Most developers have a back pocket full of projects they’d love to publish—if only getting them on-chain didn’t come with a steep learning curve. CoinNation founder Preston Lucas has been working on that problem, and his answer is now live, breathing, and code-ready. Through CoinNation’s ICP Studio, Lucas believes he’s created something that could radically shift how developers interact with Internet Computer Protocol (ICP)—no matter what language they write in.
Lucas’ recent walkthrough on his CoinNation YouTube channel reveals a platform aimed at reducing tech friction. Think less about configuring command-line interfaces and more about uploading and deploying with as few clicks as possible. The goal, in Lucas’ words, is to simplify things so dramatically that a basic website can go live on ICP in mere minutes. The complexity of deployment scales only with the complexity of the project itself.
The core idea behind ICP Studio is to let creators, no matter their technical background, use the cloud chain in a way that feels more familiar than foreign. Whether you’re a JavaScript regular or deep in Python, the system has been built to accommodate. From project creation to template export, the system does the heavy lifting—making deployment, monetisation, and social sharing feel intuitive.
In his video, Lucas starts by demoing a fresh project. It begins with a basic “test for video” project that becomes the scaffolding for everything else. With one click, that project transforms into a template. It’s now not just usable—it’s sellable. The template carries with it preview images, thumbnails, a full codebase, and metadata. Once published to the app store, it’s available to other users, who can buy or import it straight into their own environments.
Lucas has managed to make the transaction mechanics seamless. When a user clicks “buy”, a blockchain transaction triggers. If successful, the system releases the project files to the buyer. It’s a secure exchange—handled automatically—and the project lives either locally on the user’s machine or inside their own canister space on ICP. That flexibility is key. Users can choose to store their project metadata offline to save cycles, or they can keep it inside their ICP environment for quicker access and iteration.
The monetisation layer, while simple, is smart. By linking templates to public profiles, developers not only distribute their projects—they start to build reputations. Lucas demonstrates a star-rating system, user-submitted reviews, and a social profile page that’s more than cosmetic. It acts as a developer resume on-chain, publicly visible to anyone, even those not logged into ICP Studio. These profiles will eventually include template sales, project stats, and social links—offering an all-in-one snapshot of what users are building and how those creations are being received.
Lucas stresses that even though he’s just skimming the surface in his demo, the system is packed with features. For example, when a developer imports a template, ICP Studio automatically distinguishes between what’s original and what’s been pulled from another user’s canister. This is crucial in open-source environments where ownership and clarity matter. And if a user wants to take ownership of a project entirely, they can break the template link—disassociating the project from the original and making it completely theirs to edit, rework, and resell.
A lot of thought has gone into storage too. The ICP environment can be unforgiving in terms of cost if data isn’t managed efficiently. That’s why Lucas shows off a lightweight export feature—a JSON metadata file that acts as a breadcrumb trail back to your project. You can delete the full thing and retrieve it later by re-importing that single file. No bloat, no fuss.
The feedback loop is already starting to form. Lucas highlights how template reviews feed directly into a user’s overall reputation score. It’s a merit-based measure of value in the ICP Studio ecosystem, rewarding quality and usability over hype. If your code is clean, functional, and helpful, the community will reflect that—and others will be able to spot it easily.
As Lucas puts it, the bigger vision here is to create pathways for people to build businesses on-chain. The mechanics of web3 have often felt clunky, accessible mainly to those with deep technical skillsets. ICP Studio aims to flip that narrative. Now, if you’ve got a decent solution or app, you don’t need to spend hours wrestling with chain integrations or marketplace structures. You create, click, and it’s there—available for others to use, review, and reward.
Lucas is quick to note that the studio is still evolving. His roadmap includes more tools, better documentation, and continued UI refinements. But even in its current state, ICP Studio presents a compelling look at how user-friendly deployment could become across blockchain ecosystems. By making it trivial to package and publish work, Lucas is hoping developers will be more inclined to bring their existing projects into the ICP cloud chain without scrapping everything they’ve already built.
That’s an important point. CoinNation’s platform doesn’t demand that developers start from scratch. Instead, it embraces the idea that existing code—no matter the language—can and should have a place on ICP. The platform is designed to wrap around the work you’ve done, not force you into doing it all again. That choice, perhaps more than any flashy interface element, is what might draw in the wider crowd.
ICP Studio isn’t pretending to reinvent how software is written. But it’s making a very clear offer: bring your code, wrap it as a project, publish it as a template, and let the market decide what’s useful. No gatekeepers, no unnecessary steps, and no assumptions about what your tech stack looks like. And with a social layer baked in, it doesn’t just publish code—it helps you build credibility.
CoinNation may not be the loudest name in crypto tooling, but this rollout is likely to make developers take notice. For years, blockchain deployment has lagged behind the ease of standard cloud hosting. ICP Studio looks like an attempt to close that gap—giving developers access to an on-chain experience that feels just as accessible as deploying on Web2.
As Lucas closes out his video, he gestures to more features on the way. Reputation scoring, social discoverability, sales tracking—it’s a to-do list in motion. But the basics are already ticking: create, convert, monetise, share. It’s easy to imagine a future where ICP Studio becomes a go-to for launching ideas quickly without friction, without needing a specialist, and without abandoning whatever tools you already use.
CoinNation’s system won’t write the code for you. But once you’ve got it, it’ll get you on-chain without making you sweat. That’s a win, and the kind of step forward that might just make the crypto cloud chain feel like home for more developers—without asking them to relearn everything they know.
To watch Preston Lucas walk through it all, head to the CoinNation YouTube channel.
