Ray Network

Developers of an open sourced DeFi ecosystem, tools for developers, and user tools on the Cardano blockchain.

Ray Network is building and open sourcing a suite of DeFi products, developer tools, and user tools on the Cardano blockchain. The Ray Network have released a token that will have multiple uses throughout the dApps in their ecosystem, once most services are fully launched, and will also be used as a governance token.

All of the elements of this ecosystem can be viewed by clicking here.

The elements of the Ray Network ecosystem that are currently live are:

RayWallet - A light wallet for Cardano with in-app access to many of the tools developed by Ray Network.
Minterr - An NFT and fungible token minting service for Cardano. Also a real time NFT and token minting explorer.
RayStake - A staking tool where users can track their liquidity provider rewards, currently only available for certain pools featuring XRAY tokens, and earn a greater return, in XRAY tokens, by just holding their LP tokens in their wallet.
Cardano List - A list of projects building on Cardano curated by Ray Network. It hasn’t been updated since October 2021.

Current elements of the Ray Network ecosystem that are under development include:

RayGraph - GraphQL-based APIs to access historical blockchain data that has already been indexed.
RayPad - A launchpad for tokenizing creative projects to raise funds for their production.
RaySwap - An AMM DEX and Cardano DEX aggregator.
RayData - A B2B data storage and authorization solution to give people control of the information that gets shared about them and their life.
Cardano-web3.js - An SDK written in Javascript featuring multiple tools for developers.
Pigz.io - A metaverse project.

The Ray Foundation

The Ray Foundation is a non-profit foundation who guide the core governance of the Ray Network and contract those who work on it e.g. protocol maintainers.

Industry

DeFi

Tags

Open Source

Wallet

NFT Minting

DEX

Launchpad

API

SDK

Developer Tools

Author

builtoncardano

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Glossary

SDK

SDK stands for Software Development Kit.

A SDK is a specific set or package of tool designed to jump start a developer's journey or development in a certain area. SDKs are often used to create applications with advanced functions and can also include:

Informational or educational content
Programing libraries
APIs

SDKs are used by developers of all levels to assist them in their goals and developers on Cardano can find multiple SDKs created and open sourced by members of the community.

NFT

If you’re looking for a Cardano NFT then you’ve found the place for you! listed here are all the projects that feature NFTs in some form on Cardano. NFTs are no longer just the PFP collections that made them famous, although many do still exists and you can find Cardano NFT projects here, NFTs are assets with multiple different types of utility, depending on which project’s NFTs your buying.

A Cardano NFT is a native asset on Cardano which means that, unlike on other (specifically EVM-based) chains, an NFT is not managed by a smart contract, meaning that it behaves and is managed differently to the chain’s base asset, ada. On Cardano NFTs behave the same as the chains base asset as they are native to the chain.

On this page you’ll find everything from Cardano NFT projects to DeFi projects and decentralized identity (DID) solutions that have incorporated NFTs, to the Cardano NFT marketplaces you can use to purchase NFTs.

Metaverse

There are many Cardano metaverse projects building on Cardano, including many Cardano metaverse games. These range from earth-like metaverses, to medieval metaverses, and include, fantasy worlds, different periods of history, other planets, and even the moon. Many Cardano metaverse projects are in their infancy and in the process of being built.

We’ve organized the metaverses building on Cardano into 3 categories: Open Worlds, MMORPG, and Items & Real Estate. An open world metaverse on Cardano is one where you can freely explore the whole metaverse and these offers more of a social setting. MMORPGs are Cardano metaverse games where large amounts of users interact with each other to accomplish a goal, often having to clan up along the way; crucially, in these Cardano metaverse games, the game clock continues to tick on even when you’ve left the game.

Light Wallet

Basic Wallet Science Cryptocurrency wallets function through a pair of cryptographic keys, one public and one private. The public key is the wallet’s address, the private key is securely stored in the wallet. Both are required to send an asset from the wallet.

Wallets are split into two categories: custodial and non-custodial. With a custodial wallet a 3rd party, e.g. an exchange or service provider, possesses the wallet’s private key. With a non-custodial wallet you alone possess the private key. Whoever controls the private key controls the wallet’s funds. Hence the mantra: Not your keys not your coins. A wallet’s security can also be increased by storing it on a hardware wallet.

Wallets are either light or full node. Full node wallets download the whole Cardano blockchain, interacting directly with it, and are less affected by network congestion than light wallets, which require other nodes to send their transactions. Full node wallets exist on computers, light wallets exist on devices and as browser extensions.

A basic wallet allows for the viewing of its balance and the sending and receiving of funds, but wallets can have many other functions, including: delegating the wallet’s funds to a stake pool, registering to vote in Project Catalyst, displaying the wallets NFTs, hardware wallet integration, and using integrated DeFi services.

Launchpad

The term launchpad is often used in the same sentence as the terms incubator and accelerator, but the three have their own subtle differences. Many launchpads also operate an accelerator and/or an incubator. But what does a launchpad do?

