This week marks the first anniversary of the Kinode project. Over the past year, we’ve gone from zero to Version 0.8 and built a stable Wasm VM ready to keep pace with innovation in existing systems: namely Wasm itself but also Rust, EVM, AI coding tools, and more. We’ve done all this while also being backwards compatible, meaning that Kinode is not just a stable platform but a forward-looking platform for devs of all kinds. Now, Kinode is ready to become the nexus of off-chain computation for the on-chain world.
Let’s take a look at the last year in Kinode development.
It was in June of last year that we decided that if we wanted to build the off-chain environment for web3, akin to a “LAMP stack for crypto”, we’d have to build it ourselves. This meant creating a comprehensive, modular platform that included everything developers need to build, deploy, and scale decentralized apps easily and efficiently. We believed Wasm was sufficiently mature, and that the work of Bytecode Alliance had made Wasm and WASI the new standard for running untrusted code on any operating system or device. Kinode was envisioned as an all-encompassing ecosystem which combines blockchain technology, decentralized storage, identity management, networking, and AI integration in order to provide developers a totally unified framework for building decentralized applications.
By January 2024, we launched our beta developer product, designed to simplify the creation and deployment of dApps. As promised, we built in primitives like networking, identity, and data persistence to create a unified development environment, and we strongly committed to seamless on- and off-chain integration and coordinated AI tooling. This launch kicked off a year of rapid development.
Soon, we introduced the Kinode identity system, KNS, which assures unforgeable identities using a domain system analogous to the Ethereum Name System. KNS domains are registered as NFTs and include metadata for demonstrating identity provenance and routing data. The system supports direct nodes, which share IP addresses and ports for direct communication, and indirect nodes, which enhance privacy by listing routers that forward messages. KNS’s flexibility allows developers to choose which node type is right for their applications. This flexibility extends to integrating existing NFTs, which simplifies the management of NFT communities and DAOs. Future plans to integrate other blockchains make KNS a truly versatile tool for decentralized identity management.
We also introduced Processes, the building blocks of Kinode applications. Think of processes as digital legos: while one might be sufficient for a particular task, sometimes you have to stick a bunch of them together to create something complex and powerful. Of course, Kinode legos have some pretty unique characteristics:
The power of processes can’t be overstated. They make Kinode customizable, because developers can build processes tailored to their specific needs without being constrained by system architecture. Processes are inherently designed to work together seamlessly, which means developers can easily create more complex and capable applications. And by allowing processes to spawn children and manage their own data persistence, applications can scale more efficiently.
March 2024 saw a flurry of apps and a major beta release. We put out Barter, an AI negotiator for NFT sales, our chess app which doubled as a demonstration for zk-Rollups in blockchain gaming, and Kino Files, a decentralized file sharing and storage application.
Taken together, these apps highlight Kinode’s versatility and the effectiveness of our modular architecture. Kinode can seamlessly integrate advanced technologies like AI and zk-Rollups to create really interesting and user-friendly software tools.
Kinode version 0.6 was a significant milestone for us. We introduced several critical updates, like a complete rewrite of the Eth RPC provider runtime module to support multiple chain IDs and data sources. We unified on-chain and package metadata in the App Store. And we refined terminal scripts to leverage the new capabilities system. The kernel was updated to allow processes to drop capabilities, which improved security and flexibility. Improved error reporting further streamlined the developer experience. And most importantly, Version 0.6 set the foundation for our long-term goal of backward compatibility, ensuring no future update would break existing applications. As we wrote at the time, this is the only way to guarantee truly permissionless development.
In April, we introduced the Twitter LLM filter, further showcasing how developers can integrate existing tools and AI.
Also in April, Kinode launched hosting to provide a reliable, easy-to-manage, and cost-effective deployment platform for developers. We enabled direct server access via ssh, automated updates, and secure sandboxing. This was big for us because it simplifies the deployment process for developers and ensures their applications perform well.
In May, we invited early adopters into the Kinode community, offering a free NFT which granted free hosting for life on our hosting platform, Valet.
We also released Kinode Command Center, which aggregates various API keys into a single interface. By consolidating access to several APIs like Telegram, Open AI, and Groq into one place, Command Center provides a unified place for developers to easily manage integrations. As more API integrations are made available to Kinode, they automatically become available to developers through the Command Center app.
Finally, at the end of May we introduced Kinode Calendar, an AI speech-to-text controlled scheduling assistant which integrates with Telegram and Google Calendar. Kinode Calendar allows users to manage their schedules using natural language voice commands, and also allows collaborative scheduling: simply share your telegram bot with someone and they can use it to set up meetings with you, which include Google meeting links, according to rules you define with your AI assistant.
While we first wrote about MemeDeck in April, highlighting their hybrid approach to the decentralization question, it was in late May and early June that they really began garnering a lot of attention. The platform has become the most fully-realized userspace app to date, allowing users to store, organize, create, and deploy memes across social media with ease.
MemeDeck also started collaborations with memecoin communities to help them drive community growth and engagement by providing the technical means for creating compelling content. The first example of this was the $99 Cents collaboration and the Steepy Pete meme which dominated the timeline until recently, when joined by another memecoin collaboration, Lucky Catoshi.
More such collaborations are happening as MemeDeck continues to gain mindshare on Twitter.
Kinode Version 0.8 is our latest big release and it achieves a major goal for us: backward compatibility. Backward compatibility ensures nodes running Version 0.8 can communicate and operate seamlessly with older nodes, which is crucial for providing a stable and reliable platform for developers.
Backward compatibility ensures both networking and application operations on older versions of Kinode will play nice with newer versions. In 0.8, Kinode introduced a TCP implementation. So, older nodes simply will not use TCP, nor will newer nodes expect this behavior of older nodes. As for applications, they can specify the kernel they run against. Older applications receive the old kernel, and newer applications receive the newer one.
Achieving backward compatibility ahead of version 1.0 demonstrates Kinode’s dedication to stability and usability. Backward compatibility means:
Version 0.8 also introduced several new features, including the aforementioned TCP implementation and multiple kernel versions, modular networking, and a refactored app store with UI improvements.
As we celebrate the first anniversary of Kinode, we reflect on a big year of growth and innovation. Kinode went from zero to backwards-compatible and stable in a year. Now, we will continue to focus on improved developer tooling and rich application experiences.
We can’t wait to see what develops over Kinode’s next year of growth. If you’d like to help us build the future with us check out our developer docs here.
Also, find us on Discord and Telegram. We build in public and we're always eager to help you.
We're waiting for you on Kinode.