DApps

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Eric Turner - February 13, 2019

One of the biggest points of criticism around smart contract platforms has been that no one actually uses them for decentralized applications (DApps) — the whole point of these networks. This narrative has been changing quickly in the early part of 2019.

With growing buzz around “DeFi” projects like Maker, Compound, and Dharma; and new companies like Veil building valuable services on top of existing protocols like Augur and Ethereum, we wanted to take a closer look at the DApp numbers.

Of course, Ethereum is still (by far) the most dominant platform in terms of DApp number and variety. According to data aggregator State of the DApps, 2294 of the 2,686 DApps built across the top smart contract platforms were built on Ethereum, some 85%. (DappRadar, another aggregator, shows similar results, with 76% of Dapps on Ethereum.)

Remember that although Ethereum went live in 2015, there wasn’t much activity during the early years of the network. Perhaps the most recognizable DApp was the disastrous 2016 launch of the ill-fated DAO.

Things only really began to heat up in early 2017 when the ICO craze took hold and money flooded DApps and the developers who could build them.