[ANN][ICO]Cardstack: The Experience Layer of the Blockchain + Tally Protocol

[coinforumgentr]

Cardstack is a good project. It prepares a wordpress-like environment for decentralized applications. We will be able to practice without knowing coding. I think everything will be ready by the end of 2020.

[Cardstack Team]

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/


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/


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.

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

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/


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/



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/



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/


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


Our goal: Cooperation instead of competition

We aim to steer the decentralized tech ecosystem away from the competitive mindset of the last 10 years, where all tech companies competed against each other for eyeballs, dollars, developer mindshare, and screen time. At Cardstack, we believe that the next 10 years will be about cooperation between network participants instead:

Users drive usage → They are the source of economic value in the ecosystem.
Developers create new tools → They broaden the capability of the ecosystem.
Protocol community members manage the incentive & governance model → They ensure successful cooperation between participants of the ecosystem.

Read more about our roadmap: https://medium.com/cardstack/2020-the-year-of-launches-82ab84e4a1c7


Our plans for 2020: A shared foundation for our apps

In 2019, we focused on various use cases for our software, building open-source apps around decentralized finance, content syndication, and media registries.

In 2020, we aim to unify the features of these apps into one common runtime, based on Card Schema V2—which allows users to mix and match cards from different suites (whether the focus is finance, content, data management, or workflow) and run them on the same server, in the same framework, with the same hosting provider. All our applications will share the same foundation.

You can read more about Card Schema V2 in this blog post: https://medium.com/cardstack/card-schema-explained-8c5340a7cd9f


The first hosting service: Card.Space

Card.Space will be the first hosting platform for dApps in the Cardstack ecosystem. It empowers users who don’t have the technical capabilities to run their own decentralized apps, by offering them a one-click hosting service that is reliable, cost-effective, and easy to use.

It works just like any other platform: Once you have an account, you can create your own space for yourself, your team, your private/public group, or a hierarchy of interrelated subteams. Then, you can run any Cardstack app written in Card Schema V2 just by opening a template in the browser—and start interacting with it immediately.

All service providers in the Cardstack membership network will benefit from a global software catalog, unified billing & payments, cross-honored membership, and a token-curated registry. To learn more about the role of service providers, take a look at our website: https://cardstack.com/


Developers are card makers: The Card SDK

Last year, we launched Card SDK V1, enabling developers to build apps that tap into the full power of the Cardstack Hub—with its indexing, transactional writing, access control, API generation, and UI support, including templating and routing.

Since then, we have been upgrading the Card SDK to support the V2 model that is currently in development. Card SDK V2 improves the encapsulation of code, making it easier for developers to reuse modules they have created in other cards. For example: Once you have built a payment processing card for credit card or crypto payments, you can insert it into any other card you are building (e.g. a concert ticket card), which can use the exact same payment UI, API calls, and wallet integrations.

The future Card SDK V2 documentation will be available here: https://docs.cardstack.com/release/


Users are app makers: The Cardstack Builder

99.9% of humanity does not code. That’s why we facilitate not only code-driven, but also no-code approaches to making composable apps, by providing drag-and-drop tools for card assembly and point-and-click-tools for configuration. These easy-to-use tools will greatly increase the number of card makers who can actively contribute to and profit from the richness of the Cardstack ecosystem. Therefore, the current focus of our research and development revolves around creating the card building tool that makes this possible: the Cardstack Builder.

Read more about the Cardstack Builder: https://medium.com/cardstack/the-ultimate-card-building-tool-25c442e22bed


A Card Catalog of prebuilt templates

When it comes to no-code platforms, most users start with prebuilt templates, to which they make little tweaks. As a result, they can get a SaaS app up and running in as little as 15 minutes.

That’s why we encourage all card makers (both those who write code and those who work with the drag-and-drop tools of the Cardstack Builder) to share the card templates they create with the greater community—by simply adding them to the Card Catalog, which will include premium templates as well.

Learn more about the underlying technology for the Card Catalog: Githereum—which is a git-based file system structure for managing these submissions through the Ethereum blockchain: https://medium.com/cardstack/introducing-gitchain-add61790226e


Inspired by 3D open-world games: The Boxel Design System

At Cardstack, we aim to give users a cohesive experience across all the capabilities we offer:

• creating new cards using the Cardstack Builder
• searching and collecting card templates in the Card Catalog
• adding cards to the personal Card.Space
• combining cards to create high-level workflows

The process of combining these actions should be fluid, which is why we borrow a page from the game world’s book, where everything—dragging and dropping, zooming in and out, selecting and configuring in-game objects—is done in a consistent way.

Our solution for such composable Web 3.0 experiences is based on the principle of box elements (boxel), which we expect to turn into a complete design system that supports full theming for companies and brands. The UI components and boxel engines are under active development and will be part of the Card SDK as well as the Cardstack Builder.

Read more in our blog post about our 2020 roadmap: https://medium.com/cardstack/2020-the-year-of-launches-82ab84e4a1c7


Communication + Transaction = Cooperation

More and more platforms facilitate communication via chat groups, social media posts, and forum messages. They drive engagement and screen time, but don’t return a lot of transactions in terms of dollar values. On the other hand, transactional systems for e-commerce payments, crypto, or B2B workflows have little support for communication.

At Cardstack, communication & transactions are combined to create cooperative workflows: Let’s say a card contains business transaction data in the form of a purchase order or digital asset. This card can travel from one user’s/organization’s space to another user’s/organization’s space through an interactive workflow that includes messaging capabilities.

