DeFi smart contract development

Smart contracts development: what product owners need to know

by BlockchainInnovation and Tech

If you’ve spent some time looking at the world of blockchain, you’ve probably heard of smart contracts or even thought about smart contracts development. They’re a popular feature of blockchain and particularly cryptocurrencies like Ethereum.

But what are they, and how can they be useful to you? In this post, we’re going to cover everything you need to know about DeFi smart contracts, from what they are to how to start using them.

What are smart contracts?

In short, a smart contract is a program stored on the blockchain. However, unlike a regular program, which runs whenever you tell it to (like when you double-click an app icon), a smart contract only runs whenever certain conditions are met. 

For instance, say you agree to give someone the title to your car if they pay you $5,000. You could create a smart contract in the blockchain that emails the person the title to your car (assuming it were that easy, of course) whenever they send you $5,000. The contract is executed by code, so both parties know there’s no room for funny business. 

This creates a clean value exchange, which can be difficult to achieve in the real world. You can build smart contracts on a few different cryptocurrency blockchains, including:

  • Ethereum
  • Bitcoin
  • Cardano
  • EOS.IO
  • Tezos

3 DeFi smart contracts use cases

To help you better understand how you can use DeFi smart contracts, here’s a look at three popular proposed use cases. It’s important to note that this technology is still in its “proto” phase, so these are projections of what the technology can do and not necessarily what it can do right now.

Mortgage loans

A mortgage loan could be executed with a smart contract in much the same way as a car title transfer. What makes the prospect of turning these types of loans into smart contracts beneficial is how much paperwork and processes go into a traditional mortgage loan.

There are middlemen, sometimes weeks of waiting for approval and analysis, and other time-consuming steps standing between the lender and the borrower.

With a smart contract, you can cut down on all of these extra steps. The parties can create a smart contract that executes as soon as someone has the right information and requirements to be approved. This also creates a single place where both parties can easily view all information associated with the transaction.

Insurance claims

Another paperwork-intensive financial process is making an insurance claim. There’s a ton of analysis, going back and forth, and investigation that goes into processing these claims. Plus, making and taking payments from the right people can get complicated.

With a smart contract, this can all be done automatically. You can use the contract to check if a party meets certain claim criteria and can automatically send payment to their account.

This saves a lot of time and headache for all people involved, streamlining the process significantly.

Financial data recording

Financial data recording is one of the most versatile and important use cases for DeFi smart contracts. This is a crucial process that the slightest error can completely disrupt.

So it makes sense that financial data recording is perfect for automation through smart contracts. Businesses and individuals can set up parameters that cause data to be recorded, and data that comes in as input can be stored on the blockchain.

This can eventually remove the need to keep up with documents like invoices by executing the information and function of these documents through smart contracts. It will reduce the errors associated with record-keeping while also saving time and energy.

The basics of DeFi smart contracts development

Now that you know what DeFi smart contracts are and how you can use them, let’s cover the basics of how you can develop them.

Pick what blockchain technology you want to use

First, you need to decide which blockchain technology you want to use. The go-to choice for pretty much everyone is Ethereum, as it is the most popular solution built around smart contracts.

You could use some of the alternatives to Ethereum or go the extra mile and develop a proprietary blockchain technology that caters to your DeFi smart contract needs.

Define your "tokenomics"

“Tokenomics” is a trendy of way of saying “how a cryptocurrency works.” It’s the rules, parameters, inputs, outputs, etc., that define a particular cryptocurrency and blockchain system.

When diving into DeFi smart contracts development, you need to establish these parameters for yourself.

Will you be using cryptocurrency tokens or exclusively smart contracts? How will you use them? And how will they fit into your broader blockchain strategy?

Integrate with crypto wallets

During DeFi smart contracts development, you will also need to consider whether or not you will integrate with crypto wallets. For those that don’t know, crypto wallets store the information that gives you access to your cryptocurrency, similar to how a debit card and PIN work.

While you don’t have to integrate with crypto wallets to make smart contracts work, it can open up several doors for you. For instance, it allows you to create contracts tied to financial transactions.

Decide which data feeds you need to rely on

Finally, you’ll need to know which data feeds your DeFi smart contract development will rely on. Data feeds refer to information outside of cryptocurrency and the blockchain that will be pulled into your smart contract application.

For example, weather, location, and eligibility could all be required for a smart contract to properly execute, though that data will need to come from an external source.

