The Ultimate Dapp
And What Developers Think of It
How many dapps do you use on a daily basis? Well let us guess! If you’re reading this now, you must be a gamer, a crypto trader, a hodler, or, maybe, just a huge blockchain fan and you must be playing around with one or two dapps. But what about the majority of the world’s population that has neither the desire nor the time to get into all this incredibly complicated and sometimes even shady crypto stuff? Today’s dapp market has one major problem — its final product is not that attractive to the general public and they can’t be bothered to make an effort to start learning from the very beginning.
It seems like developers from all over the world got extremely excited about the possibility of creating an entirely new type of product and making a change. Building a dapp is the perfect scenario for a modern tech startup: it’s still yet to be fully explored, serves a good cause, and is potentially very rewarding.
There’s just one ‘but’ — average consumers have no idea why they might need these products. That’s why we have what we have now, which is far from mass adoption. According to statistics, the amount of new dapps being released per month at the end of 2018 was the highest ever: 178 in total. However, there’s no talk about the booming demand for what they offer. To be honest, it’s hardly surprising.
What’s Wrong and What Can Be Done
First of all, we should all take a deep breath, relax, and give it some time. The industry itself has just emerged and it would be unfair to require immediate results. Seriously, it’s only been a couple of years and progress usually takes a lot more. We don’t want to say developers should sit still and wait for the general public to embrace the beauty of dapps, the blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and decentralization on their own, but there’s no reason to panic either.
Instead, we should analyze the present issues that stop consumers from giving dapps a go, and concentrate on finding appropriate solutions.
Secondly, it might be a good idea to focus on the final product. Have a look at some existing projects, browse through their websites and try to understand what they offer simply by scrolling down the page. Unfortunately, in many cases, you will be left clueless.
Very often the project team tries to deliver a ‘unique solution’ for a problem the user simply doesn’t have, and moreover cannot even understand. It is up to developers to educate their potential users at the moment, nobody is going to do that for them. And, of course, automate everything that can be automated. An average user who is unfamiliar with crypto won’t go through the complicated process of buying a random token on an exchange they have just seen for the first time. Cryptocurrency transactions should become invisible and effortless.
Your consumers also do not want to know why EOS-based dapps are a lot faster or cooler or more beautiful than Ethereum-based dapps, so there’s no need to waste your time and website main page space to explain this. No need to make a masterpiece out of your whitepaper. The end product that people might want to use is the only thing that matters.
Another problem is that the majority of dapps require you to spend some of your hard-earned money right away. Have a look at blockchain games, together with gambling dapps, they are the current industry leaders. You cannot go far in your gameplay without spending some crypto, and only a few games offer some kind of free trial option.
On the other hand, we have centralized mobile games that very often are completely free of charge and you might have to pay for some special in-game items or superpowers or other ‘extra’ stuff and it’s completely up to you whether you need it or not. It’s a great deal for everyone — the developer gets users who can play for free and provide valuable feedback and, eventually, some of them will become fans of the game and start putting some real money into it.
One should never underestimate the power of a good bargain!
And, of course, there are technical issues like scalability, transaction speed, the volatility of crypto, the list is quite long really. But as we said, we just have to give it some time, work on some solutions, and adapt according to the market’s behavior.
Expert Opinions
But who knows more about the dapp business than developers themselves and the projects dedicated to support them? We’ve asked a few of them to share their thoughts, hopes, and concerns. And here’s what came of that.
Kyle Lu, founder and CEO of Dapp.com
Q1: What are the most important technical problems that dapp developers should solve ASAP?
There are 3 of them: 1. Smart contract security; 2. Well-Planned functionality between decentralized and centralized components (smart contracts and server); 3. Efficient data storage.
Q2: What kind of dapps would a regular user, not very familiar with crypto, want to use (except for gaming)? Can you name a dapp that stands out and why?
Social dapps such as Steem-based dapps. Steemit is the best for beginners to enter the dapp world — account setup is easy, there’s excellent UX, good incentives for users, and a strong community.
Patrick Rieger, CEO of Everdragons:
Q1: What is the best platform for dapp development (Ethereum/EOS/TRON) in existence today?