Card data services are currently in development. They will make it possible for cards to be imported into a hub; and once a card has been imported, it is fully functional within the hub, including the UI, APIs, security control, and data query capabilities.

Learn more about the Cardstack Hub: https://cardstack.com/technology



Multi-hub interaction for access control

We are designing a distributed query service we call multi-hub interaction, which enables cards to move between realms seamlessly, with each realm representing a certain type of security and access control. Think of your private folder on your computer as the 1st realm, your shared Dropbox folder for your team as a 2nd realm, and a public folder where you drop files others can download as a 3rd realm.

These interactions are based on the git protocol, which allows for version control and tracking, as cards move between realms. Allowing multiple hubs that are run by different organizations to cooperate as one extended network will lead to promising new economic models.

Read more in our blog post about our 2020 roadmap:
https://medium.com/cardstack/2020-the-year-of-launches-82ab84e4a1c7


Revenue from customers drives rewards for makers

A truly sustainable ecosystem runs on top-line revenue, as customers pay real money for products or services. That’s why an essential part of our strategy is our billing and reward system, Tally, which was launched to testnet mid-2019. In order to drive revenue, this system will allow users to pay for their usage of services on the Cardstack network in the currency of their choice.

To achieve this, we will integrate Tally with payment gateways to process credit card payments as well as top decentralized exchanges. Once these integrations are done, we expect to push Tally to mainnet and fully integrate the CARD Protocol with user-facing services.

Check out Tally on testnet: https://staging-tally.stack.cards/


Governing the Card Catalog via the CARD token

Among its many benefits, the CARD Protocol will support staking as a means to govern the Card Catalog. This allows people who are knowledgeable about crypto economics and software quality to act as reviewers for new cards that are submitted. By using the CARD token as a governance token, we plan to delegate the ongoing management of the Card Catalog—decisions like which cards get listed in which categories under which conditions—to a community-governed process.

If you’re interested in more details about the CARD Protocol, here’s our Medium article: https://medium.com/cardstack/the-card-protocol-explained-c78e8e091a72


Anyone can offer their services in the network

A registry of service providers will be built on the Githereum (a git- and Ethereum-based) registry system. It will allow providers who want to offer services in different geographic locations, as well as developers or designers who want to offer consulting services to customers on the network, to list and promote themselves in a way that makes sense to them. This registry will be curated using the CARD token as the native accounting unit and the fee denomination for registry maintenance.

Learn more about the role of service providers on our website: https://cardstack.com/


We are proud to announce that the Cardstack Project has reached a major milestone!
After months of hard work, we successfully merged the new version of the Cardstack Hub (which implements Card Schema V2) with the main Cardstack Builder codebase last week. Read all about the new hub in this article: https://medium.com/cardstack/milestone-reached-the-new-cardstack-hub-23fff7e64eb2

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[coinforumgentr]

Cardstack is one of the projects (less then 100) in the blockchain space that had a fully mapped vision for what they wanted to build, to take advantage of the various cryptographic primatives that have recently emerged. They have a tried and true approach to marketing that will serve investors and community members in the long run; build first, then market what's been built. Let the product set the tone. Then we will see the type of marketing that really works, where the products value is driving communications.

To do that, they needed to build the product first. They were incredibly clear about this sequence of events from the get go.
The blockchain space is full of empty marketing just desperately trying to be relevant, but it mostly falls flat.
Now that the card builder and Folio testnet are live, the marketing and community development can begin atop the actual product.

As for their reputation in the developer space, Cardstack is one of the most respected code bases, with Gitcoin using some of the folio code for Vitalik's Quadratic Voting public goods grants.
I'm thinking about including Cardstack in one of the workshops I'm hosting at ETH Denver this weekend and I'm sure there will be a lot of opportunities to show off the platform in the coming weeks.

[Cardstack Team]

Cardstack is one of the projects (less then 100) in the blockchain space that had a fully mapped vision for what they wanted to build, to take advantage of the various cryptographic primatives that have recently emerged. They have a tried and true approach to marketing that will serve investors and community members in the long run; build first, then market what's been built. Let the product set the tone. Then we will see the type of marketing that really works, where the products value is driving communications.

To do that, they needed to build the product first. They were incredibly clear about this sequence of events from the get go.
The blockchain space is full of empty marketing just desperately trying to be relevant, but it mostly falls flat.
Now that the card builder and Folio testnet are live, the marketing and community development can begin atop the actual product.

As for their reputation in the developer space, Cardstack is one of the most respected code bases, with Gitcoin using some of the folio code for Vitalik's Quadratic Voting public goods grants.
I'm thinking about including Cardstack in one of the workshops I'm hosting at ETH Denver this weekend and I'm sure there will be a lot of opportunities to show off the platform in the coming weeks.

Cardstack has always believed that a successful economic network, backed by crypto primitives, needs to generate top-line revenue, which means people paying real money for real services for real utility. That's why we focus on a product that is geared towards users, buyers, and customers, because customer cash is king—especially in the time we are in today. If customers are willing to pay for Cardstack-based apps because Cardstack provides a great selection of features (produced by open-source developers and designers) at a great price, hosted by competent service providers who know how to manage cloud expenses and provide customer support, then there will be many opportunities for distributing rewards to the people who add the most to the platform. This will give people incentives to join, to build, to stake, to vote, and to hodl.

Thank you very much for your support! 2020 is a year of launches for us. We have launched the new schema system (https://medium.com/cardstack/milestone-reached-the-new-cardstack-hub-23fff7e64eb2) and just posted a sneak peek of the Cardstack Builder application (https://youtu.be/WjylQ7Emgwc), which is part of a series—more will be published in the coming weeks.