Partner with RebelDot and start your DeFi smart contracts development today

You don’t have to wait to start your DeFi smart contracts development. By partnering with RebelDot, you can bring your vision to life easily and effectively. Reach out to our team today and see how we can help!

blockchain applications

8 applications of blockchain technology for businesses in 2022

by BlockchainBusinessInnovation and Tech

Blockchain is one of the most exciting (and, arguably, least understood) technologies on the scene in 2022. But its buzz for blockchain more than makes up for the questions business owners have around it — and now, organizations everywhere want to stake their claim with their own innovative solution. 

If you know you want to invest in blockchain development, but you don’t know how (or why!) to go about it, then this post is for you. 

We’ll be covering eight applications of blockchain technology for business so that your organization can put it to work in a meaningful way. 

8 inspiring applications of blockchain technology to consider in your business

1. Smart contracts

First on our list of blockchain development solutions is smart contracts. Smart contracts are essentially automated contracts written in code rather than on paper. 

Say an enterprise agrees to buy a product from your business for $100,000. Rather than making this deal over the telephone, Zoom, or through a bunch of emails and signatures, you can create a simple smart contract instead. This contract is a bit of code in the blockchain that will automatically approve the purchase of the product when the enterprise sends over the money. It executes the contract for your business.

Why is this use of blockchain technology exciting for business?

Of course, this is just one use case for a smart contract. The same technology can be used to hire new employees, secure clients, merge and acquire, and a plethora of other activities. Because it’s automated, there’s less room for error and less oversight required.

By using smart contracts, businesses can benefit from increased transparency, faster negotiations, and automated transactions. There’s no need for external parties to execute or secure the contract since the contract itself handles this. This allows involved parties to be more confident in the success and management of the contract.

2. Decentralized apps

Next are decentralized products, namely apps. Sometimes called “dApps”, a decentralized app works just like a standard app you use every day on your phone or computer. However, unlike these other apps, there is no one managing your data, account, or orders on the other end. 

Instead, the blockchain is handling all of this. It’s storing and updating user accounts and processing transactions (financial as well as general interactions) for the users. 

Typically, you would need an intermediary to do all of this. That intermediary is usually the developer, who has to maintain a database after launching an app. Since decentralized blockchain solutions are self-sustaining, there’s no longer a need for the intermediary party. This keeps things simple, secure, and private for the individual.

Why is this use of blockchain technology exciting for business?

For smaller developers and businesses, or for those who have developed more apps than they can manage, a decentralized solution presents a long-term management option. You don’t need to be as involved in the day-to-day responsibilities of taking care of your app. At most, you just need a customer support team.

Additionally, privacy-centric companies (which is quickly becoming all companies in 2022) can advertise decentralized solutions as a privacy-first mechanism. It decreases the involvement the developer has in the users’ data and gives the user more control over their data and how it’s used.

3. Increased transparency and traceability

Increasing transparency and traceability is a more broad application of blockchain technology for business, but it’s still worth mentioning. As the amount of data companies are taking in, transforming, and outputting increases exponentially, these are two features that are becoming more and more important. 

On the transparency front, blockchain development can be used to provide everyone with a clear view of how data is used within your company. They can either view just their data or everyone’s, depending on how transparent you want to be. They can see how this data is accessed, modified, and implemented throughout your systems. 

Similarly, all of these features of blockchain can be used to improve traceability. You can cut down on fraud, track it down when it happens, and avoid lost or corrupt data.

Why is this use of blockchain technology exciting for business?

As mentioned before, privacy-first policies are becoming critical to your public perception. Individuals are becoming more educated and concerned with how their data is collected and used. 

In a way, it’s fitting that this rise in awareness is coinciding with the rise in blockchain’s popularity. Blockchain is the perfect tool for removing the blackbox nature of your business’s data policies and practices, boosting consumer trust, and improving your internal data procedures.

4. Employee compensation

Employee compensation is a very pragmatic use case for blockchain technology. It leverages something blockchain is already good at (processing financial transactions) and applies it to a real-world need for businesses. 

And of course, just because the blockchain is primarily used to process cryptocurrency transactions, that doesn’t mean you’ll need to start paying your employees in Bitcoin. With “smart” blockchains like Ethereum, you can create your own apps on the blockchain that process any kind of transactions you like. 

This can provide you with a faster, more transparent, and more flexible way to pay your employees every period. 

Why is this use of blockchain technology exciting for business?

While putting your employees on a blockchain payroll might seem redundant (“But… I already have a payroll system in place…?”) it offers a few unique benefits.

First, it allows you to pay employees in cryptocurrency if that’s something they’re interested in. It can also make it easier to pay customers in a fiat currency of their choosing (Stellar is particularly good at this).

