- Fundraising platform Kickstarter is to decentralize and launch a blockchain-based protocol
- Kickstarter will develop an open-source protocol with separate governance and development teams
- Kickstarter has raised over $6 billion since 2009
Kickstarter, the fundraising platform that has helped raise over $6 billion for various people and projects since 2009, has announced that it is to develop a decentralized, open-source platform. To help develop its new blockchain-based approach the platform will create a governance body and a development body, with the new decentralized entity allowing others to build on the platform.
Kickstarter Keeps Chosen Blockchain Under Wraps
Kickstarter announced the move in a blog post yesterday, in which the company stated its plans for a “commitment to a more open, collaborative, and decentralized future”, beginning with the development of “an open source protocol that will essentially create a decentralized version of Kickstarter’s core functionality.”
Kickstarter added that the new protocol will be live on a “public blockchain” but didn’t state which one, with further details to come in a whitepaper to be released “in the coming weeks”. The new protocol will be “available for collaborators, independent contributors, and even Kickstarter competitors, from all over the world to build upon, connect to, or use.”
Governance and Development Teams to be Established
This new approach marks a huge shift in mentality from Kickstarter, with no indication to this point that it was considering eschewing its traditional centralized fundraising model for something more open source. Kickstarter will establish an independent organization, Kickstarter PBC, that will “provide this new independent organization with some funding, appoint an initial board, and commit to being one of the protocol’s earliest clients”.
As well as this independent organization, Kickstarter will also have a “governance lab” to oversee development of the new protocol, publishing research, sharing learnings, and more in order to further the goals of the new collective.
Kickstarter notes that the world is “entering a significant moment for alternative governance models”, with the rise of DAOs being a good example, and states that its new protocol embodies “an important opportunity to advance these efforts using the blockchain.”