A launchpad connects new projects to investors, and allows the project to raise funds by giving investors access to an exclusive, early, and often discounted, token sale. So the project gets the funds in needs to proceed with development and investors get tokens at a discounted rate before they’ve even hit the market. To offer security to their investors, and to uphold their name, launchpads will conduct through KYC into the projects applying to be on their launchpad.

Some launchpads will also offer many of the same services offered by incubators to the fledgling projects that conduct token sales through them.

Launchpads are often a sidearm of an exchange, of both the centralized or decentralized varieties, as they already have the capacity to sell tokens and can then offer a guaranteed place for the tokens to be listed once the project is ready to release them to the public.

Explorer

MYTH

Blockchains are a secret way of transacting money and hiding the exchange of funds from others and authorities.

TRUTH

A blockchain is a transparent ledge, meaning that anyone can explore the transactions on it when given the tools. Those tools exist for all blockchains (except the few privacy chains that have been created that do in fact hid the exchange of funds).

Explorers allow anyone to search and explore all the transactions on the blockchain. The blockchain can be searched and explored in numerous ways using: wallet addresses, transaction IDs (TX ID), block numbers, epoch number, slot/epoch number, stake pool ticker, token ticker, staking keys. Users can also search for individual assets and transaction metadata if they have the information. Developers can use APIs to scrape data from the blockchain to inform all sorts of processes, programs, and to create data sets.

DEX

Here is a Cardano DEX list for you to explore all the decentralized exchanges built on Cardano. There are multiple Cardano DEX projects for you to choose from, each with a different take on the DEX concept and the way of managing a decentralized exchange protocol.

Listed here are Cardano DEX projects that are based on both the automated market maker (AMM) and the traditional order book style of exchange. Both types of DEX on Cardano, like any other exchange, require a good amount of liquidity to operate effectively. This leads many to say that the best Cardano DEX is the one with the most liquidity. However, there are many other factors that the users of these DEXes would tell you to take into account before deciding which is the best Cardano DEX, and which one you should interact with (although a high amount of liquidity is a good indicator for users).

Interestingly, many Cardano exchanges, such as Sundaeswap, use the concept of “batchers” to collect, order, and execute transactions. This reliance on a small group of batchers to order and execute user transactions reduces the decentralized nature these exchanges as these entities could easily collude to front run transactions from particular wallets or to censor transactions from other wallets.

Developer Tools

If you’re a Cardano developer looking for the tools to develop a project or the resources for learning about developing on Cardano - such as Cardano developer courses - then you’ve come to the right place! Here you’ll find NFT tools for the Cardano NFT developer, project deployment resources for the Cardano app developer, community translations of the official Cardano wallet library into various other programing languages, APIs, SDKs, oracles, open source smart contract libraries, and community created tools and resources for the Cardano developer of today.

DeFi

Here are all the Cardano DeFi projects complete with descriptions and tags. If you’re looking for a Cardano DeFi exchange, a lending protocol, a launchpad, a Cardano stablecoin, or platforms on which to tokenize real world assets then you’ve come to the right place. The Cardano DeFi ecosystem is maturing and, as it does, we will continue to list the new Cardano DeFi projects here. If you look at Cardano in 5 years this list will be substantially different, some projects will have left it, but many many more will have been added.

If you’re looking to simply swap Cardano native tokens then a Cardano DEX is your best choice. If you’re looking to utilize your crypto holdings for a loan then take a look at all the Cardano lending and borrowing platforms on offer and choose which one fits your needs. There is much more utility in the Cardano DeFi world and we invite you to explore it here!

API

API stands for Application Programming Interface.

An API is an intermediary or go-between that allows computers or computer programs to talk to each other and pass information back and forth. APIs act as the messengers that take the request from the computer or computer program to the source that can provide the answer to that request, retrieves the answer, and then bringing it back to the computer or program that initiated the request.

In the blockchain space APIs are mainly used to query the blockchain. This is to say, that an API can be used to abstract specific data points from the blockchain so that a computer or program can use those data points to inform its user or its actions.

AMM

AMM stands for Automated Market Maker. This is an algorithm, often supplemented by oracles, that facilitates the pricing and exchange of assets between users. Assets are exchanged at market value through liquidity pools. These pools are created by Liquidity providers, LPs, who deposit assets to the exchange in pairs. This “asset pair” then allows users to swap one asset for the other through the liquidity pool. Fees are paid to the LPs who provided the liquidity. The more liquidity a pair has the less “slippage” a user experiences, meaning the less likely the user is to experience a price change in their trade.

Aggregator

An aggregator is a person or entity who gathers things together and then either displays them to others or utilizes what they have gathered for a purpose.

The most common use case for aggregators in the blockchain world is a DeFi protocol that aggregates DEXs. This means that a user submits their order to the aggregator protocol and the protocol distributes that order across multiple DEXs to get the user the best price at the lowest cost.

The Ray Foundation

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