What makes for a successful DApp platform?

There are three characteristics that make for a successful DApp platform. Scalability, Reliability, and Community.

While it is true that the most popular DApp platforms in the space right now don’t necessarily meet those three criteria, incumbent platforms will not overthrow the current leaders by simply matching the features and functionalities of existing platforms.

Scalability

In order for a platform to have widespread use it must be scalable.

In order for a platform to have widespread use it must be scalable. As we have seen with networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, periods of high traffic often lead to networks becoming virtually unusable. The pool of unconfirmed transactions becomes so high that people using the network must compete with each other to pay the highest fee in order for their transactions to be processed by the network. This is expensive, tedious, and impractical. Scalability means a network must be able to handle millions of users, and consistently confirm transactions in a timely manner, even when there is a spike in activity.

Reliability & Usability

There are two aspects to reliability. The first is security and the second is decentralization.

In general, the more complex a platform is, the higher chance there is of there being a critical bug. A DApp platform must have a strong and well incentivized development team that is preventative rather than reactive. More so than other areas of technology, DLT must be secure because blockchain applications often deal with digital assets that hold real world value. The immutable nature of blockchain makes it extremely difficult to rectify issues that result in loss of users’ digital assets.

Reliability also includes having a blockchain that is decentralized, and that is in no immediate danger of being taken over by malicious actors. Censorship resistance along with decentralized governance are two of the main reasons why DApp platforms are useful in the first place.

The platform must also have inherent ease of use. Both in terms of development and end user interaction. If you can write smart contracts in Java on platform A, but only in Assembly on platform B, most people will choose to work with platform A. If the only wallet developed for a platform is a command line interface, there are going to be issues with getting people to actually transact with a token. Having inherent ease of use encourages outside development and user adoption, as more people are able to take part in using and building out the network.

Community

Community is an all-encompassing term that refers to the people working on and using the platform.

At the end of the day, a platform must have a way to engage users. If there are no users, no developers will want to build on the platform, and if there are no DApps built on the platform, then no users will want to use the platform. This is somewhat of a catch-22, and a problem that many otherwise well developed platforms face. New DApp platforms must have some compelling reason to get developers and users to switch from already established players such as Ethereum, and learn to use the new network. This competitive edge can include killer features, killer apps, cheaper fees, etc., but the reason to switch must be clear to the average user or developer.

Funding is a significant factor in community development, as projects with deeper pockets can host more hackathons, events and outreach programs. Funding also allows projects to invest in “ease of use” projects such as wallets, SDKs and development workshops.

ICOs provide a great way to bootstrap communities because they create a community of people who are financially incentivized to use the network and encourage others to use it too. ICOs can also provide the core developers of the platform with funds to fund development of DApps on their platform.

Conclusion

There are a lot of platforms out there claiming to be the next Ethereum. Some certainly have more legitimacy to that claim than others. Just remember this when making your investments, a platform does not have to satisfy these three criteria to their fullest in order to be considered a worthwhile investment, but for every area that a DApp platform does not satisfy these criteria, you should know the plan, timeline, and feasibility of the development of those critical requirements.

Thanks to Avi Felman for edits & thoughts for the framework.

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