Mobile App Development and Blockchain: Use Cases

With astronomical rise in the number of smartphones, the mobile app download is expected to rise to 258 billion by 2022 and projected to generate a revenue of $808.7 billion.

The impressive figure gears up the entrepreneur to tap the lucrative opportunity and enjoy a great feat. But, everything is not so rosy. Despite technology advancements and innovations, the app development space is still facing serious concerns that can’t be ignored. Even, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, IoT, augmented reality, and virtual reality has failed to overcome them. They are:

• There are several intermediaries involved between the developers and users that help in advertising, distributing, and conducting financial transactions.
• The middlemen involvement won’t maintain the transparency at the core while serving various purposes.
• The inclusion of third-party also poses the risk of security threats, data leaks, in-app purchase, and Trojan-plagued downloads.
• The opaque quality assurance process and distribution policies of the Google Play store and the Apple store put the developers in confusion as what criteria is considered for the app approval.
• Pushing the updates to the mobile app is a time-consuming process that sometimes results in the app update release failed to meet the dynamic requirements of the users, on-time.
• The developers invest in CPI to bring the app in limelight are not transparent and very expensive. Plus, a large portion of the profits earned by the developers from advertising is given to the middlemen.
• To keep the app future-ready, there is a need for technology that’s constantly developing with new features and services.

All of these concerns were negatively impacting the mobile app performance and ROI, and ruining the users’ experience as well. Amidst the search of a new technology, the blockchain- a decentralized, distributed, and secure ledger turned out as a solution that addresses all the challenges that mobile app development industry is confronting and enticing the end-users with wow experience delivery. The power of blockchain is realized and implemented in various industry verticals such as real estate, healthcare, education, stock exchange, IT, and others.

Here, we will explore how blockchain technology is benefitting the mobile app development space:

1. Provide Complex Digital Ledger System

The mobile app development ecosystem comprises of multiple networks, multiple systems, client-side server, and a central server. The several requests are sent from client-side (Mobile) to the central server and as a response the data is distributed, which sometimes stresses the network with millions of request trying to get the data simultaneously. The millions of concurrent requests and data streaming lead to a mismatch in data request and distribution.

The blockchain structure powered by computer decentralized network with collaboratively sending and parsing of data has an answer to the problem. The distributed ledger transmits the change to every machine on the network that holds the same ledger when any change is made to the records.

2. Ensure Security In The Apps With Multiple Users Access

When the multiple users have access to the system, then chances exist that the information on the system can be misused, altered, or deleted illegally. The involvement of third parties also put the data security in question.

With blockchain, it’s impossible to put a hole in the safety net as without decryption key no one can encrypt and access the data; the records saved are immutable but provides a mechanism to alter the data but only after the verification; no middlemen interference makes it hard to penetrate the system. In this manner, the data accessibility to multiple users won’t be a problem as access and manipulation are restricted through an intelligent mechanism.

3. The Transparency Make The Development Environment Secure

When the system crashes or collapses, the developers remain clueless regarding the things that break the system. For instance, they have no idea in the real-time whether bugs, errors, attacks, or flood of simultaneous requests have collapsed the system and before they would find, the malware is almost done with the work.

Blockchain helps in preventing and avoiding such attacks with the transparent structure where the information stored in the form of records can be easily tracked by the users. When anyone attempts to tamper the system with false transactions, at first it’s impossible because no new block can be added or altered unless it’s verified, and second, it can be easily viewed by the users.

Additionally, with the collection of DNS entries on the platform, the developers are empowered to keep the domain records under the control and no entries can be changed unless the consent is given by the developers.

4. The Approval And Update Process Gets Streamlined

The duopoly of Google play store and Apple store needs no introduction where the non-transparent approval and update process is completely handled by them. The unknown quality-assurance policies and days it takes confuse the developers and they are burst into fumes when the app is rejected with no specific explanation.

The open-source platform (Blockchain) brings sheer transparency in the approval process with a developer reputation system that’s directly tied to transactions occurring on the public ledger. When the developer uploads the application, the system scans it for the malware detection with the help of the anti-malware engine. Later, the app is temporarily stored unless it’s selected for manual review and then app signature is compared for the validation. Finally, the app is available for installation. The whole process takes just a couple of hours to approve the app or send updates to the app.

5. Outpace the pace of change

Every month, the world is witnessing the new innovative technologies and creative use cases. But, very few of them stay in the market with continuous upgrades. That’s why choosing technology is difficult for developers.

The blockchain with its unique structure, features, and regular updation hints that it’s not going anywhere soon. Instead, it’s making inroads into different industry verticals with amazing applications and assuring the future success of the application. It indicates blockchain is a perfect fit to make the app future-proof against the uncertain market conditions, technology trends, and user’s needs.

6. Resolving Economic issues

Be it advertising, or during in-app purchase, the app stores eat up 30% of the developer’s profit share, which is a good sum of money. The process is also not easy. For advertising, the developers have to invest bundles in CPI campaigns that remain shady and pricey as well. For the in-app purchase, the developers receive the dollars after a lot hassle, including the user pay to the app store, and deal with bank transfer fees alongside the likelihoods of chargebacks and credit card fraud cases. The monetization strategy doesn’t appear in favor of the developers.

The blockchain smart contract allows the developers to launch a new advertising campaign- CPA (Cost per attention) where the developers reward the users for spending considerable time on the application with no middlemen involvement. The earned rewards can be stored by the users in the wallet and later, it can be utilized for making an in-app purchase. Also, the developers get 85% of the profit from earning rather than 70%. This tactic aids in encouraging users to spend more time on the app and make in-app purchases.

Conclusion

The worth of the blockchain technology that’s powering the cryptocurrencies has gone beyond the purpose for which it’s built.

Transparency, security, automation, immutable nature, and no middlemen interference are the key features of the technology that’s transforming different industrial processes.

The mobile app development space is the one where the blockchain usage has brought enormous advantages to the developers and delivered an unprecedented experience to the users.