We’re giving you an early sneak peek into the Cardstack Builder with its GitHub integration! 

In the latest installment of our developer series, Jen Weber shows you how the Cardstack Builder and GitHub work together as you build your own cards, with the code being generated for you automatically and your work being stored in your own GitHub repo. https://youtu.be/WjylQ7Emgwc


Developers, listen up: Here comes Dev Mode!

In the latest video of our developer series, we show you how to run the Cardstack Builder locally and how to create cards—both within the UI and within the code editor. https://youtu.be/JEHgZ_yOM7E


Can we reboot society? That’s the question Chris Tse poses in his blog post, where he looks at the current crisis through the lens of human psychology, surmising what comes after—what will change significantly and what’s likely to stay the same?
https://medium.com/cardstack/rebooting-the-world-after-the-covid-19-shutdown-3c53c989e499


  We have completed the internal beta version of the Cardstack Builder! 

This demo gives you a walkthrough of the different steps and modes to build cards using our card building tool.

Next, we are working on the GitHub integration, so developers can start playing around with the builder on Card.Space soon. Stay tuned for Dev Mode!
https://youtu.be/1n4apuT-JPk



Chris Tse spoke at Consensus: Distributed last Friday.

The topic: “Building Blocks for the New Creative Economy.” In case you missed it, you can rewatch Chris’ presentation in this short video we put together for you:
https://youtu.be/zhdjpwbeiOA

PS: Stay tuned for a longer version of his talk, which will be published soon.


Cardstack's Founding Director Chris Tse spoke at "Consensus: Distributed" last week, about the “Building Blocks for the New Creative Economy”—if you’d like to hear more about this topic, check out the longer version of his talk on our YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/TO0CsjbZXXc


This blog post is based on Chris Tse’s talk about the “Building Blocks for the New Creative Economy”. Learn all about the current state of the content distribution network, the role blockchain could play in the creative industry, and how Cardstack combines content with monetization in powerful building blocks for the world’s creators.
https://medium.com/cardstack/composable-monetization-techniques-for-creative-content-e90946ce78d3


Here’s Chris Tse’s latest talk about the history of software distribution. He speaks about how software evolved from a product (SaaP) into a quote (SaaQ), a resource (SaaR), and finally a service (SaaS) between 1995 and 2020. Finally, it will become a tool (SaaT) that empowers both coders and non-coders, by combining off-the-shelf software with the individuality of customization.
https://youtu.be/UrnYKgTl184


Want to learn more about the history of software? This article dives deeper into software as a product, quote, resource, service, and tool (including the business model behind SaaT), while being less tech-focused than Chris’ talk about “The Evolution of Software Distribution”.
https://medium.com/cardstack/software-through-the-ages-7ae7b3debfd7


[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[illetyus]

Can you check this? Is this contract address correct? https://uniswap.info/pair/0x6cd7301d8366382198e2ab7d3cc4c6a74f3b4fc8
I am waiting to offical listing. I'm not sure if this address is reliable.

[Cardstack Team]

Introducing the Cardstack Membership System: In this article, we give our community an overview of all the different badges that members will be able to acquire in the Cardstack network. There are numerous ways to participate in growing the ecosystem and earn corresponding rewards—whether it is as a Card Stacker, Card Maker, or Card Member.
https://medium.com/cardstack/the-cardstack-membership-system-a6b55731b81b


Get ready to meet the Cardstack Workflow!

What would you prefer: 10 tools for 1 workflow—or 1 tool for 10 workflows?

Currently, people need many different tools to accomplish their work. One app for messaging, one for document sharing, another one for task management, a separate one for transactions… The list goes on and on. Each tool is from a different SaaS company, requires its own login, and is a silo that doesn’t interact with any of the other tools. Put simply: It’s a pain. Getting work done is much harder than it should be.

That is why we have been working hard to create a powerful workflow system to end the chaos. Essentially, the Cardstack Workflow puts cards in motion, enabling users to act on those cards and exchange them between each other easily—all within one system that can be extended for individual needs.

Users will no longer have to split up their work into 10 different apps, all of which do different things and don’t talk to each other. Instead, they can do all their work in one place, managing their multi-layered and multi-faceted workflows with one multi-functional tool.

In the past few weeks and months, we improved the visual & motion design of the Cardstack Workflow, aligning this multi-party workflow system with the look & feel of our Boxel Design System, so as to offer users an exciting, seamless, and composable experience.

In the next couple of weeks, we will introduce you to the various concepts that we have combined to make this system truly special, using the example of an Ebook Editing workflow.


All in one: Chat, Email & Tasks

Don’t you love Slack and Telegram? They let you chat. You can have real-time conversations with your friends, colleagues, partners, or clients—exchanging messages and emojis to your heart’s content. But that’s it.

Don’t you love email? You can send files. And your inbox tells you at a glance which emails are new, which ones are important, and which ones you don’t have to worry about right now. But that’s it.

Don’t you love Asana and Trello? They give you tasks. You can check off the items on your to do list, while keeping track of your progress on different projects. But that’s it.

Granted, those are great apps. They’re good at what they do. The problem is, the thing they do is all they do. Your emails don’t convert themselves into tasks. You chats don’t sort themselves into categories. Your tasks don’t have live chats attached.

So what if there were a tool that gave you the benefits of chat, email, and tasks combined? A well-organized, straightforward, real-time workflow system, where you can send messages and attachments between multiple participants or organizations, while simultaneously completing all related tasks?
All features in one tool: The Cardstack Workflow!