And second, with contractors, freelancers, and remote workers becoming more commonplace, a blockchain payroll can standardize and secure the way these workers are paid. This gives everyone more confidence in your payroll system while keeping things simple, too.

5. Securing digital identities

For the most part, the way we keep up with our identification is pretty outdated. Whether we’re talking about hospital records, government IDs, or just the badge you wear to work, there’s a lot of room for improvement with our IDs.

Fortunately, blockchain development can help here, too. Businesses can store digital identities in the blockchain and access them from there across a variety of services and products. This is opposed to the more traditional solution of a database, which can become cluttered, slow, costly to maintain, and difficult to keep in sync.

Not to mention that, eventually, the blockchain can be used to make our digital identities universal. You’ll have just one account that connects your information to any platform, business, or service you sign up for.

Why is this use of blockchain technology exciting for business?

The largest benefit of applying blockchain to digital identities is convenience. It serves to make things as simple as possible, both for the user and for you, the business. 

And in more security-driven applications like healthcare and finance (or anything where an account is used for more than accessing digital goods and services), the blockchain creates a more transparent, traceable, and secure solution.

6. More trustworthy voting processes

Thanks to the Greeks, we’ve all (mostly) agreed that voting is pretty great. The problem is, we haven’t really updated the way we vote since the time of the Greeks. Much of our voting is still conducted on pen and paper, and even when it is digitized, concerns of fraud and error are high.

This is as true of government voting as it is for voting within a business context, whether that be a board of directors coming to a conclusion or a workers-based decision.

Blockchain can help you modernize voting in a way that is fast, convenient, and most importantly, trustworthy. You can ensure that every vote is authentic, immutable, and incontrovertible.

Why is this use of blockchain technology exciting for business?

Ensuring that a voting process is legitimate is critical no matter the context. However, this can sometimes come into conflict with our more modern need to have voting also be convenient and easily accessible.

Blockchain can bridge this gap for your workplace. It can give a voice to various stakeholders throughout your company via a channel that they can trust and access at their convenience.

7. Transportation and logistics

The transportation and logistics sector is becoming increasingly automated and digitized. This has the benefit of making it more cost-effective, sustainable, efficient, and safe for workers.

It also comes with the drawback of data vulnerability. The more communication that occurs between vehicles and management systems, the more chance there is for vital data to be corrupted or stolen.

By implementing blockchain technology, businesses can mitigate these drawbacks. They can secure the data that’s being moved, prevent it from being altered without oversight, and generally create a safer digitization process for their transportation and logistics departments.

Why is this use of blockchain technology exciting for business?

The benefits of blockchain development within logistics go beyond keeping data safe. It can also be used to improve freight tracking, which grows increasingly important to consumers and businesses alike.

8. Give users control of their data

We’ve mentioned it a few times throughout this post in other points, though it’s potent enough to garner its own position on this list: blockchain development has the power to give individuals control over their data. 

Currently, when you use an app or digital service, you take for granted that the business owns your data. Purchasing digital media, adding your sign-in information, and keeping a digital record of your usage — each of these things is left to the developer/business behind the software. 

With blockchain, you can put data back in the hands of the user. Not only can they get a better view of what data is being stored on them and how it’s being used, but you can also give them options and features tied to manipulating that data. Since no one needs to manage a blockchain, you can introduce anonymity into your service more easily.

Why is this use of blockchain technology exciting for business?

The data of individuals is becoming a hot-button issue around the world. Users are more educated and aware of their digital footprints than ever before, and increasingly they’re asking for control over this data.

Blockchain development can put users back in control without minimizing or removing the abilities of the developer. It’s a win-win solution and one that could become a new default in the future.

How does the blockchain app development process work?

The blockchain development process is not too unlike that of traditional software development. It involves building the back-end, then the front-end, designing the UI, deploying it on various platforms, and finally testing it for quality assurance.

This can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months and, due to the complexity of blockchain technology, is best left to experienced developers. Of course, businesses don’t have to build a blockchain solution from scratch. They can lean on existing solutions like Ethereum and Stellar, which already have frameworks in place.

How much does it cost to build a blockchain app?

Generally, it will cost anywhere between $20,000 and $200,00 to develop an original blockchain system. This includes the cost of hiring developers or outsourcing to a development agency.

If businesses instead choose to create blockchain apps on existing systems, like Ethereum, then the cost can be much lower as this is far simpler to do.

Can you build your own blockchain?