As of 2019, there is a long list of platforms that are in contest for developers. As the whole space is still very young, platforms are all still far from mature. Even if the chain itself runs stably, there is still a huge gap when it comes to standards, services, and infrastructure. Therefore, this question needs to be split into two answers:
a) For a developer that builds digital infrastructure, the choice of platform depends mostly on key performance indicators such as speed, cost, capacity, popularity, level of decentralization, etc. The product must fit the chain. A chain with a high level of decentralization might be the right choice of infrastructure around high value financial transactions. A chain with high speed and low transaction costs could be chosen to build the backbone for micro incentive products. As 2019 seems to be essential for all platforms to become more usable, there is a good chance for infrastructure developers to negotiate a financial incentive.
b) For dapp developers that create end user products, such as games, the key is to be chain agnostic. The current maturity of the platforms may give indicators as to what consensus type might prevail for certain use cases, but certainly not which chain. Assumed that longevity of the dapp is desired, the foundations need to be built in a dynamic, flexible, and platform independent way as the blockchain world is changing rapidly.
Max Hatchwell (aka CryptoHulk), CEO of Crypto Gamers Community
Q1: What kind of dapps would a regular user, not very familiar with crypto, want to use (except for gaming)?
News. These days we have lots of fake news with Blockchain that can be prevented.
Q2: Can you name a dapp that stands out and why?
Blockchain Cuties. Game updates are incredibly important. If you take Fortnite, for example, they release new updates regularly to keep the users interested.
Blockchain Cuties are doing a great job in that area with lots of in-game updates and collaborations.
Q3: What is the best platform for dapp development (Ethereum/EOS/TRON) in existence today?
I would choose Tron as Tron is investing the most resources and money into the blockchain gaming industry.
Q4: Speaking of your project: what are your lofty objectives?
We are not a dapp; Crypto Gamers Community is a well-established Blockchain Gaming Community that strives to build a blockchain gaming environment that embraces honesty, loyalty, and camaraderie above all else.
We are dedicated to pushing blockchain gaming towards mass adoption. We work towards growing the best and most engaged gaming and dapp community in the industry.
Our goal is to help Blockchain games gain traction and provide them not only much-needed visibility, but also quality connections, advice, and community support.
Q5: What is one thing you like about existing dapp games?
Various things, including:
Decentralized asset exchanges.
Verifiable scarcity of virtual objects and collectibles.
Fast and secure payment networks, and the ability for developers to properly monetize their creations.
Fauve Altman, Community Manager of State of The Dapps
Q1: What are the most important technical problems that dapp developers should solve ASAP?
User onboarding. Integrated wallets with dapps. Using already establish applications with blockchain integration since there is already a market for these applications. e.g. a sports dapp using Strava.
Q2: What kind of dapps would a regular user, not very familiar with crypto, want to use (except for gaming dapps)?
Sports tracking. Fitbit pace-tracking rewards. p2p integrated iphone/android games. Easier, simpler, and faster banking and global wire transfers.
Q3: Can you name a dapp that stands out and why?
Status: easy to use, great community, caters to various needs from dapp incubation, to chat and transfers.
CryptoServal for mixing game interaction with charity.
Aave — crypto lending made easy.
Q4: What is the best platform for dapp development (Ethereum/EOS/TRON) in existence today?
ETH/EOS/Steem depending on the different needs and types of dapps to build. Tron I wouldn’t trust for now.
Q5: Speaking of your dapp: what is are your lofty objectives? (not very relevant for you, but you can speak of your lofty objectives as well :smirk:)
No dapp haha, just want to help grow the dapp ecosystem and appropriate industry usability. I don’t think blockchain is needed for all industries.
Q6: What is one thing you like about existing dapp games?
EOS Knights — fun and easy to use, lots of levels, pretty much reminds you of good old RPG games except you can make earnings.
Q7: Imagine the craziest dapp. How would it look? (assuming that there are no such dapps so far)
I’d like to see a dapp that mixes environmental sustainability with finance/identity with energy.
Conclusion
The dapp industry has only started gaining momentum. It’s obvious that both creators and supporters are very driven and ready to work on issues together. It is also pleasant to note that the dapp community is pretty reasonable when it comes to establishing a certain growth area and acknowledging weak points. Although things like the ‘ultimate dapp’ can hardly exist because of the variety of approaches and technical issues, the future of the industry looks bright. And let’s be honest: perfect is boring. Of course, there will be a few bumps in the road, but with the right strategy and patience, together we will be able to make a final product users will want to use.
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