Let’s talk about the Queue

Your email inbox is great. It helps you prioritize, as it sorts your emails into categories. But does it tell you when there’s something that you need to do? Not so much.

Your Cardstack Workflow queue not only sorts your messages and gives you informative previews—it actually tells you if there is a task for you inside a thread, or that you’re blocking an entire workflow.

Take these categories, for example:
Unread: “There’s a new message in this thread. Read it!”
Need Response: “We’re waiting for you to take an action. Go click that button already!”
Recent Activity: “Nothing for you to do right now. Feel free to take a nap.”

If you expand your queue, you get a full-screen view with even more categories, where you can put messages that annoy you or the ones that are no longer relevant.

Your queue is also searchable. And you can have a separate queue that’s shared among your team.

But most importantly, it’s the place where you click on a queue item to open a thread. In our example, let’s open the thread of an Ebook Editing workflow.

=> more on threads coming up


[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[meetAm]

Cardstack Membership System is interesting idea, it combines on-chain and off-chain record keeping. System consists of three primary roles: Card Stackers, Card Makers, Card Members. Each has it's own dividendts and features

[JooBra]

Cardstack Membership System is interesting idea, it combines on-chain and off-chain record keeping. System consists of three primary roles: Card Stackers, Card Makers, Card Members. Each has it's own dividendts and features

Can you explain me in more details how exactly off-chain record keeping is being realized? Idea looks interesting now that off chain record keeping its bothering me...

[Cardstack Team]

Let’s talk about Threads & Workflows

You simply click on a queue item to open the corresponding thread.

Now, your typical message thread in Telegram or Discord has a few participants and a bunch of chat messages, possibly with an attachment or smiley face here and there. But there is much more to this thread.

For one thing, it is not only a simple conversation. It can be a formal workflow between multiple participants—a step-by-step process with milestones, actions / buttons, reminders, and progress updates.

Secondly, both the thread itself and individual messages can be annotated with tasks. You can assign them to yourself or to your colleagues, if it’s their turn to finally do some work.

=> more on participants next week



Let’s talk about Participants

A thread between several parties is like group DM—but one that connects people from inside and outside your organization.

Of course, participants of a thread can be from the same community, like author and editor in our Ebook Editing workflow. But they could also be from different organizations, like representatives from two or more companies who share a workflow for a collaborative project.

A Cardstack Workflow makes it possible to send messages, transfer cards, and assign tasks across organizations—with visibility settings playing an important role. For instance, if you add participants at a later point, you get to choose how much they see: Do you want them to be able to catch up and see the entire thread history? Or do you want them to see only messages sent after they have joined? Either way, you can adjust the settings according to your needs.

=> more on messages coming up


[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[JooBra]

Let’s talk about Participants

A thread between several parties is like group DM—but one that connects people from inside and outside your organization.

Of course, participants of a thread can be from the same community, like author and editor in our Ebook Editing workflow. But they could also be from different organizations, like representatives from two or more companies who share a workflow for a collaborative project.

A Cardstack Workflow makes it possible to send messages, transfer cards, and assign tasks across organizations—with visibility settings playing an important role. For instance, if you add participants at a later point, you get to choose how much they see: Do you want them to be able to catch up and see the entire thread history? Or do you want them to see only messages sent after they have joined? Either way, you can adjust the settings according to your needs.

=> more on messages coming up

Is there any limitations which groups can be invited to the community? I guess there are so I would like to hear more about that.

[Cardstack Team]

Cardstack Membership System is interesting idea, it combines on-chain and off-chain record keeping. System consists of three primary roles: Card Stackers, Card Makers, Card Members. Each has it's own dividendts and features

Can you explain me in more details how exactly off-chain record keeping is being realized? Idea looks interesting now that off chain record keeping its bothering me...

Within a workflow, a card (e.g. forms, documents, asset references) and its binary representation are stored as JSON documents; they are attached to the message thread the same way a gif is attached in a chatroom. So, the off-chain storage is provided by the messaging network; initially, that will be the Matrix network. One of the nice things about using the Matrix protocol is that the attached file is replicated to two different servers: the sender's Matrix host and the recipient's Matrix host. It works very much like email, where the storage of messages is “off-chain”, while they are replicated (similarly to a blockchain node) for the parties that need to have a copy. Our off-chain storage mechanism achieves decentralization without the congestion that comes from having every node replicate every message and attachment. With that said, for cards that need a global state synchronization (so that everybody in the entire world will have access to the off-chain storage), Cardstack can store the attached JSON document in an IPFS end point instead of the originating server within the Matrix file attachment API. We also have a way to anchor these IPFS records using the git protocol on the Ethereum mainnet, which is even more decentralized and immutable. Users will not see the difference, regardless of the backend. The default will be the Matrix file attachment method.

Let’s talk about Participants

A thread between several parties is like group DM—but one that connects people from inside and outside your organization.

Of course, participants of a thread can be from the same community, like author and editor in our Ebook Editing workflow. But they could also be from different organizations, like representatives from two or more companies who share a workflow for a collaborative project.

A Cardstack Workflow makes it possible to send messages, transfer cards, and assign tasks across organizations—with visibility settings playing an important role. For instance, if you add participants at a later point, you get to choose how much they see: Do you want them to be able to catch up and see the entire thread history? Or do you want them to see only messages sent after they have joined? Either way, you can adjust the settings according to your needs.

=> more on messages coming up

Is there any limitations which groups can be invited to the community? I guess there are so I would like to hear more about that.