Of course! Nothing is preventing any business from creating its own blockchain aside from expertise. Generally speaking, there’s no reason to create a blockchain if an ideal solution already exists. This is kind of like developing a programming language when all you need is an app.

That said, building your own blockchain can be valuable if there isn’t an ideal solution available. For instance, Ethereum, which is perhaps the most popular blockchain for app development, can be slow to run due to its popularity. Others have environmental concerns, are bloated, too broad or narrow in usage, or can be otherwise less than ideal. In these cases, it can make sense to create a new blockchain from scratch for your business.

Blockchain development isn't out of reach

Developing blockchain technology for business use cases isn’t a pipe dream anymore. 

Businesses of all shapes, sizes, and sectors can start putting this technology to work today to achieve any of the applications in this article and beyond.

To discuss opportunities for blockchain development within your business and how you can get started, reach out and let our blockchain development engineers at RebelDot support you as close consultants in developing and launching your digital product idea. 

NFT rebeldot

What’s an NFT? A jargon-free guide to answer your questions about NFTs.

by BlockchainBusinessInnovation and Tech

If you are still struggling to understand how the blockchain operates and what it is, then you’re probably not so sure about what an NFT is either.  

I mean it’s totally cool if you’re trying to learn these concepts just so you can be relevant too in the mainstream conversation, but besides being looked at as a tech guru, there are a couple of other advantages of knowing your way around NFTs. 👀

In this article we will discuss the advantages of having more than a basic idea of how an NFT works, by addressing the following questions: 

  1. What is an NFT? 
  2. What is Blockchain and how does it relate to NFTs?

    3. Why would anyone create an NFT?

    4. What makes NFTs unique?

    5. Can you make a copy of an NFT?

    6. Owning an NFT – weird flex or not?

    7. What NFT marketplaces are out there?

    8. Can anyone make NFTs?

    9. How to create an NFT?

    10. How to ride the NFT wave? 

What is an NFT? 🤔

NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a unique digital asset that you cannot replace, much like an original Degas or Picasso. Or a rare baseball, or even Pokemon card. You got the idea.  

Technically, it represents a unit of data that can only exist online. It comes with a proof of ownership stamped on the blockchain, which functions as a digital ledger, hence making it unique. Formally, an NFT is a kind of contract, smart contract in this case, that is put together via open-source code, using blockchain technology.  

Although much of the current excitement is targeted towards cryptoart, it is safe to say that NFTs can really be anything digital. 

But to make sense of this, let’s first circle back a bit and understand: 

What is Blockchain how does it relate to NFTs? 

Blockchain is a decentralized public network, an open market that does not comply to any governmental or private entity power, where both people and institutions can store and securely transfer information and currency in seconds.  

An NFT is a unique token living on a blockchain. It can take many forms beyond simply images, video or other visual formats, but, in its essence, it is a container of authentic information. That information which the NFT stores is what makes it so unique.  

Because they live on a blockchain, usually Ethereum, NFTs are easy to track. This tracking allows for verification of their authenticity as well as their history and owners.  

Why would anyone create an NFT? 

It all started back in 2017 when the team at Larva Labs released the first ever NFT and ERC-721 smart contract consisting of 10.000 images of CryptoPunks. Back then, each of these unique digital artworks could be purchased for as little as a few Ethereum pennies, as TechCrunch mentions. 

Shortly after the launch, all these 10.000 unique characters were claimed by various crypto enthusiasts which today probably don’t regret that decision. Their value can go up to 7.5 million each. 

Since the end of February of this year, the NFT market has seen explosive growth as a lot of artists are pivoting their work to the crypto environment.  

An acquisition that you probably have heard of, spiking mainstream interest in NFTs was Beeple’s work which auctioned for no less than 69$ million to position him “among the top three most valuable living artists,”.  Sports organizations have jumped on the bandwagon too, a good example being the NFT-based NBA Top Shots platform which surpassed the $230 million mark in sales. 

 

Artists are also heavily adopting NFTs as it allows them to reach thousands of consumers worldwide directly to whom they can sell their craft in an authentic digital form. By-passing middle parties like auction houses or galleries means that artists get to keep a larger percentage of the profits from a sale.  

To put this into further context, think about the free aspect of the internet and social media. – It democratizes access to an endless stream of art but decreases the value of the content out there.  

This means that whatever type of art you’re putting your time into, as soon as you will put it on the internet will most likely be drastically depreciated in financial value, since people can download your work.  

Having this scenario in mind, it quickly makes sense why more scarcity could be indeed helpful. That’s what creating an NFT would imply. Scarcity on something that, up until now, could be found in abundance.  

