Cody Marx Bailey: Shaping the Future of Web3 with Andromeda

In a captivating session for the "Behind the Startup" series, Cody Marx Bailey, a trailblazer in the tech space with a rich history from the early days of the internet to pioneering work in blockchain, shares his journey and insights as a key figure at Andromeda Protocol. With a mission to streamline and enhance Web 3.0 and blockchain capabilities, Cody delves into the innovative world of AndromedaOS, offering a glimpse into the future of distributed computing frameworks and the transformative potential of Andromeda in the blockchain industry.

The Future of Decentralization: Cody Marx Bailey and the Andromeda Effect

Ishan Pandey: Hi Cody, great to have you here for our "Behind the Startup" series. Please tell us about your background, your journey, and your role at Andromeda Protocol.

Cody Marx Bailey: I got involved with computers in the early 90s as a ten-year-old. Got most of my experience first-hand by teaching myself Unix and Linux. I was one of the first web developers in 1993 and watched the web get built, site by site, through the 90s. I fell in love with the principles of free and open-source software. In the 2000s I helped build out the free culture movement online and some of the foundational technologies in social media, namely Hashtags.

One question I get a lot is when did I get into blockchain and my answer usually confuses people when I tell them that it was in the late 90s. They ask how that be if Bitcoin hadn’t been around until 2010? Well, all the pieces of blockchain were around in technologies such as SETI and BitTorrent. So when I read the BTC whitepaper, it was like “ohhh, yeah, that makes sense.

Ishan Pandey: What is the mission of Andromeda, and how does it contribute to bringing Easier, Better, and Faster capabilities to Web 3.0 and the blockchain industry?

Cody Marx Bailey: I’ve been kicking around the idea of an operating system since 2017 when I helped create the ERC721 standard for NFTs. That technology was a crucial step towards creating unique digital objects. I made a few casual attempts at creating the OS with Ethereum and Solidity, but in the end the technology just wasn’t good enough.

The need for an OS stems from recognising that the current state of these primitive machines is extremely hard to use. Every blockchain experience is different, there’s very little standardization, few concepts that normal people can relate to. That’s the job of an OS - to abstract away all the technicalities and replace them with more user-friendly concepts.

Ishan Pandey: Can you explain the concept of a blockchain operating system, and in what ways does AndromedaOS stand out as an operating system designed for distributed computing frameworks?

Cody Marx Bailey: Modern operating systems found on PCs, cell phones, tablets and other devices have a specific set of responsibilities. The first is to establish an environment in which applications and services can operate seamlessly through standards. This is done with things like user accounts, sophisticated application messaging services, a common namespace for resource referencing through a directory tree, and many other things we expect to see on a modern OS. One system that we borrowed a lot of our inspiration from architecturally is the POSIX family of standards.

Ishan Pandey: How does AndromedaOS leverage the Cosmos Ecosystem, particularly the Rust/CosmWasm combo, to achieve breakthroughs in interoperability and complexity in the blockchain space?

Cody Marx Bailey: Ask anyone who has developed in Solidity/EVM, regardless of the underlying chain, and they’ll tell you that the language isn’t good enough for creating the type of system that Andromeda has. Rust/CosmWasm is the right tool for the job. Just a small side note, Rust is now being used in the Linux Kernel, I doubt you’ll ever see Solidity being used anywhere outside of the EVM.

As for the Cosmos, the Internet of Blockchains might sound like a buzzword slogan that someone just slapped on the homepage, but if you look closer it reveals an architecture of independent nodes where no chain has primacy or authority over others. In the L1/L2 narrative in Ethereum, you’ve got all these temporary solutions to the crunch on blockspace, whereas in the Cosmos, we have the ability to scale with new chains without needing to always pay rent back down to an L1.

Ishan Pandey: Can you share any exciting updates on Andromeda's plans for its native token and overall ecosystem expansion?

Cody Marx Bailey: Absolutely, we're thrilled to share a significant milestone for Andromeda and its community. Our native token, $ANDR, is set to make its debut on the MEXC Exchange on February 22, 2024. This marks the first time $ANDR will be listed on a centralized exchange (CEX), signaling a new chapter of accessibility and growth for our ecosystem.

MEXC Exchange is renowned for its extensive global reach, trusted by over seven million users worldwide. The listing of $ANDR on such a platform is not merely about offering a new trading venue; it's a pivotal moment towards achieving global adoption and enhancing the token's liquidity.

Andromeda is known for its multi-chain Operating System, launched last year, which is redefining Web3 technology by simplifying the development and deployment of decentralized applications (dApps). The Andromeda Operating System (aOS) reduces the complexity and development time from months to minutes, empowering developers to create seamlessly across the Cosmos Ecosystem and beyond.

The listing of $ANDR on MEXC is expected to catalyze further growth within the Andromeda ecosystem, aligning with our mission to make on-chain development easier, better, and faster, expanding what's possible in Web3.

Ishan Pandey: How does AndromedaOS on multiple Cosmos chains enable seamless cross-chain application creation, and what advantages does this offer users?

Cody Marx Bailey: Just like you have different layers inside the OSI model of traditional/modern networking, the Cosmos is starting to reveal a similar stack of concerns. IBC is the transport layer, and our addition to the stack is AMP, or the Andromeda Messaging Protocol. We look at IBC channels as just secure ways to get information from one aOS install to another - similar to how technologies like TLS work. Separation of concerns with seamless handoffs between the layers works really well from an architectural standpoint - the entire internet was built that way.

Ishan Pandey: Why hasn't the Web3 industry adopted a standardized OS, and how would the landscape change with the introduction of no-code development tools?

Cody Marx Bailey: I think everyone is still trapped in the “old way” of doing things. Monolithic applications that do one thing and one thing really well. There’s so much money to be made in creating strictly financial applications, that’s where all the attention is. The “distributed ledger for financial applications” narrative has all the attention right now, but no one is really looking at the application space. These little computers with abstracted decentralized hardware are maturing quickly and we believe that the Cosmos architecture is the first possible moment that we can build a legitimate OS.

Ishan Pandey: How does Andromeda envision its business model evolving, especially considering the unique features and services it offers in the Web3 space?

Cody Marx Bailey: Andromeda’s business model is built for the explosive growth that occurs from network effects and global distribution.  The future of open source software is to power all the public infrastructure our civilization needs.  And that depends upon its sustainability.  Andromeda achieves sustainability by using an open source Apache 2.0 license and tokenomics to incentivize software development.

With this license, commercially investable open-source software is finally possible with more egalitarian outcomes than possible using pre-bitcoin FOSS models.

Ishan Pandey: What do you anticipate as the impact of introducing and expanding ETFs on the crypto industry, and what opportunities or challenges do you foresee emerging from this development?

Cody Marx Bailey: ETFs are an important development for mass adoption of cryptocurrency.  It mitigates crypto FUD and makes it easy to get price exposure. Getting crypto ETFs in the mass market’s portfolio is an important first step to introducing the possibilities and promise of DeFi. Of course many will be confused to learn an ETF is not the same as holding a cryptocurrency in your wallet. But over time the market will discern the power, legitimacy and value of cryptocurrency over fiat.

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