The Cardstack Workflow is anchored on the federation capability of the Matrix protocol. So, any user who is either part of the main Matrix community or on a federated node on Matrix would be able to participate in the Cardstack Workflow. Since Matrix is an open-source and permissionless federation, you could say that anybody can join the community. We are focussing on hiding the complexity of the underlying secure messaging protocol and enhancing the business utility, by adding workflow and task management on top of an already decentralized family of secure communication hosting providers.


Let’s talk about Messages & Versioned Attachments

The messages inside a thread are similar to emails and chat messages—but without the headache. No need to send 25 files back and forth, because each version of your document is a separate attachment with a different name (“final.doc” / “final1.doc” / “final2.doc” / “finalfinal.doc” / FINAL.doc”). Instead, you can attach and exchange the same card as often as you like, even while you’re editing it collaboratively—because this attached card is alive and remembers its version history.

And when it’s your turn to act on the card, you will be asked to take an action, e.g. by a bot who points you to the button that you need to click.

=> more on actions coming up



Let’s talk about Actions

Take an action, reach a milestone. That’s the basic idea.

But it’s a little bit more complicated, because there are different kinds of actions—typically in the form of buttons you can click:

1. Required actions that you have to complete in order to move the workflow forward. These actions are needed to check off a milestone.
For example, in an Ebook Editing workflow:
- You have to share your manuscript with your editor if you want his help to edit it.
- You have to submit your manuscript if you want to publish it.

2. Suggested actions that you can (but don’t have to) take. These actions are optional because they aren’t needed to reach a milestone; they normally don’t affect the current workflow. For example:
- You could click to revise your manuscript after you have submitted it.
- You could click to view your published ebook on the publishing platform when the workflow is completed.

=> more on milestones next week


[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[Cardstack Team]

Let’s talk about Milestones

As you move through your workflow step by step, the system tracks your progress until you reach the final milestone and the workflow is completed.

Let’s look at the example of our Ebook Editing workflow between author and editor:
You’re the author. You want the editor’s help to make your book really great. So, the nice bot asks you to share your manuscript with your editor (see “Required actions” in Friday’s post). Good author that you are, you click the “Share Manuscript” button. Now, your action
- embeds your manuscript card in the workflow, so your editor can access it,
- checks off your first milestone,
- adds the corresponding “Milestone reached” notification to the workflow,
- updates the status of your project via progress wheel, and
- triggers the next action—in this case, a prompt for your editor to start editing your manuscript (this prompt is visible to him only).

Of course, not all milestones are reached that easily. They may require more than one click (and the completion of more than one task) to accomplish the desired check mark....

=> more on tasks coming up


Let’s talk about Tasks

Tasks in the Cardstack Workflow system are like tasks on Asana or Trello, but they are much more useful—because they are directly associated with your different workflows!

Tasks can not only be added to your personal or shared to-do list like they can everywhere else, but to a message thread as well—even to individual messages, attachments, or actions inside that thread. A colorful pointer in the thread tells you immediately what your task is about, which message it concerns, which card you need to look at, or which button you have to click. Meanwhile, you can use the expandable task list at the top to keep track of all tasks related to that thread.

Any participant can assign tasks inside a thread. You can add a task for someone else—e.g. to let your editor know that you need him to look at your outline before you can continue. Or you can add a task for yourself that only you can see—e.g. to remind yourself to check out the link to the stock image library your editor has sent you for your cover art. And once you’ve completed a task, you can check it off with one click, as you would on Asana or Trello.

In addition, there are tasks a nice bot can assign. Those are tasks you should look out for, because they are tied to required actions and tell you that someone (maybe even you) is blocking the workflow. For example, only when you’ve clicked the “Share manuscript” button (thus shared your manuscript with your editor) can the editing workflow continue.
Very convenient feature: You don’t need to check off system-generated tasks manually. They are automatically resolved once you have clicked the button that the bot asked you to click.

=> more on related workflows coming up



Let’s talk about Composable Workflows

Some workflows are simple. Others are more complex. Which is why Cardstack workflows are composable.

Say you’re done editing your manuscript with your editor. Now it’s time to involve a proofreader. So, you can simply add an Ebook Proofreading workflow into your main Ebook Editing workflow (alternatively, you could start with a complex workflow that comes with related flows already).

This related workflow will be included in your main workflow, so you can access it easily—but other participants can’t. Each participant can only see the workflow that person participates in, meaning: Your editor can only access Ebook Editing, your proofreader can only access Ebook Proofreading, and you can access everything.

Now, you can send your manuscript through a portal to your Ebook Proofreading workflow, get it proofread, then send it back to the main Ebook Editing workflow, where that action will check off your “Proofread” milestone. This way, you keep the participants separate—and yet, they work together towards the completion of the same overall project.

This composability allows you to combine workflows in two ways. You can
- nest workflows inside each other: Such “included workflows” help you to complete your main workflow, e.g. you can get chapter 1 of your ebook proofread or translated before you submit it.
- chain workflows together: Such “linked workflows” don’t affect the main workflow, but help you to keep track of your project, e.g. you can repeat the same editing workflow again for chapter 2 of your ebook.



The Cardstack Workflow is a multi-functional tool for multi-faceted work.

It makes your work life easier, because it keeps you updated on the progress of all your projects.
It makes your communication more cohesive, because you get to communicate on the same platform where you’re doing your work, so all participants can see that the work they’re discussing is actually getting done.
It makes your project management more organized, because the actions you take inside a flow organize your work for you.
And it makes everything more fun, because the pain of switching between 10 different apps every single day is finally over. All the different aspects of your workflows are combined in this 1 tool, which can be further extended to provide absolutely everything you need.