Art enthusiasts will be willing to pay much more to have a particular connection to a piece of art or music, while the file will remain completely free and available. In that way, as Elinor Ostrom, a Nobel Prize-winning economist put it, “you kind of achieve the dream of the open internet, while also ensuring compensation for the producers.” 

However, there’s a flipside to that. While some artists can create an NFT with $100 dollars and then sell it for $10.000, for example, some other artists, if not most of them, are actually losing money, because, although they forge a scarce item, there is no demand for it. Not that the quality of the work is superficial, but because that specific artist does not have a personal brand already established, is probably lacking some good PR, some rich friends or God knows what else he’s missing out on.  

What makes NFTs unique? 

As a digital token, an NFT is a type of cryptocurrency, much like Bitcoin or Ethereum. But unlike those two or any other coin existing on the blockchain, an NFT is unique and can’t be exchanged (hence the term, non-fungible). 

Yes, just another fancy jargon type of word, but really not that strange as it sounds. Investopedia does a great job at explaining this term, saying that “fungibility of a good implies its ability to be exchanged with other goods of the same value.” 

As a cryptographic asset on the blockchain, an NFT file stores extra information, which is why it is not just pure currency and can be pretty much anything, really.  

To put it into context, NFTs are like any other physical collector’s item, but instead of having a picture to hang on your wall or a miniature statue to display it in your fancy furniture, you get a digital piece of art to add to your digital gallery.  

Can you make a copy of an NFT?  

As part of the Ethereum blockchain, NFTs are individual tokens containing extra information stored in them. That extra information is what makes these tokens take the form of crypto art like music, video, graphic design, in formats like JPGs MP3s, GIFs and many more. Because they hold value, they can be bought and sold just like other types of art – and, like with physical art, the value is largely set by the market and by demand.  

Now here is where it gets a bit tricky.. 

Much as in the case of an original art print which often gets a lot of copies made, bought and sold, an NFT does not have only one digital version available in the marketplace. You will find copies of that seemingly unique NFT available on the blockchain, although they won’t hold the same value as the original. 

Owning an NFT – weird flex or not?  

There’s a common desire amongst people to own scare objects and develop an online portfolio to reflect personality traits, much like wearing certain clothes and owning certain objects. 

Besides, as most people associate it to cryptocurrency, they tend to assume that owning an NFT has tremendous financial potential. “You definitely don’t want to miss out on this, man..” 

Now that’s not necessarily wrong, but in order to actually make a profit out of an NFT, you either have to invest heavily, catch a fortunate timing and still invest heavily, or do some crazy stuff to skyrocket your personal brand overnight and make Banksy’s NFT look like a bargain.  

I know some of y’all may be thinking “But that Beeple guy who no one knew anything about made 69$ million and I can’t?”  

Uhmm..you probably can.. If you are at least as consistent as that guy, because, guess what? He’s been publishing a new digital artwork for the past 14 years eve-ry-day.  

Let that sink in. 

However, talking about value, you should know that there’s a difference between financial and hedonic value. 

Not everyone is buying NFT’s just to flex their cryptocurrency wallet or benefit from reselling art like sneakers. Some are simply fans, people who genuinely support an artist, people who purchase such digital tokens to have a sort of intimate bond with the creator.  

What NFT marketplaces are out there? 

Obviously, as the popularity of NFTs is soaring, you can also expect the same upward trend in the case of the NFT marketplaces. This means that you can sell & purchase NFTs off a variety of platforms, but it really depends on the specific kind of token you got in mind, as not all marketplaces buy and sell all types of NFT.  

No matter if you’re looking to buy or sell an NFT, you should know that different marketplaces support different NFT token standards. Until not long ago, most NFTs used to be part of the Ethereum blockchain as Ethereum has released two standards, specifically ERC-721 and ERC-1155. In time, though, other blockchains have started to emerge, facilitating NFTs, one example being Binance, which has also released two standards, BEP-721 and BEP-1155.  

