Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
January 11, 2019 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- Are we just not
understanding what potential Dapp users truly want? Are we making
changes that are too ahead of their time? Are we actually
developing products that people can use? Blockchain developers,
especially those working on decentralized applications, should be
asking themselves these questions and more as they work to shift
the era of the app-driven life toward being the era of the
Dapp-driven life.
Still, by all accounts, these
questions all lead to one central conclusion which we have
mentioned before. Current Dapp user numbers clearly show that
people have not yet been adequately incentivized to move from their
trusted mobile applications to those which are supported by the
blockchain.
In a simpler sense, no one seems to
have gotten close to answering what makes blockchain-driven apps
more special and more appealing to the average consumer than
traditional apps. Yes, they are generally more secure. Yes, they
enable the user to truly own his or her data as well as, in a
sense, the application itself. Despite these facts however, it
seems that something is missing.
A few hours ago, CoinDesk penned an
article that posits a three-fold approach to solving the issue of
scaling Dapps. In it, the writer Yin Wu counsels that developers
should: focus on building true products or at least minimum viable
products before they go live, avoid letting users completely
dictate what they do, and focus on making the development process
as clear and efficient as possible over obsessing over the end-goal
too far in advance.
The single conclusion that appears
to rise to the head of the pack here is that for Dapp development
to truly succeed, developers need to balance listening to user
feedback with avoiding letting users control the entire development
process. As Wu says, “give them what they want, not what they ask
for.”
Puzzling out how to do this is far
from easy. If it were, then every innovative business would
succeed. Perhaps a good starting point would be to go back to the
drawing board in terms of how to structure the development process.
Just because the blockchain industry is a novel space, does not
mean that it has to avoid using time tested methods like agile
software development. Mixing some of the old with the new could
lead to something great, including less of a divisive blockchain
culture going forward.
In the end, embracing an inclusive
yet focused development culture could lead to the same type of
overall industry culture being formed going forward. Creating the
killer Dapp could be as simple as changing the way it is
built.
By: BGN Editorial Staff