Everybody always talks about which cryptocurrency will replace fiat payments as we know it. Asking questions like, “will Bitcoin be the next gold standard?” or “will Bitcoin ever become a mainstream payment method?”. People very rarely consider the other major applications of blockchain aside from it being an alternative to payments or a store of value. But for me, one of the most interesting topics (and something I love to write about) is how blockchain and cryptocurrency technology has enabled organizations to create decentralized economies and applications. So in this article, we will be exploring the top 10 decentralized applications (dApps) in 2020.
Before I start listing out dApps randomly, I should give you some insight on my criteria for why they made my top 10 list. Especially since everyone and their grandma are launching “crypto dApps” like it’s going out of style.
With that said, here are my “big 4” criteria:
- The dApp truly makes use of blockchain (there is an actual crypto/blockchain use-case)
- There is no scammy/sketchiness to it (the team is honest and transparent)
- The app has gained reasonable traction in terms of users and usage
- The app makes a positive impact in the world (quite frankly, I am sick and tired of casino and gambling apps)
With that being said, let’s jump into it…
1. KARMA
KARMA is probably one of the coolest use-cases for blockchain and crypto that I have ever seen. It’s a decentralized social network built on EOSIO that encourages users to post content of good/positive things. Think; Instagram for good things where you can earn crypto for your unique content and activity in the app. The fact that this app is already positively affecting the lives of thousands of people around the world who really need help in areas like Nigeria and Venezuela is truly incredible.
2. TokenPocket
Well, technically Token Pocket is a portal to the dApp ecosystem but it is just way too cool of a project not to mention in this list. Plus it has many on-chain elements, which is enough for me to include it as a dApp.
Token Pocket, as I previously mentioned, is a portal to the dApp ecosystem for blockchains such as Ethereum, EOS, IOST among others. Not only can you access dApps from within Token Pocket but you can also trade crypto on decentralized exchanges like NewDex, Whalex, among many others.
3. Everipedia
Everipedia’s goal is to compete with Wikipedia by decentralizing the content creation process. Upon further investigation, it does seem to be true that Wikipedia is actually a very centralized organization with a lot of bias. Ultimately their editors control the flow and approval of the content, which acts as a gatekeeper essentially to the flow of unbiased information. Everipedia aims to disrupt that completely by offering rewards to content creators and editors for writing, verifying and editing content for the Everipeida platform.
4. Steemit
Steemit is probably the most popular crypto blogging platform. It’s sort of like Medium in the sense that you can sign-up and write your own blog-form content. But it allows you to earn STEEM, their in-app cryptocurrency, for every upvote that your content receives. Their algorithm is interesting in the sense that the rewards flow to the people who produce the best content thereby creating a completely decentralized content platform where the quality of the content is king.
5. Bancor
Bancor is aiming to disrupt traditional crypto exchanges that are often times too overwhelming for the average user. Unlike most other exchanges, Bancor is completely decentralized so the risk of hacks occurring or your funds being stolen is practically zero. Other incredible features that impress me the most are that they allow you to swap between whatever token is on their platform, whereas on most exchanges you can only trade with the designated trading pair. Usually, exchanges have bought and sell orders to dictate the price. But with Bancor, any project can have liquidity if they want to via a liquidity pool that is put up on the platform.
6. Polymath
Polymath is one of my favorite crypto projects because of what it is aiming to accomplish. Polymath’s platform aims to allow people to tokenize physical assets through its platform. So, for example, if you own an apartment building, you can create a pool of tokens that represent ownership of that building. Let’s say you want to allocate 3 apartments in that building to your children. You can do that by simply sending them the token. Even more interesting is that rewards can flow to token holders. So let’s say you want to distribute the rental revenue from your building to the owners of the token. With Polymath you could do that quite easily, quickly and practically feeless.
7. dLive
dLive is a video game streaming app from the creators of Lino Network. The founders of Lino Network are fairly well-decorated and funded entrepreneurs, which a solid tech background. Furthermore, they have partnered with PewDiePie – YouTube’s biggest star to help promote the platform. With the rise of eGaming and the technical know-how of its founders, dLive is one of my favorite dApps that I think will get mainstream adoption.
8. Golem
Golem is essentially a giant supercomputer that is powered by the extra capacity from the computing power of all the machines in its network. Anyone can opt-in to Golem’s network and start earning GNT (their token) for the computing power that they contribute to the network. It’s actually not as hard as you think. They have downloadable software for Windows, Mac and even Linux users.
9. Effect.ai
Effect AI is an artificial intelligence network and framework that is powered by a human task force. It is kind of like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk meets advanced AI learning. Their on-demand human workforce is called Effect Force, which provides mico-tasks that people in the network can earn money for. So while providing valuable AI sentiment services for organizations, they are also creating a decentralized economy for anyone who wants to contribute to the intelligence of their AI network. With AI poised to be one of the most important and significant industries in the coming years, it will be interesting to see how Effect AI fairs.
10. Basic Attention Token (Brave Browser)
My favorite dApp right now is Brave Browser. It’s a Google Chrome browser alternative that pays you for using it. Yep, you heard me right. You can get paid for using a different browser. Not only that, but they block harmful spyware, cookies, etc… As the internet evolves, user privacy is becoming more and more important. And the fact that big organizations are abusing people’s privacy is a growing concern. Brave Browser aims to fix that completely and pay you in the process as you can see in the image.
Yep! $12.37 USD for doing absolutely nothing other than switching my browser from Chrome to Brave. Oh, and by the way… Brave browser has never even crashed on me once.
Conclusion
Well folks, that just about wraps up my list of the top 10 crypto dApps in 2020 and beyond. It will be very exciting to see how these apps grow and progress in the coming years and which will be able to achieve mainstream adoption. My personal favorite is Basic Attention Token (Brave Browser) as I feel there is a low barrier to adoption for the average consumer and the reward is significant enough to warrant that behavioral shift. That said, apps like KARMA show massive potential to make real-world, positive change. So I am rooting for all 10 apps!