With that being said, here are some of the most popular NFT marketplaces: 

  • OpenSea – Offering a wide range of NFTs such as art, domain names, virtual worlds, trading cards, sports, collectibles and many more, OpenSea wants to live up to its promise of being the largest and most democratized NFT marketplace in the world, hence the name. To some creators, it might seem a bit more accessible, as anyone can mint essentially anything for free and have the cost of creating an NFT processed only after the token is purchased. Not so bad, right? On top of that, it features pieces from many other marketplaces, such as the ones featured below, as well as a bunch of cryptocurrencies besides ETH, like DAI, WHALE, or RARI.   
OpenSea NFT Marketplace

SuperRare – A marketplace that specializes on selling unique, single-edition digital artworks. Besides positioning itself as an exclusive platform where some of the highest worth transactions are being made, SuperRare is also the pioneer of an eco-system that connects artists with collectors, having a social network component built on top of the marketplace. Due to its exclusive nature, it is fairly difficult to be accepted as an artist and also have your bid processed for a certain NFT. The platform operates with Ethereum’s network, so you’ll need to fund your account with ETH coins to make your purchase. 

SuperRare NFT Marketplace

Rarible – One of the most popular marketplaces to emerge in 2020. It is particularly useful for creators, as the minting process does not imply a lengthy process or any off-putting requirements. Because of that, buyers are provided with a larger variety of tokens they could choose from. Besides, as opposed to super rare which rather focuses on single edition NFTs, on Rarible the tokens appear to be listed in multiple editions. It is a community-owned marketplace with a native coin called RARI, which is yet to be commonly used, as most of the transactions are still done through ETH.  

Rarible NFT Marketplace

Once you decide which platform you will be using to purchase your NFT, you’ll need a wallet specific to that platform and you’ll need to fill that wallet with cryptocurrency. 

It is also worth mentioning that these crypto marketplaces all do share some similarities to Ebay, in the sense that people can either place bids for your NFT or directly buy it. Usually, NFTs with limited quantities are typically auctioned off and then resold. On the other side, other NFTs can just have set prices, being available for direct purchase. 

Can anyone make an NFT? 

Technically, yes.  

Anyone can create work, turn it into an NFT on the Blockchain and put it up for sale on a marketplace of choice. You can even attach a commission to the file, which you will receive every time someone buys the piece – including resales.  

Contrary to what you may believe, creating your own NFT does not imply any extensive knowledge of the crypto industry as it is rather a straightforward and intuitive process, especially with a lot of NFT marketplaces emerging to lure artists of all kinds.  

But because it couldn’t just be simple all the way through, someone had to come up with a fancy verb for creating NFTs – minting.  

Minting refers to the process of turning your digital token, no matter if it’s a GIF or a controversial tweet, as part of the Ethereum blockchain – a public ledger, specifically a record-keeping system that maintains participants’ identities in secure and anonymous form. 

To put it briefly, think of it as the digital equivalent of minting metal coins prior to adding them into circulation. The same happens with your artwork, so that you can sell it or trade, but most importantly, track it digitally as it is highly likely that your NFT will be resold or collected again in the future.  

But how do you mint an NFT exactly? 

You will first have to decide whether you want to issue your NFT on the Ethereum Blockchain, or other less popular blockchains like Binance Smart Chain, Flow by Dapper Labs, Tron and many more which are starting to gain traction.  

Let’s take the Ethereum blockchain, for example, since it has the largest NFT ecosystem.  

In order to mint your own NFT on the Ethereum blockchain, you’ll need an Ethereum wallet that supports ERC-721, or any of the Ethereum-based NFT standards (as discussed above) and, of course, some budget, ideally between $50 to $100 in ether (ETH). 

Once you have these, just look for an NFT-centric platforms that allows you to connect your wallet and upload your chosen image or file that you want to turn into an NFT. 

Told you it’s way easier than it sounds. 😉  

Developing an NFT Marketplace.  

Now we have discussed about creating, selling, buying and reselling NFTs, which are all valid means of making profit. Still, there is one more that people seem to neglect, for some reason. 

At RebelDot we are already working on a bunch of NFT digital products. Lately, we’ve been constantly contacted by startup founders looking to build NFT marketplaces. 

It seems to us that more and more techies are sizing a profitable opportunity here, looking for technical partners to support their ideas from paper-sketched wireframes and all the way to fully functional products.  

You can hop on our blog to read more about the crypto art marketplace projects that we’ve been working on. 

 

Is this a long-term thing or just a bubble? 

While many rush to conclude that this is just another bubble that has already started bursting, I tend to share philosopher’s Naval Ravikant opinion who claims that, although NFT art is where the current mainstream focus is, this new technology will ultimately authenticate the entire world, as public blockchains will be the title registries for everything of value.  

Also, you might want to keep in mind that, (as it is usually the case with bubbles), the ones who will eventually benefit the most from the NFT hype won’t be the people who speculate, but rather the companies that will offer people the opportunity and the platform to speculate.  