This way, you can finally leave subscription hell behind and manage your whole work efficiently, without a handful of SaaS companies holding you down. And if you want to use this workflow system on your phone, you can use the mobile version of the Cardstack Workflow.

We will continue working hard to bring this unique workflow system to life and plan to release a video demo soon. Use cases of the Cardstack Workflow could include content collaboration, payment collaboration, contracting, governance, community formation, and much more. Stay tuned for future updates!


[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[Dalib]

Cardstack Weekly February 26, 2021

This week we continue working on the UI component for Cardspace. The upcoming hosting service for apps and dApps that are created using the Card metaphor. We are working to allow for creation of new Card spaces with only a web3 wallet, which allows for reservations of URLs as an NFT that you can transfer to another person later. This initial implementation allows us to validate the full stack rendering pipeline that connects to underlying smart contracts both for paying for the fees necessary to conduct on-chain transactions on the layer 2 blockchain, as well as to purchase add-ons from the catalog in the future.

On CatalogJS, we have set up the content distribution network (CDN) hosted at catalogjs.com, currently in testing so that packages that are processed by CatalogJS can be accessible in a fast and efficient way over a global network. This distribution network will be used for the user facing Card Catalog, but it is important that we get the developer version of this asset deployment process smooth out and optimized.

On the mobile app front, the team continues working to apply the latest visual design, which contains the Cardstack branding as well as the UI component from the Boxel design system and bring them into the live mobile app. We are using an open source library called storybook.js to manage the design system assets within the React native codebase. Based on community feedback, we are including the Android customization and ensuring the stability of the android version of our app, while we are developing the beta for ios version. Our goal is to release the android version very soon after the ios release, as we know many of the community members are android users. Since we are using react native and applying the same design style to both versions, there should be minimal visual and functional differences.

On the protocol front, we are building on top of the smart contract and layer 1 - layer 2 bridging that is already in place to add support for decentralized commerce (dCommerce) features. We are working through a set of protocol primitives which allows for the payment for products and services using a mix of fungible and non-fungible tokens. Eg. you can pay for a download using a number of stablecoins in your wallet, or by redeeming a one time use coupon which is in itself an NFT. Observing what is happening in the community token / creator token space, we are also designing an enhancement to the protocol where a buyer may have to possess a certain badge, which is an NFT or have a certain number of tokens in the wallet for a period of time before they are permitted to purchase an item, and that item can be just a download link, where a file can be downloaded after payment, or it could be an ERC721 NFT where an on-chain transaction delivering a virtual good into your cardstack wallet after successful payment. Our approach for NFT is not specific to the current excitement around crypto art or collectibles, but as a generalized mechanism for inventing new patterns of commerce and engagement between creators and their fans / cult. The user interfaces for the Card Pay protocol are being reimplemented using the latest code in the Boxel design system so it can take advantage of all the functionality and visual refinement that we have achieved in the Boxel codebase.

On the marketing front, we have secured internal and external resources so we can handle and support the increased interest in the Cardstack project from different channels. We welcome new community members who have joined us in Telegram and followed us on Twitter, and we are working on bite size resources that allows newcomers to catch up on the progress we are making at Cardstack and would love for the community to share these resources with like minded people so we can grow a decentralized community that can together build the Web3.0 experience that will bring blockchain technology into the mainstream.

Compilation of our weekly updates from the last year: https://www.notion.so/Cardstack-Updates-7a516107f5a84858a3e0682dfd9a93f3#a64a2e7f815149149c6937915554c787

[illetyus]

Here's a great explanation on the Cardstack Platform and Products by one of our community members, Derek. https://derek-yfqiu.medium.com/cardstack-explained-in-one-page-40d96e4d0053

[Cardstack Team]

We've published a new video, where Chris talks about his vision and strategy for Cardstack—specifically about his plans to grow the ecosystem. This is the first in a series of (both long and short) videos about the progress and the products of Cardstack that we will publish in the coming weeks.
https://youtu.be/Sd73a89K3xQ


Coming up: A product talk about Card Pay! 

Make sure you join us for the premiere on Monday, 9 a.m. EST / 3 p.m. CET / 10 p.m. SGT.

https://youtu.be/zeGxShpQHWI


Our development of the $CARD Protocol is focused on the build on top of the smart contract, and L1-L2 bridging that is already in place, to add support for decentralized commerce (dCommerce) features.

Learn more: https://twitter.com/cardstack/status/1367429622367801350


Our work on the Cardstack mobile app is currently focused on applying the latest visual design, which contains the Cardstack branding as well as the UI components from the Boxel design system. The plan is to bring it to the live mobile app soon.

Learn more: https://twitter.com/cardstack/status/1367064015491399683


We believe that Cardstack is the interface layer for the next decade. What's coming in the 2020s is a version upgrade in the tech that we use, in the business models we pursue, and in the way that culture is defined.

Learn more: https://twitter.com/cardstack/status/1367841962297073668


In case you missed our premiere about Card Pay yesterday, here's a short article that summarizes the key points made by Chris Tse. If you'd like to dive deeper into Card Pay: the full video is available on our YouTube channel and linked in the article.
https://medium.com/cardstack/introducing-card-pay-754887d471a3


The Cardstack team working on the Boxel design system is currently consolidating all the UI components that we have used in dApps as well as enterprise apps into one design system catalog.

Read more here: https://twitter.com/cardstack/status/1369951243192336385


On the product development front, we're currently using the Boxel design system to create a dApp builder & hosting service called Card Space.

