CardStack (CARD) ICO review

Mission

Cardstack is both a movement and non profit foundation that aims to be the decentralised alternative to the centralised online services currently in control of user activity and services. They also hope to close the gap between what they believe to be the 3 main platforms for apps, making it easier for users to interact with the applications they already use in an open ecosystem. By creating a sustainable software ecosystem that coordinates the value being spent by to users and paying customers to the rewards received by developers and miners who contribute software and services to the open source platform, a sustainable system that benefits all involved parties equally will be achieved.

Products

The new experience layer Cardstack envisions turns every application into cards which will become the unit of interaction between services and the user. Cohesive Use Experience (CUE) Cards can be coupled together to form work flows, conversation, discovery and more.

Cardstack Hub connects apps with their respective blockchains in a way that will connect the current software, cloud computing and blockchain markets of an entire host of industries and make them all accessible in a token-driven ecosystem. Pages containing information about the reward model and smart contract mechanism that will run on the platform on top of the Ethereum Virtual Machine can all be found on their website at https://cardstack.com/tech.

Team/Partnerships

The founder of the project is an technologist, designer and entrepreneur called Chris Tse. The Columbia University graduate started the vision to decentralise the digital ecosystem by inviting open source contributors to help develop what he calls an “experience layer of the decentralised internet”. The diverse and experienced team of contributors are working on running their code for marketplaces such as social media and enterprise apps that will all collectively be accessed from the Cardstack Hub as soon as the ecosystem goes live and due to its open source nature, improvements will continue to be added to the space to cater to user specific needs.

ICO Details

The ecosystem will governed by the Cardstack Token (CARD) which will allow users to pay for any combination of software applications, for which the developers creating the softwares and the miners keeping the platform running will also be rewarded. The mechanism of the token itself is detailed in Cardstack’s whitepaper, which is very insightful read into the vision and plan for how Cardstack seeks to operate in the digital space. The extensive whitepaper can be found using this link https://cardstack.com/assets/media/cardstack-white-paper-v1.0.4.pdf, while a single page summary can be read here https://cardstack.com/assets/media/cardstack-whitepaper-one-pager-v12.pdf.

The current price of the token is 1 Card = 0.0175 USD, and the token is currently a standard ERC20 token powered by the Ethereum platform. Payments are accepted in ETH. Details about when and how these tokens can be purchased or earned can be asked and will be answered on the forum at https://bitcointalk.to/index.php?topic=2768237.380.

Remarks

The Cardstack Foundation based in Switzerland is a refreshing idea of what online interaction could be in the not too distant future. The model of using cards to run all your apps and services in one hub is very practical and they present a solution to the new problem of how local, cloud and decentralised apps will be able to communicate and all be readily available and easily accessible by a user. The encouragement of open source development and the movement to disrupt and re-imagine the current monopoly will most likely be a successful venture from the continuous progress made by the contributors. To learn more about what apps and services are currently being developed and will be expected to run on the platform, visit the telegram group at https://telegram.me/cardstack.