As James Surowiecki perfectly put it in his popular NFT article, “You can make money being a gambler. But in the long run, it’s much safer to be the house.” 

building-a-mobile-app

Building a mobile app in 2020? Here’s what to look at.

by BlockchainInnovation and Tech

Looking back at the past year from a technology perspective, all we can say is that 2020 should be at least as ground-breaking as 2019. But with a lot of technology trends & buzz words being promoted around, which one will you actually trust to lead the strategic direction of your next mobile app?

If you ask us, you shouldn’t trust any of them. At least not until you are 100% sure that whatever the new concept or technology you are trying to adopt in your new mobile application, it is what your users really need. We know Blockchain, AI, Machine Learning and VR all sound cool and cutting edge, but don’t just use them to attract more eyes to whatever it is that you are building. It won’t last.

For the past decade, at RebelDot, we have built and worked with over 40 startups and companies around the world, and if there is one valuable learning we could share, is that the real success of your digital product is hidden in the PROBLEM you are solving for your users, or, in other words, the idea behind your web/mobile application. It has to be relevant to the market you wish to penetrate. Now, of course, we are not talking about the fantastic user interface you are imagining for your mobile app or that one unique feature you are planning to revolutionise the industry with. It’s more about the weight of the value you wish to place on the market by launching your new web or mobile app.

Do you have what it takes?

Before you start building your next mobile application, here’s what we recommend you ask yourself:

What is the problem I am solving with this web or mobile application?

Whom am I solving this problem for & who are my users?

Checking these two important questions will provide the right framework for starting to build a digital product that has great potential for healthy scaling. Now, of course, it is a good idea to make sure you check to pulse of the technology ecosystem from time to time. You want to make sure that if there is a new technology that might decrease the cost of your application, ease the experience of your users of simply help you get the most out of your new built, you know of it.

Also, you might want to pay a bit more attention to how you engage your users from the very first seconds of their digital experience. For that, we recommend you reading this comprehensive Splash Screen Guide. 

Now might be the best time to start building a mobile application. Here's why:

In Q3 of 2019, iOS lead consumer purchases growing 95% over Google Play.

Beginning of 2019, TechCrunch reported that the global app revenue continues to climb, thanks to the growth of the gaming industry and of the subscription economy. (TechCrunch)

In 2019, App Store users spent $14.2 billion, up 22.3% from the $11.6 billion they spent in Q3 2018. Google Play generated $7.7 billion in revenue, up 24% from the $6.2 billion spent in the year-ago quarter. (TechCrunch)

SensorTower

When it comes to app downloads, according to App Annie, Google Play and iOS downloads grew over 10% in Q3 of 2019.

While iOS downloads remained stable in 2019, Google Play grew its downloads by 10% to nearly 23 billion. Google Play leads iOS in downloads by 175%, with non-gaming apps accounted for over 60% of downloads across both stores.

App Annie

In 2020, Global mobile application revenues are projected to generate a revenue of $188.9 billion via app stores and in-app advertising. (Statista)

Statista

Already visualizing your new application being downloaded by thousands of users? Let’s shed some light over the 2020 mobile and web application trends & new technologies that might help you get there.

Blockchain Technology

Being a pragmatic yet revolutionary technology, blockchain goes beyond cryptocurrencies and bitcoin. With its capabilities of creating more transparent and secure environments while saving fair amounts of money, it has reached the performance of impacting a variety of industries and sectors by changing how contracting works.

Some of the areas in which blockchain is seen to bring the most value are secure sharing of medical data, music royalties tracking, cross-border payments, real-time IoT operating systems, personal identity security, anti-money laundering tracking system, voting mechanisms, original content creation, crypto exchange and real estate processing platforms.

Blockchain + IoT = ❤

We already know that blockchain is a standalone disruptive concept for every tech aficionado out there. But have you thought of combining it with IoT? It might bring some considerable improvements to the way transactions are made, including some decreasing of risks.

There is a smarter way to do smart contracts: Ricardian Contracts.

What is a smart contract? According to Investopedia, a smart contract is a self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code. The code and the agreements contained therein exist across a distributed, decentralized blockchain network. The code controls the execution, and transactions are trackable and irreversible. (Investopedia)

In simple words, they allow trusted transactions between anonymous parties without the presence of any central authority.

Smart contracts are great and all that, with one minor issue — they are not legally binding, so it is pretty hard to build a legal case against an existing fraud. And here is where Ricardian Contracts step into the scene.

While Ricardian Contracts have first been introduced in 1995, they somehow managed to penetrate today’s blockchain scene, by having this unique trait of being digital documents that can be both understood by humans and machines. This means you and your lawyers should be able to read it and perfectly understand it.

