DApps: The Future For Decentralised app deployment
Dapps is bringing a revolution to the world of computing. To understand the underlying concept of Dapps, think about your car transporting passengers while you are busy at work. What about your home computer handing critical transactions for people around the world while you are out shopping on the weekend. When the Dapps technology is in full bloom, you will be able to take control of seemingly trivial things in your life and even profit from them.
The concept of Dapps is changing the existing perception software and its mode of deployment. The invention of Bitcoin, which introduced cryptocurrency to the world, redefined the definition of Store of Value (SoV). It also paved the way for the emergence of decentralized applications also known as Dapps. These kinds of applications are distributed, resilient, incentivized and transparent. These are the features that will enable Daaps to evolve and dominate the technology landscape in the near future.
What are Dapps?
The first step to understanding Dapps is to discuss blockchain, which is the technology that powers Dapps. So, what is Blockchain all about?
Understanding Blockchain
In a layman’s term, blockchain is a public ledger containing records that are organized into several blocks. These blocks are linked together through a procedure that required cryptographic validation. This digital storage is not managed by a single entity, nor stored in a single location. In other words, it is decentralized, making it immune to manipulation by a single or corporate entity. Once a block is validated, a new transaction is added permanently, and the existing transaction becomes indestructible. That is why it is described as digital storage of consensus truth. It is transparent and resilient. Dapps are open-source applications that use the underlying technology of blockchain.
The Advent of Dapps
Although Dapps is still in the development stage, a single definition at this stage will be inadequate to capture the entire concept. However, there are some features that are common to all Dapps. These features are:
- They are open source: Such applications are community-driven, and Its code is available to any interested individual or party. Changes to the app are implemented after due deliberation within the community.
- They are decentralized. The application and its records are stored in the decentralized public blockchain.
- They are Incentivized: Blockchain validation is incentivized by rewarding the validators with pre-defined cryptographic tokens.
- They use a defined protocol: The application uses a predefined cryptographic algorithm as a standard for Proof of Work. A typical example is the Bitcoin Proof of Work (PoW). Ethereum is currently planning to implement a hybrid version — hybrid PoW/Proof of Stake (PoS)
Given the qualities of Dapps described above, one can conclude that the first Dapp is Bitcoin. The first cryptocurrency was implemented to resolve the challenges of censorship and risks associated with centralization. In practical terms, Bitcoin is a self-sustaining public ledger capable of handling reliable transactions without involving intermediaries.
The Ethereum Network
Although Bitcoin is the pioneer of cryptocurrencies, and the blockchain technology as a whole, Ethereum is the innovator of the technology. Ethereum was the visionary that developed the concept of developers running their apps on Blockchain. Thereby showing the world the vast potential of blockchain technology. Developers on the Ethereum platform can write applications known as “smart contracts,” which is the foundation of distributed apps.
The Whitepaper of Ethereum stated expressly that Ethereum intends to create a decentralized platform for building and hosting decentralized apps. The paper further emphasized Ethereum’s goal of enhancing security, speed to market, and scalability. With the role that Ethereum played in the emergences of distributed apps, it will not be wrong to call Ethereum the “Mother of Dapps.”
Ethereum created its own coding language on top of its robust blockchain. This allows developers to create programs called smart contracts using the Turing-competence Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). These tools allow developers to create Dapps that have practical applications ranging from financial transaction management, resource planning, and many more.
Some of the highly successful Ethereum Dapps that have crossed the million-dollar USD market capitalization benchmark include Agur, BAT, Golem, among many others.
Other Smart Contract Platforms
After Ethereum, other smart contracts platforms also emerged quickly. For the purpose of this discourse, we will be reviewing only the platforms with the highest developer activity which are Ethereum, EOS, and Tron
The brain being EOS is Dan Larimer, the creator of STEEM. The primary goal of EOS is to help developers to build a highly scalable platform for Dapps. Till now, scalability has been one of the shortfalls of Ethereum, as a platform for Dapps.
On the other hand, Tron has leveraged its scalability to attract a massive audience to its platform. Tron is making headway in the world of cryptocurrency. Thanks to aggressive marketing and promotions by Justin Sun, the founder of TRON.
Before we delve deep into each of the platforms, let us take a look at the current Dapps activities on Ethereum, TRON, and EOS.
Ethereum vs. EOS vs. Tron
To start our comparison, we shall broadly classify the Dapps on our selected platforms based on the following criteria.
- The number of users s in the last 24 hours.
- Transaction volume within the last 24 hours.
- The number of transactions within the last 24 hours.
- The source for all the data and numbers shown below is DappRadar.
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Ethereum
Our first analytics will be Dapps hosted on Ethereum. The details are shown below in their respective categories.
Taking inference from these stats, there are only three DApps on the Ethereum network that have more than 1,000 users over the last 24 hours. The list of the top five categories shows that the gaming and exchange categories are on the lead.
From the details above, only two apps exceeded the one million USD benchmark. It is no surprise that the two programs are Gambling DApps. The other top two that followed closely are exchange DApps.
Two of the leading DApps in this category are gambling and gaming. However, the DApp with the highest number of transactions within the set timeframe is an exchange app.
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EOS
We shall consider the DApps on the EOS platform next.
The table above proves that the users of EOS DApps are higher than those of Ethereum. Besides the overall numbers, the number of users per ranked app is still higher for EOS compared to Ethereum.
From the information above, four out of five of the top DApps on EOS exceeds the one million USD transaction benchmark within 24 hours.
The ranking of the top DApps on Ethereum based on the number of transactions is as follows:
The information above reveals that the top four in the list are all gambling DApps. Moreover, the top two exceed the 300,000 transactions within the last 24 hours.
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TRON
Lastly, let us consider the outlook of DApps on the TRON platform.
The number of DApps users on Tron is comparable to these on the EOS platform. Similar to the EOS platform, four out of five DApps are in the Gambling category. Consequently, gambling apps are the most popular DAppson Tron.
The figure above shows that the volume of transactions of the two top apps in Tron crossed the 3.5 million USD benchmark. Although four EOS apps crossed the million-dollar benchmark, the transaction amount of the leading DApp on Tron is higher than that of EOS. Three of the top five GApps are for gambling, while the other two are exchange apps.
Below is the Tron stat based on the number of transactions.
The analysis above shows that four out of the leading five GApps are gambling apps. Moreover, the gap between the first two (Tron WoW and TRONbet) and the others is overwhelming. The values derived from EOS shows tight competition among the leading apps.
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Ranking of DApps across all three platforms
Now, kets compare all the Dapps on Ethereum, Tron, and EOS in a single table. This will give us an idea about the best performing platform for Dapps.
It is obvious that EOS-based Dapps have earned a massive audience. EOS has three out of the top five Dapps, based on the number of users.
Below is the ranking detailed based on the volume of transactions
Dapps is the Future.
The future is not far from now any longer. The future where legacy practices become obsolete as the world adopts the blockchain technology across industry verticals. For instance, the present slow, expensive, and inefficient fund transfer through banks will become antiquated. The self-sustaining, cost-efficient, trust-less, and decentralized blockchain technology and its apps will render conventional banking redundant. The corporate entities who are early adopters of this new wave of technology will have everything to gain.
Another angle worth exploring is elevating the efficiency of conventional services by undermining middlemen and outsourcing information and value transfer to the blockchain. But what are the consequences? Will the value of humans decline when their work is taken over by technology? Can we confidently say that technology is improving our lives in such a scenario? Well, time will be the best judge. Meanwhile, the global community is making steady progress towards a world that is keenly interconnected with shared data. Thanks to the blockchain technology.
