The decentralized computing revolution is taking the world by storm. It used to be so that Bitcoin was something only a handful of early adaptors were experimenting with. Long since those days, Bitcoin has continued to reach all-time-high prices; Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in Feb 2021 and – although for a short while – accepted payment in bitcoin for the purchase of their electric cars. The ecosystem has grown well beyond Bitcoin – from cryptocurrencies to settlement layers for payments and smart contracts and much more – Ethereum, NFTs, Dogecoin, DeFi all have become household vocabulary in mainstream media.
The rise of blockchain technology is reminiscent of the rise of the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The difference is that initially, the internet was used mainly for gaming and communication, while the first application of blockchain was Bitcoin, which in itself is a financial product. That is why it prompted increased oversight by financial regulators, leading to the initial slowdown in blockchain technology’s further development. However, as it continued to be supported by the devout supporters of the decentralized movement, it reached an inflection point and started to be widely adopted by the public. While the early days of the Internet created a network of computers, decentralization turned them into networked computers working in formation in solving a problem. This is a very powerful concept that is changing the way we think about computers and our relationship with them.
“Dapps can be used virtually for anything”
By using smart contracts, developers can build new kinds of applications in a trustless and transparent way, called decentralized applications (or dapps). Dapps can be used for decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, productivity, and virtually for anything we already do today with apps, but using the computers across the Internet for increasing the resilience and trust of applications, overcoming technical and geographic restrictions faced by centralized apps. Non-fungible-tokens or NFTs, one of the more innovative applications of dapps, have become the way to represent the digital authenticity of digital assets, from original art to tweets: Jack Dorsey’s first tweet on Twitter was sold as an NFT for nearly $3 million; digital artist Beeple’s NFT artwork sold for more than $69 million.
Now that there are so many dapps out there, how do you find them, compare them, or know which one is right for you? If you want to exchange your BTC for DAI, which decentralized exchange has the most liquidity and/or is most trustworthy? If you want to play dapp games, how do you know which one is the most popular and likely to find your friends on? If you are a developer, how do you know how your dapps is doing in the marketplace?
Enter DappRadar.
An easy way to think about DappRadar is to think of it as the combination of Bloomberg, the NYSE, and Billboard designed for the decentralized world. Today, DappRadar hosts over 5,000 dapps over 20 blockchains on its platform and garners over 500,000 users every month. For each dapp, DappRadar provides data such as Total Value Locked, Transaction Volume, and Unique Active Wallets including historical activity and rank them according to their category (i.e. Social, DeFi, Gaming, etc). This platform acts as a distribution channel where users can download or access the dapp and get started.
DappRadar is able to provide this data by bringing together the players – dapp developers and protocols and users – on their platform. Protocols will advertise themselves on the platform to attract dapp developers. Dapp developers will upload information about their Dapp – what protocol is used, the smart contract hash, and category of application – for the Dapp to be featured on DappRadar. In turn, with the information DappRadar receives, it is able to sort all the data so that it makes sense to the users. They are committed to providing the most accurate data and exclude any inflated activity such as automatic transactions replicated by bots to provide quality data based only on actual activity. Hence, they are not just a platform providing data, but a community builder that brings together different players to create an ecosystem allowing for entirely new applications by innovators around the world.
What makes all of this possible is the highly skilled and innovative team behind DappRadar. The two founders in their twenties, Skirmantas Januškas and Dragos Dunica, are impressive first-time entrepreneurs that have a crystal clear vision for the future of the company and an unwavering conviction towards providing the most accurate data. COO Patrick Barile, business development and corporate finance veteran with more than two decades of experience in the mobile app and telecom industry, is an expert at prioritizing resources to effectively scale up at maximum speed. The three of them have so far convinced some of the most experienced world class talent to join in on the company’s mission.“the compass for users to navigate through the high seas that is the decentralized world.”
Even though the decentralized world is still nascent and volatile, we believe that it is here to stay and that there will continue to be a significant demand for DappRadar’s service. What they provide will continue to be the compass for users to navigate through the high seas that is the decentralized world.
This is why we decided to invest in DappRadar along with Prosus Ventures (NL) and Blockchain.com Ventures (UK) in the $5 million Series A round. You can also see more from our portfolio page.
