Kickstarter adopts blockchain technology to its platform

The next step for Kickstarter is what its userbase wants regarding a decentralized and publicly viewable blockchain for their pledges, especially after having over $6 billion pledged on its platform.

As such, Kickstarter said, “As it moves to a more open, collaborative, and decentralized future, it will decentralize its core functionality via an open-source protocol that has yet to be created. As with most things blockchain, a white paper is penciled in to appear in the coming weeks.”

An independent organization will start the development of the protocol, and Kickstarter will give this group funding, appoint aboard, and be one of the protocol’s first clients, the company says. It’s also making an “independent governance lab” that oversees “the development of the protocol governance.” The protocol will be built on Celo, an open source blockchain that uses the more environmentally friendly proof of stake system.

According to Bloomberg, the new company making the protocol does not have a name, which also reports that Kickstarter expects to move its site over onto the protocol in 2022.

Kickstarter said that “As a user, the Kickstarter experience you’re familiar with will stay the same.”

It added: “This will live on a public blockchain and be available for collaborators, independent contributors, and even Kickstarter competitors from all over the world to build upon, connect to, or use.”

The blockchain that will be used is Celo, which Kickstarter claims is carbon negative.

“As a user, the Kickstarter experience you’re familiar with will stay the same. You won’t ‘see’ the protocol, but you will benefit from its improvements,” it said.

“Blockchain technology is a powerful tool to create and align decentralized and distributed networks of people — in effect, new forms of networked organizations and economies — at scales that only governments and mega-corporations can fathom,” it said.

Kickstarter also plans to create what it calls a governance lab, separate from the existing company and the new one, to provide independent governance for the protocol. Designating yet another distinct entity is intended to prevent Kickstarter from having an outsized influence on what’s meant to be a largely decentralized effort.