Read more here: https://twitter.com/cardstack/status/1370315073739059208


Our recent video on Card Pay showcases different aspects of the Web, mobile application and the smart-contract based protocol. If you missed this, watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeGxShpQHWI

We're polishing the iOS app to include interaction improvements such as interactions around organizing cards within your wallet or displaying clear confirmation messages for various actions you take in the network.

We're also preparing to add some flexibility to our smart-contract implementation, so as to support multiple types of fiat on-ramps as well as other layer-2 chains in addition to the xDAI chain.

Stay tuned!


How is Card Pay making crypto payments practical for regular users?

Chris Tse answers this and many more questions on the Card Pay protocol here: https://medium.com/cardstack/card-pay-protocol-for-a-new-software-economy-2650ed639f4d


Catch up on the development of Card Space, Boxel, CatalogJS and Card Pay. https://medium.com/cardstack/march-17-inside-cardstack-this-week-3eb4e75abfc6


The Cardstack Ecosystem is about a decentralized network of designers and developers coming together to compete with the centralized superpowers of Silicon Valley.

Learn more about the Cardstack ecosystem here: https://medium.com/cardstack/the-cardstack-ecosystem-73dc89aae2c8


Next week, Chris Tse will be talking about NFTs. The video will premiere on Monday, 22nd March, 9 am EDT / 2 pm CET / 9 pm SGT. Stay tuned! https://youtu.be/M-S_5AVTnSo


Have you set your alerts? Our Premiere on NFTs will be airing today at 9 am EDT / 2 pm CET / 9 pm SGT. We look forward to seeing you then! https://youtu.be/M-S_5AVTnSo


We have reached a milestone in developing the CatalogJS build system! The entire end-to-end run-through of the Ember app (an open-source framework that Cardstack is built upon) can now compile and build on this new infrastructure.

Read more here: https://twitter.com/cardstack/status/1374302459561091075

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[Dalib]

We have reached a milestone in developing the CatalogJS build system! The entire end-to-end run-through of the Ember app (an open-source framework that Cardstack is built upon) can now compile and build on this new infrastructure.

Read more here: https://twitter.com/cardstack/status/1374302459561091075

We also wired out the exception management, where build errors are surfaced to the #CatalogJS UI and presented to the developers so that they can debug and fix the error. $CARD

https://twitter.com/cardstack/status/1374302461561688068?s=21

We will be using #CatalogJS as a component to integrate third-party modules into #Cardstack runtime when we are ready to bring more capabilities - especially ones that are not planned as first-party features and be able to support them out of the box without modifications.

https://twitter.com/cardstack/status/1374302462211858434?s=21

[Cardstack Team]

Catch up on our weekly progress of Card Space, Boxel, CatalogJS, Card Pay and Cardstack's Mobile application.

https://miro.medium.com/max/1000/1*Fdct5b_lTdP8fJnbU_vzkA.png

Read up here: https://medium.com/cardstack/march-24-inside-cardstack-this-week-94e1e15ae988


What's in Your NFTs? Learn more about the potential, concerns & solutions surrounding NFTs which Chris Tse talked about earlier this week.

Read here: https://medium.com/cardstack/whats-in-your-nfts-e4e45ebc51da


Last week, Chris Tse shared insights into Card Pay—delving into the layer-2 payment protocol, its future users, different roles within the protocol, the governance function of the CARD Token & the incentives it provides.

Read the full paper here: https://cardstack.com/cardpaypaper


It's time to set your alerts again! Tune in today at 9 am EDT / 3 pm CEST / 9 pm SGT as Chris Tse shares more on Card Space.

See you then! https://youtube.com/watch?v=dSl6nzC4JjM


Cardstack is not purely a blockchain project—it is a project that combines cloud & blockchain technology. We are reusing the proven, rethinking the broken & inventing the missing links. Read more here: https://medium.com/cardstack/combining-cloud-blockchain-tech-e8aee04e1045


Catch up on our latest progress updates around CatalogJS, Card Pay, and the Cardstack application & wallet. https://medium.com/cardstack/march-31-inside-cardstack-this-week-20a198ab30fd


In case you missed any of our recent announcements—here's a summary of what's been going on this month: https://medium.com/cardstack/whats-new-at-cardstack-3cd370c4d020


Cardstack is hiring! We're on the lookout for a Senior Software Developer to join our team. Click here for more info: https://emberwork.com/offers/1617117943-senior-software-developer-at-cardstack


Cardstack founder Chris Tse participated in a panel discussion about “Ensuring User Privacy & Security of DeFi and Crypto Applications”.
If you missed it, you can watch his section of the discussion here: https://youtu.be/meGOSTtS6UA


Here's our latest article about Card Space — our builder tool that allows you to create your own website on the decentralized Web the no-code way.
https://medium.com/cardstack/introducing-card-space-c5022bbb54ee


Mondays are for exciting updates! Tune in today for Chris Tse's presentation on the **Cardstack roadmap**. Catch the premiere at 9 am EDT / 3 pm CEST / 9 pm SGT.

See you soon! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGOKbDz_7xY


Cardstack wants to make crypto payments practical for regular users. To do this, the team is working on a payment protocol, an associated Web-based dApp & a mobile app that is fast, cheap, and easy to use. Get an in-depth view of this protocol here: https://medium.com/cardstack/card-pay-protocol-for-a-new-software-economy-2650ed639f4d


Cardstack's lead developer, Ed Faulkner gave the closing keynote at the 2021 Ember Conference. Ed showcased a new type of build system that eliminates the need for NPM install, shifting the work of building a JavaScript application from the server to the browser through service workers.

