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Kickstarter is announcing some big changes to the foundations of its technology. The company said Wednesday that it will support the development of \u201can open-source protocol that will essentially create a decentralized version of Kickstarter\u2019s core functionality,\u201d according to a Kickstarter blog post<\/a> published Wednesday. The protocol will live on a public blockchain and will enable anyone, \u201ceven Kickstarter competitors,\u201d to build upon or use it, the company says.<\/p>\n An independent organization will start the development of the protocol, and Kickstarter will give this group funding, appoint a board, and will be one of the protocol\u2019s first clients, the company says. It\u2019s also making an \u201cindependent governance lab\u201d that oversees \u201cthe development of the protocol governance.\u201d The protocol will be built on Celo<\/a>, an open-source blockchain that uses the more environmentally friendly proof of stake system.<\/p>\n The new company making the protocol does not have a name, according to Bloomberg<\/em><\/a>, which also reports that Kickstarter expects to move its site over onto the protocol in 2022. Kickstarter didn\u2019t immediately reply to a request for comment about if the change will affect the company\u2019s business model but did say in its blog that \u201cas a user, the Kickstarter experience you\u2019re familiar with will stay the same.\u201d<\/p>\n Kickstarter\u2019s efforts sound somewhat similar to what Twitter kicked off with its Bluesky decentralized social network standard<\/a>. Despite being announced in December 2019, it, too, is still in its nascent stages, having just hired a project lead in August<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n