The AppCoins protocol Blueprint

The first wave of AppCoins adoption will be addressing the App Store flows with financial transactions, such as purchases inside Apps (IAP) and Advertising. The AppCoins mission is to provide the crypto token to power 40% of the financial transactions in the Android ecosystem by 2021. And keep growing.

What are the key “pieces” of that strategy ? Here is the AppCoins blueprint as it is being implemented today.

The Blueprint has three “building” blocks (1.Ecosystem, 2.Implementation, 3.Bootstrap) and three “lift” forces (A.Protocol Network Effects, B. “One APK, multiple stores” virality, C. Incentives alignment). The lift forces will be anaylysed in a future post.

Ecosystem

The value of a protocol is measured by its adoption and the adoption comes from the community.

Blockchain shifts the power from centralized stores, like Google Play, to the members of the ecosystem. It returns the power of publishing to the developers. The revenue share to OEMs and stores. And the power of choice to users.

Ecosystem nurturing is being done in four parts:

1. Protocol: AppCoins protocol contains the definition of interfaces that need to be followed to be considered AppCoins’ compliant. Different clients and servers can only interact if they respect the same interfaces format and they exchange messages in a standard way. The protocol is evolving and you can follow the changes on GitHub. Contributions to the protocol are incentivized through Appstore Foundation Working Groups (ASF-WG, more bellow).
2. Members: members of the community are the energy driving the adoption. They can participate actively as ASF members or in the community channels like Telegram, Reddit or Twitter. The role of the community varies from suggesting new directions to highlight roadmap deviations.
3. Communication: in the crypto space, communication is usually addressed as new announcements of partnerships and other PR stunts. For us, it is more than that. Communication is the bidirectional channels that enable a full-duplex communication. Four working groups had been created where AppCoins stakeholders can discuss the main protocol topics: App Advertising, In-App Purchases, Developers Reputation and ASF Governance. In parallel, the ASF team is attending different events like MWC (Barcelona) and GDC (San Francisco). ASF is also planning the first AppCoins Annual event in November 2018.
4. Foundation: a protocol to be neutral has to be governed by a neutral entity with enough resources to maintaining it. Until November’18, when Appstore Foundation (ASF) will be created, the community is asked to participate in the ASF bylaws and in the governance model. ASF has APPCs reserves to support the future activities like Protocol activities and R&D.

Implementation

The implementation of the protocol by Developers and Stores is what will lead users to the blockchain in-app payments experience.

The team is focused in the following tasks:

1. Reference implementation: an open source implementation of the protocol is available on ASF Github repository. This implementation comprises four different components: the wallet, the SDK, the smart contracts and Dapps (Campaign creation, Earn coins Offer wall). As defined in the AppCoins whitepaper, the Neumann release (March 2018) presented the In-App Purchases flow and the Gosling release (May 2018) will introduce the Earn Coins flow. In this version, the flows will run by default in the Ethereum Main Net.
2. Scalability: with a potential user base of 140 million yearly active users, inherited from the Aptoide adoption, scalability had always been in AppCoins agenda. Ethereum Layer 2 solutions like µ-Raiden and Plasma are being tested to understand what is the added value they can deliver for each app store flow. Layer 1 solutions, like Sharding, are also long-awaited.
3. Third-party stores: ASF has been actively in contact with independent app stores, providing information and resources about the protocol. After June, when the first resources of bootstrap funds are unlocked, will be periodically announced the name of the stores adopting the protocol.

Bootstrap

The bootstrap of a project, and especially a Two-Sided Marketplace can be accelerated by a good bootstrap strategy. However, that strategy has to be aligned with the ecosystem dynamics: incentives, network effects and virality.

Three bootstrap initiatives are being worked:

1. Air drop: a limited air drop inside the ASF wallet will be available on Gosling release (May 2018). The goal of this air drop is to enable users to easily try the In-App Purchases and AppCoins flows, even if they don’t hold any APPC or Ether. The Air Drop will be shaped according to the user engagement needs over time.
2. Minimum Guarantees (MG): app developers are very sensible to MGs and MGs are almost a standard of the industry. To convince the developer of a key title to integrate the AppCoins SDK, a MG can be awarded to the developer.
3. Double Top-up’s: OEM Manufacturers often asks for a fixed price to pre-load an App in their phones. This is not an efficient strategy and most of the times is a waste of resources. A more efficient bootstrap strategy on OEM side is to double their revenues every time a user Top Up AppCoins using their phone.

Ecosystem, Implementation and Bootstrap are all about execution. In the last months, we had been on-boarding an increasing number of new partners that discover the AppCoins protocol. We should not forget. We are able to do it because we are standing on the shoulders of giants: blockchain technology and Ethereum.