, check out this blog post: https://medium.com/cardstack/the-ultimate-card-building-tool-25c442e22bed

Working together to break the status quo “Users, designers, developers, and service providers cooperate to create the shared software catalog for the next decade.” The new Cardstack website visualizes the competitive focus of the last decade, which led to application silos that required multiple logins from users. The next decade will be all about cooperation across individuals, businesses, and industries instead—as all network participants will be connected through an open and fair protocol. https://cardstack.com/

Mix & match features to build your no-code workflow! “Choose from a library of prebuilt templates. Adjust and combine them to create your very own apps, which help you manage your projects, sync your tasks, and grow your business.” The new Cardstack website presents the powerful tools we offer users—like a form creator, access control, white-label support, and interactive messaging, as well as task synchronization (based on our Gitchain technology) and automation (e.g. to generate invoices and multi-currency payments). https://cardstack.com/

Welcome to the Cardstack Updates channel! This is where all Cardstack news will be shared first. Be sure to join our community channel as well, to discuss the Cardstack Project: https://t.me/cardstack Summary Cardstack is the world’s first cooperative SaaS platform—where users, designers, developers, and service providers work together to break the status quo, creating the shared software catalog for the next decade. Users mix and match features to build fully functional apps and custom workflows on their own, benefiting from prebuilt templates, themes, and no-code tools as part of a cohesive user experience. Experts jump in to make these apps more powerful and connect them to existing enterprise systems, while hosting providers run the apps in the users’ preferred environments. This open marketplace, based on open-source software and an open protocol that rewards all contributors, creates connections without intermediaries in a sustainable ecosystem that aims to become the catalyst for Web 3.0. Links Website: https://cardstack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/cardstack GitHub: https://github.com/cardstack/cardstack Medium blog: https://medium.com/cardstack Youtube videos: https://www.youtube.com/cardstackproject Weekly updates: https://www.notion.so/Cardstack-Updates-7a516107f5a84858a3e0682dfd9a93f3 Roadmap: https://medium.com/cardstack/2020-the-year-of-launches-82ab84e4a1c7 White paper: https://resources.cardstack.com/whitepaper/overview/executive-summary Vision paper: https://resources.cardstack.com/vision/chapter-1 Reward model: https://resources.cardstack.com/assets/media/cardstack-reward-model-v1.0.pdf Token mechanism: https://resources.cardstack.com/assets/media/cardstack-token-mechanism-v1.0.pdf Tally protocol: https://medium.com/cardstack/the-card-protocol-explained-c78e8e091a72 Developer documentation: https://docs.cardstack.com/release/

We are changing our community management approach! After two years of AmaZix-led community management, we are now transitioning to a team-led community management approach. While AmaZix has done a great job moderating our chat groups in the past, we would like to be more involved with our community directly—as we have already started to do in some of our Discord channels, where you can get answers to your questions straight from our team. With that in mind, we have decided to take on the role of community manager ourselves, including both our Discord and Telegram groups. As we take over our social media channel communication, we will ensure that the conversation stays on topic, while we give our community members better and more frequent access to our team. We do ask for your patience, as we may be a bit understaffed for now, but we plan to expand our team (thus our social media coverage) as quickly as possible.

How do you create custom themes for your cards? Watch the latest installment of the Cardstack Developer Series, where our engineer Jen Weber shows you how to make a card your own, using the CSS features of the Cardstack Themer. https://youtu.be/3FSgcEXGZ8I

We have launched the new Cardstack website! Visit our revamped website, which conveys our product orientation in a less techy and more user-friendly way. As you will see, the Cardstack platform will enable users to build their own apps the no-code way, while designers and developers provide extensions via custom themes, advanced features, and integrations. Finally, service providers can join the Cardstack membership network to host these apps in any cloud. And it’s all coordinated through a unified billing system built on the Ethereum blockchain. Check it out yourself to learn all about our product and technology, as well as our design & development studio: https://cardstack.com/

Coming up: The new Cardstack website! We’ll be launching our completely revamped website in the coming days. Get ready to learn all about our product orientation in a user-friendly language and design, including a sneak preview of the Cardstack Builder.

2020 is the year of launches! Join us as we dive into our new roadmap, explaining how we will converge our separate features into one cohesive experience. This article tells you all about our plans for Card.Space, Cardstack Builder, Card Catalog, Tally, and more things to come. https://medium.com/cardstack/2020-the-year-of-launches-82ab84e4a1c7

2020 will be an exciting year! Here’s our end-of-the-year update on what’s to come, including the status of the Cardstack Builder and our new roadmap for the Cardstack Project. https://medium.com/cardstack/whats-new-at-cardstack-4bde1eb79dcf

Summing up We want to provide everything the users need at a good price, with good services, and a good selection. We want our network to give developers the opportunity to reach the largest audience on the Web. We want to enable providers to compete on price, services, and geography. We want to allow businesses to white-label our software, to build collaborative blockchain- or cloud-based networks, and reach users in new ways. We have highlighted all our milestones towards achieving this goal in our 2020 roadmap!

Businesses We offer businesses white-label software with open-source code as a core. There is no license fee, no cost beyond the package value. And our Card Flow concept allows them to collaborate with customers through a conversational workflow with a nice UI; because, when cards move between organizations—like an invoice moving in, a payment going out—that's where business gets done. This Workflow Builder is an important part of our roadmap for 2020.

Providers Service providers help users host their software—the cards (mini-apps) they have chosen from the Card Catalog—similarly to hosting WordPress, thus providing the “do-it-for-me convenience” you expect from the Web and the cloud. And that's a sticky arrangement. Once you're running your website/app with a certain provider, you're likely to stick with that provider over time. The recurring revenue coming in through the users is meant to create sustainable margins for the providers, enabling them to run a successful business. Yet, users can always switch providers if they are not content with the services; since our data is portable and everything is open source. There is one stack to manage and deploy on any containerized cloud, so anyone can operate a Cardstack-based service—which ensures a competitive market. As a start, the first hosting provider, Card.Space, will be launched in 2020.

Developers With the Card SDK, developers can build quickly and easily, so they can be successful immediately. We provide a unified software development kit that contains both the front-end and the back-end, so they can create, deploy, and sell their cards (their mini-applications) all within one system. There’s only one set of software (Card SDK in JavaScript) they need to learn to use. Then, they will be able to push their code into the catalog with just one command. Our framework does all the hard work, so they can focus on the features of their cards. Plus, developers no longer have up-front operating costs, as we shift hosting to service providers and its costs to the users. Based on actual usage analysis, developers get paid for building, maintaining, and improving the software indirectly by the subscribed users who end up using their cards. The Card SDK V2 is already in the works, as is our developer documentation: https://docs.cardstack.com/release/

Users The Card Catalog is open-source, user-friendly, and offers a great selection of cards and features to use for payment, content, messaging, and much more. It's like an app store, where developers publish their apps for users to download and use. But instead of asking users to pay for 40 different subscriptions, we offer them everything they need for one flat rate, $5 per month. That makes the catalog well-priced for each individual user. Yet, those subscriptions fund the entire ecosystem by rewarding the developers, who contribute the code, and the service providers, who provide the hosting services the users need. The Card Catalog will be launched in 2020.