Cartesi (CTSI) is a layer-2 infrastructure, which aims to enable complex and intensive computations to run in a Linux environment, outside the blockchain, without compromising decentralization.

Cartesi aims to make DApps significantly more powerful, easier to develop, and portable. Cartesi aims to bring mainstream scalability and convenience to developers and users of decentralized applications.

Overview

Cartesi was founded in 2018 by Erick de Moura, Augusto Teixeira, Diego Nehab and Colin Steil. The founding team initially got into blockchain as a result of one of the founders, Augusto Teixeira, being friends with Serguei Popov, the founder of IOTA. Serguei became one of Cartesi’s earliest investors and advisors.

Development limitations on blockchain platforms can frustrate both developers and users, turning them away. Cartesi allows developers to build on well-established software they are familiar with and running them in a Linux environment. The project aims to bridge the gap between the centralized and decentralized worlds of application development. Some of its key highlights include:

Scalability: Intensive computations on massive amounts of data are performed off-chain with the same security guarantees offered by the blockchain.

Programmability: DApp logic runs under Linux, and is coded with a choice of thousands of open-source software components available for Linux.

Ease of Adoption: Developers can work in a familiar environment with no artificial limitations and with access to all their favorite tools.

Decentralization: Consensus is securely reached on-chain with no need for a reputation protocol, Trusted execution environment, or servers controlled by a single party.

Portability: Cartesi aims to make DApps portable across the most important public blockchains that support smart contracts.

Privacy: DApp states can be kept private among application participants.

Cartesi aims to bring mainstream scalability and power to decentralized applications through a network of nodes. The CTSI token has been designed to incentivize Cartesi Node operators to engage with the system honestly and in an efficient way.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}   

Team

Erick de Moura - Founder & Chief executive officer

Colin Steil - Founder & Chief operating officer

Augusto Teixeira, PhD - Founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Diego Nehab, PhD – Chief technology officer

Danilo Tuler - Head of Engineering

Felipe Argento - Blockchain Engineer

Gabriel Barros - Blockchain Engineer^[6]