This topic presents a comprehensive analysis of crucial use cases for decentralized applications (DApps) and assesses their potential impact on the current AE ecosystem. By examining these use cases, we aim to identify areas where the integration of DApps could bring significant benefits to the AE ecosystem.
Key Use Cases for DApps in the AE Ecosystem:
Peer-to-peer NFT Marketplace
A peer-to-peer NFT marketplace product would serve as a platform for users to buy, sell, and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) directly with one another, without the need for intermediaries such as centralized marketplaces. Here’s what such a product could offer:
- Direct Transactions: The platform would enable users to interact directly with each other, facilitating peer-to-peer transactions of NFTs. This eliminates the need for middlemen and potentially reduces fees and transaction costs.
- Listing and Auctions: Sellers can list their NFTs for sale or auction, setting their own prices or accepting bids from potential buyers. This creates a decentralized marketplace where prices are determined by supply and demand.
- Curation and Discovery: The platform could offer tools for users to curate collections and discover new NFTs based on their interests. This could include search filters, recommendation algorithms, and personalized feeds.
- Community Engagement: The product could provide features for users to interact, discuss, and collaborate within the platform. This could include forums, social features, and events related to NFTs.
- Licensing and Royalties: The platform could potentially enable artists to receive royalties each time their NFT changes hands in the secondary market, ensuring ongoing compensation for their work.
Lending / Borrowing
An application that allows lending and borrowing via smart contracts would provide a decentralized platform for individuals and entities to lend out their assets and borrow assets from others without the need for traditional financial intermediaries. This type of decentralized finance (DeFi) application could offer the following functionalities:
- Collateralized Loans: Users can borrow assets by providing collateral in the form of other cryptocurrencies or tokens. Smart contracts would hold the collateral and execute the loan agreement, ensuring that the collateral is returned when the loan is repaid.
- Interest Rates and Terms: Lenders and borrowers can set and agree upon interest rates, loan durations, and repayment terms. Smart contracts enforce the agreed-upon terms and automatically calculate interest payments.
- Automated Repayments: Smart contracts can handle automated repayments, ensuring that borrowers make timely payments according to the loan terms. Failure to repay can trigger liquidation of collateral.
- Liquidation Mechanisms: If the value of the collateral drops below a certain threshold, smart contracts can automatically initiate a liquidation process to sell the collateral and repay the lender. This helps protect lenders from potential losses.
- Decentralized Governance: Users may have a say in the governance of the lending and borrowing protocols, such as voting on proposed changes, interest rate adjustments, or adding new features.
- Flash Loans: Advanced DeFi applications could offer flash loans, which allow borrowers to temporarily borrow assets without collateral as long as the loan is repaid within the same transaction block. This can be used for arbitrage, trading, and other strategies.
- Cross-Chain Support: The application could support lending and borrowing across multiple blockchain networks, enabling users to access a wider range of assets and opportunities.
- Interest Earning: Lenders can earn interest on their deposited assets while they are being used by borrowers. This provides an avenue for passive income.
- Liquidity Pools: Users could provide liquidity to lending pools, which are then used to fulfill borrowing requests. Liquidity providers earn a share of the interest generated by the lending activities.
- Privacy and Security: The application could offer privacy features to protect sensitive user data and transactions, while the use of blockchain technology ensures the security and transparency of all interactions.
- User-Friendly Interface: The application should have an intuitive and user-friendly interface that allows both experienced and novice users to easily participate in lending and borrowing activities.
Sports bets
Currently, sports betting is one of the most common use cases for defi platforms, here’s a few of the features it would do:
- Decentralized Betting: The application would operate on a blockchain, ensuring that bets are executed through smart contracts without the need for intermediaries. This enhances transparency, security, and eliminates the risk of centralized control.
- Smart Contract Bets: Users could create and participate in bets through smart contracts. The terms of the bet, including the teams/players, odds, and betting conditions, would be encoded in the smart contract.
- Automated Payouts: When the outcome of a sports event is determined, the smart contract automatically calculates and distributes payouts to the winning party based on the predetermined conditions.
- Trustless Environment: By using smart contracts, the application reduces the need for trust between participants. The outcome of bets is determined by objective criteria, and payouts are automatically executed without human intervention.
- Immutable Records: All transactions and bets are recorded on the blockchain, providing a permanent and tamper-proof record of betting activity.
- Decentralized AE Oracles: Smart contracts may integrate with decentralized oracle services to fetch real-time data from sporting events, ensuring the accuracy of bet outcomes.
- Transparent Odds: Smart contracts can display odds in real-time, reflecting market sentiment and potential payouts, all visible on the blockchain.
- Cross-Border Betting: Since blockchain operates globally, users from different countries could easily participate in bets without worrying about currency conversion or regulatory barriers.
- Reduced Fees: Smart contracts could potentially reduce the fees associated with traditional betting platforms, as there are no middlemen involved.
- Smart Contract Templates: The application could provide customizable smart contract templates for different types of bets, streamlining the process for users.
Casino
Same as the Sports Bets, but casino gambling. See https://www.betswap.gg/
Crowdfunding
An application that facilitates crowdfunding via smart contracts would offer a decentralized and transparent platform for individuals and organizations to raise funds for projects, initiatives, or causes. Here’s what such an application could do:
- Project Creation: Users can create fundraising campaigns by providing details about their project, funding goals, timeline, and any rewards or incentives for backers.
- Smart Contract Integration: Each fundraising campaign would be represented by a smart contract that holds and manages the raised funds. The smart contract’s rules would define how and when funds are released to the project creator based on predefined conditions.
- Tokenized Contributions: Contributors could use cryptocurrencies or tokens to back projects. The smart contract would automatically issue tokens or digital assets representing their contribution, allowing for easy transfer and tracking.
Cloud storage
Filecoin equivalent.
Social networks
Developing social networking DApps would require a significant investment of resources and might not be viable given the current level of adoption.
Decentralized DNS
Tools, clients, integrations, plugins that uses AE DNS to resolve IP addresses and other pointers.
State Channel Markets
The State Channel Market PoC illustrated the following features:
- Fast and cheap payments via intermediary (the intermediary can charge a fee)
- Encrypted chat
- Encrypted chat groups
Some ideas for use-cases of the State-Channel Market. The general idea is to focus on high-volume, low-value transactions.
- Micro-paywall, e.g. paying for the next page of text
- Real-time auctions (extending the market HTLC contract)
- Integrating chat and tips, where tips are fast enough to be widgetized
- Generalized (fast) tipping
- Integrating market sites like aegora.jp with encrypted chat
- Generalized token-based payment cards
- Peer-to-peer trade via mutually trusted intermediary (the intermediary acts as a temporary ad-hoc market hub, perhaps manually verifying off-chain transfers)