Read more here: https://twitter.com/cardstack/status/1379714413423337473


 At Cardstack, we are offering an open-source sponsorship for developers worldwide to work on libraries, so we can continue making progress on reusable infrastructure, while we are working on the full integration of the customer-facing experience.

Learn more here: https://twitter.com/cardstack/status/1379746633701748736


Catch up on everything that's been going on at Cardstack this past week: https://medium.com/cardstack/april-7-inside-cardstack-this-week-85549d1fdb3e


Coming up on Monday, 12th April, Cardstack AMA with Chris Tse! Join us at 9 am EDT / 3 pm CEST / 9 pm SGT. Be sure to subscribe to the #Cardstack YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/cardstackproject


We are excited to announce that Cardstack is integrating with xDAI! Our payment and reward network Card Pay will be deployed on the xDAI chain. Read more about this here: https://medium.com/cardstack/cardstack-integrates-with-xdai-30e2fbd9d5aa


The 2021 roadmap for the Cardstack Project was released this week! Check out this article, which talks about the product launches we have planned for this year. https://medium.com/cardstack/2021-card-pay-card-space-card-catalog-7ad7e9860e8


One creative work can be minted under various NFT platforms. So, the same creative content can be two different NFTs, on two different minting platforms. This creates an uncertain value due to the duplicate token.

How can we solve this issue?

Learn more in this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-S_5AVTnSo&t=598s


Here's a quick recap of what's been going on at Cardstack this past week: https://medium.com/cardstack/april-14-inside-cardstack-this-week-2bdf72532442


What are custodial wallets and why is reliance on a custodial wallet a problem?

Watch this part of the video about NFTs, where Chris Tse breaks it down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-S_5AVTnSo&t=709s


We're grateful to our community members for making our first-ever AMA session a success! A lot of great questions were asked and addressed. For those who missed this session, we've compiled the questions in a two-part blog series. Here's Part 1: https://medium.com/cardstack/ask-me-anything-part-1-39cf50e296eb


The inspiration for Card Space comes from the reality that creators are faced with today, dominated by big names like Google or Amazon—centralized apps sitting between the world’s creative output & the world’s audiences.

Learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSl6nzC4JjM&t=77s

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[Dalib]

Another problem with NFTs: The metadata records of media files can be altered or deleted—either intentionally or because of lack of interest in the network. There is a solution for this. Watch this video on NFTs to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-S_5AVTnSo&ts




Many applications that have the ability to render NFTs are currently not open-sourced. So, you may not be able to interact with an NFT if the company that created the app is no longer around. Learn about a potential solution here:  https://medium.com/cardstack/whats-in-your-nfts-e4e45ebc51da



[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[Cardstack Team]

Catch up on our latest progress regarding Card Pay, Card Compiler, and the Web UI: https://medium.com/cardstack/april-21-inside-cardstack-this-week-2db10d57b50c

[Dalib]

Catch up on our latest progress regarding Card Pay, Card Compiler, and the Web UI: https://medium.com/cardstack/april-21-inside-cardstack-this-week-2db10d57b50c

April 21: Inside Cardstack This Week



Card Pay

As part of the Card Pay project, we want to ensure that there are products you can purchase on layer 2, so that we can complete the payment loop from customer payments to merchant withdrawals and product deliveries. We anticipate that Card Pay will be used for online, crypto, physical, as well as ephemeral goods and services. The easiest place to start is simple NFTs, which represent digital objects.

The completion of this ERC-721 aspect is now part of our work on the CARD Protocol. The aim is to bridge ERC-721 tokens between layer 1 and layer 2, so that the code can support the minting of NFTs (which represent products) on the xDAI chain. Once purchased, customers can bridge their NFTs back to layer-1 marketplaces like Opensea.

When Card Pay is launched, you will be able to mint, price, collect, and bridge NFTs with your stablecoin-backed balance in your Cardstack wallet. This low-cost minting service provides more access to the NFT space than the current mainnet-based approach. Since our tools are 100% compatible with WalletConnect and ERC-721, there is no need to learn another blockchain technology or have goods locked behind custodial wallets, which cannot fully participate in the rich Ethereum ecosystem.

In preparation for the launch of the smart-contract portion of the protocol, we have successfully automated all the deployment of necessary services using Terraform. We have also made many of the contracts upgradeable, using the best practices recommended by the OpenZeppelin project, so that new capabilities and functionalities can be added to our protocol without interrupting the customers’ and merchants’ usage of the network.

Web UI



On the Web UI front, we are working through the edge cases to ensure that our thread-based workflow model can support the very involved process of bridging tokens and setting up smart-contract wallet / multisig accounts, which lead to the issuance of prepaid cards to customer wallets. We are simultaneously adding new design system components to the Boxel repository and leveraging those components immediately in an end-to-end test — involving all the Web3 APIs — in a live app. That work will continue until the remainder of the workflows is completed.

Card Compiler

On the card compiler front, we continue to port the capability of nested cards — which is very important for the synthesis of data about assets — into the new (V3) version of the Cardstack Hub. This work is done in the main monorepo. It is done on an iterative basis, so we can strive to reduce the number of lines of code that are necessary to express all the compositional concepts needed to support all of our upcoming products — including Card Space, Card Catalog, and Card Membership. Card Pay does not depend on this new compiler, as it uses mostly Web3 APIs directly; Card Pay is only dependent on the Boxel design system, which is ready for deployment.