Today marks a significant milestone for NMKR and the entire Cardano ecosystem: NMKR Studio is now fully open source. After months of careful preparation, security audits, and documentation, we're thrilled to open our comprehensive NFT management platform to developers worldwide.
This release represents our commitment to transparency, community-driven development, and building a more accessible future for NFT technology on Cardano.
Why We Went Open Source
The decision to open-source NMKR Studio wasn't made lightly. It reflects our core values and strategic vision for the platform:
Empowering the Community
NMKR Studio has been at the forefront of NFT creation and management on Cardano since its inception. By making it open source, we're enabling developers across the globe to:
- Contribute new features and improvements
- Learn from a production-grade NFT platform implementation
- Build their own solutions using proven, battle-tested code
- Innovate with modifications tailored to their specific needs
Transparency and Trust
In the blockchain space, trust is everything. Open-sourcing our platform demonstrates:
- Complete transparency in how NFTs are created, managed, and distributed
- Openness to security audits by the community
- Commitment to building in public
- Alignment with the core principles of decentralization
Education and Reference Implementation
NMKR Studio serves as a comprehensive reference implementation for:
- Cardano NFT minting workflows
- Multi-blockchain integration (Cardano, Solana, Aptos)
- Background processing for blockchain operations
- API design for NFT platforms
- Production-ready .NET/Blazor architecture
Catalyst Commitment
This open-source release fulfills our commitment to Project Catalyst Proposal 1000091: Milestone 5 - Open Source NMKR Studio. We're grateful to the Cardano community for supporting this initiative through Project Catalyst funding, enabling us to dedicate the resources needed to properly prepare and document this release.
What's Included
NMKR Studio's open-source release is comprehensive, including:
Core Components
- NMKR.Pro: Full Blazor-based user interface for NFT management
- NMKR.Api: Complete REST API with v1 and v2 endpoints
- NMKR.BackgroundService: Background workers for minting, burning, and blockchain operations
- NMKR.CardanoCliApi: Cardano CLI integration layer
- NMKR.Shared: Core business logic and blockchain utilities
- NMKR.RazorSharedClassLibrary: Reusable Blazor components
Database and Infrastructure
- Complete MySQL database schema
- Configuration templates for all services
- Docker support (coming soon)
- Comprehensive deployment documentation
Documentation
We've created extensive documentation to help you get started:
- README.md: Quick start guide and overview
- OPEN-SOURCE-PROCESS.md: Detailed process documentation
- LICENSE-RESEARCH.md: License selection rationale
- Architecture guides (coming soon)
The Technology Stack
NMKR Studio is built with modern, enterprise-grade technology:
- Framework: .NET 8.0
- Language: C#
- Frontend: Blazor Server & WebAssembly
- Database: MySQL
- Cache: Redis
- Message Queue: RabbitMQ
- Blockchain: Cardano, Solana, Aptos support
Security-First Approach
Open-sourcing a production platform requires careful security consideration. We've:
Comprehensive Security Audit
- Scanned 940+ files for credentials and secrets
- Removed all API keys, passwords, and sensitive configuration
- Replaced hardcoded values with configuration templates
- Cleaned git history to prevent historical data exposure
Best Practices
- All configuration is externalized
- Secrets are never committed to the repository
- Clear documentation on secure deployment
- Security vulnerability reporting process established
What's Not Included
For security and privacy reasons, we've excluded:
- Production credentials and API keys
- Internal infrastructure details
- Customer data and business metrics
- Third-party service secrets
You'll need to provide your own:
- Blockfrost API key
- Database credentials
- Redis and RabbitMQ configuration
- External service accounts (AWS, Google reCAPTCHA, etc.)
Choosing the MIT License
After thorough research and consideration, we've chosen the MIT License for NMKR Studio. Here's why:
Maximum Adoption
The MIT License removes barriers to entry, encouraging:
- Widespread use by developers and companies
- Integration with other projects
- Commercial use without restrictions
- Private modifications and deployments
Simplicity
- Easy to understand for both developers and legal teams
- Minimal compliance requirements
- Compatible with virtually all other open-source licenses
Community Focus
We believe the best way to grow the Cardano NFT ecosystem is to:
- Empower developers with freedom to innovate
- Remove restrictions that might limit adoption
- Foster collaboration over control
- Enable commercial success stories built on our platform
Developer Freedom
The MIT License reflects our philosophy: we want developers to build amazing things with NMKR Studio, whether that's:
- Custom NFT marketplaces
- Specialized minting platforms
- Integration with existing systems
- New innovations we haven't imagined yet
This milestone wouldn't be possible without:
- The Cardano Community: For supporting our Catalyst proposal and believing in open-source development
- Project Catalyst: For funding this initiative
- Our Team: For their dedication to preparing this release
- Early Contributors: Who've already started helping improve the platform
- Our Users: Who've provided feedback and ideas over the years
Thank You
Links
This article is part of our commitment to Project Catalyst Proposal 1000091 - Milestone 5: Open Source NMKR Studio.
business@nmkr.io
