Blockchain applications are becoming increasingly popular, but overall, adoption hasn’t kept pace. This is because users have up to this point largely associated blockchain technology with cryptocurrency and gaming.
Recently, Chris McCann, Community Lead at Greylock Partners published an analysis of DApps, reviewing usage data, and drawing conclusions about consumer adoption of blockchain technology.
Based on his findings, he made several conclusions, among them that there are a number of hurdles for users not used to logging into applications in order to manage a digital currency. Not only that, but there’s a need for education among users on the basics of blockchain and cryptocurrency, including wallets, digital keys, and how to sign transactions. Given the learning curve, it’s hardly surprising that many DApps are designed to appeal to people already familiar with the cryptocurrency space rather than making an effort to appeal to an audience less knowledgeable about the industry and its tools.
This raises the question of how far the crypto community is from having applications, instead of tokens built on top of blockchains. McCann reviewed aggregated data from Dappradar which included the most prominent DApps (decentralized applications) which have been built on top of Ethereum currently in use. He identified four main categories of 312 DApps now deployed, which are:
I. Decentralized exchanges
II. Games (mostly collectible type games, does not include casino/games of chance)
III. Casino applications
IV. Other
However, out of these types of DApps, not all of them enjoy the same amount of popularity, and the fact is that user adoption is severely hampered either by a lack of understanding or the reality that potential consumers may simply feel anything relating to blockchain automatically equals Bitcoin and thus avoid it altogether. A solution to both these problems is to implement enterprise solutions across the community. This is because of the ways in which this form of technology is already geared toward streamlining user adoption and that they are easier to understand.
Advantages of enterprise solutions:
- Already have a user and customer base which utilizes services and products — this provides any blockchain-based project with a larger user base immediately.
- Can influence adoption of blockchain — which is capable of handling heavier user loads.
Challenges of enterprise solutions:
- Require testing and so must be scaled out slowly.
- Cannot be swapped out with existing technology as this would disrupt critical operations.
- Advances in enterprise-level blockchain may be as far as 5 years away from being fully adopted by users.
BLMP contributes by:
- Targeting a growing virtual goods industry and connecting brands with digital platforms.
- Creating an enterprise platform that supports branded and licensed virtual goods.
- Allowing the testing of enterprise-level blockchain technologies in a scalable manner.
- Sharing results with the blockchain community.
- Solves problems of distribution as virtual goods do not have the same physical supply chain requirements as other products.
- Further enables growth given that on the BLMP platform, expansion occurs in a measured and controlled fashion, one business at a time.
- Exploring new revenue and therefore does not disrupt essential functions, require the replacement of infrastructure or need to be rolled out over a period of several years.
We’re discussing this issue and others on Reddit and Telegram and would love to hear your thoughts.
Additionally, we’re looking for developers who are passionate about blockchain and scalability and would like to participate in this project — get in touch with us and find out more.