According to 101 Blockchains, a Ricardian contract is a human-readable legal agreement that once agreed upon and signed by both parties, gets converted into a machine-readable contract to define the intentions of both parties. (101 Blockchains)

A fundamental difference between Smart and Ricardian contracts is that while one (Smart) executes an agreement without being legally valid, the other one (Ricardian) records agreements between parties, having a legally binding character that is valid in court.

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay.

While AI has been the technology hit of the 2010s, it looks like it is here to stay.

AI in entertainment and media. Have you seen Robert De Niro in the Irishman?

If you kept an eye on the result of AI in creating music or any kind of art that is out there, you will probably agree with us when we say that AI has a long way to replace humans from creating any form of art that is actually enjoyable.

If like us, you spend some of your time binge-watching on Netflix, you might have seen Rober De Niro’s extreme de-ageing in The Irishman. Like it or not, de-ageing or ageing of human faces is now possible with the assistance of AI, and it’s safe to say it’s a tiny bit of all the transformation AI is bringing to the entertainment scene.

On the left, Robert De Niro’s original performance in The Irishman. On the right, his de-aged face as it appears in the film. Source: Wired & Netflix.

In 2020, we are already familiar with personalized recommendations powered by AI. Getting back to Netflix, they personalise the content stream you see on the go, and this is not even a secret anymore. Processors are now engineered in such way they are capable of generating real-time analytics, offering the content an technology that we consume on a daily bases an important and personal twist.

React Native and Flutter continue replacing Kotlin and Swift for Native Android & iOS development.

In one of our past articles, we covered a few important aspects of how React Native has already disrupted the mobile development scene.

Being supported by Google, Flutter, a fairly new name on the mobile development scene is seen to acquire more authority and trust from developers in eastern Europe and around the world. It promises the building of mobile apps in record time.

Relator.com, Tencent, New York Time’s Ken Ken puzzle, Square and Google Assistant are just of few of the apps that are already using Flutter.

 

Internet of Things.

Today, internet-powered things are everywhere. It’s because we grew to love things powered by the power of the internet & connectivity and this is clearly reflected in the way investments are growing year by year as technology giants are developing more IoT apps.

Hint: If you are looking to get your hands dirty with some IoT this year, take a look at the impressive market size of smart home devices. Here is something we found while browsing around. It is from Strategy Analytics.

Strategy Analytics

Final words.

Today, more apps are being released in the App Store and Google Play store than ever. While this could be both good and bad for your next mobile application, it is getting more clear that in order to craft a digital product that stands out on the market, you will need more than cutting edge technology or clinging to the hottest technology trend that is out there. Standalone, these two can’t do enough in order to ensure the success of your business on the market. Take a look at a software development process and before starting to tech around, make sure you spend a great deal of time in researching the scope of your digital application.

🚀Did reading this article made you start building your mobile app with RebelDot? We’d love a tech riddle! Reach out and let’s talk about building your awesome digital product, together. Make sure you getintouch@rebeldot.com, and we will get back to you in no time.

🤔Reading this made you want to be part of the RebelDot team? We’ve got great news! We are in search of creative engineers that can help us ship digital products. Check our openings, here.

Blockchain

Challenges of adopting blockchain.

by with No Comment BlockchainInnovation and Tech

Blockchain is the new kid on the block (pun intended). There’s a lot of buzz around it, about how disruptive it is, that it will change a series of industries and will start a wave of innovation.  You might have considered using it in your next product or project, but not sure what your approach should be? Let’s see what you can expect down the road!

Disruption always comes at a price, because you are bringing something radically new to the table. Adopting something new takes time. It implies getting out of the comfort zone – for you, for your team, for your users, for the industry. Therefore, disruption can happen at a tipping point: when the need to innovate and the benefits of disruption will outweigh the inconveniences of the process. This is also how blockchain itself was born: to solve a problem.

So far so good. It sounds exciting. Except, it comes at a price. Blockchain solves a series of problems in an innovative way, thus using it implies a paradigm shift. This paradigm shift, although very promising, comes with its challenges. Some of these are not obvious from the start, because disruption questions the very same things that we’ve got accustomed to and take for granted. Let’s dive in!

You operate in a decentralized environment.

Blockchain is successful in delivering its promise to create trust in a trustless environment by making sure that no central party is controlling the information on the blockchain. Not even you! This transfer of control and ownership comes with a series of considerations:

  1. How do I achieve compliance with various regulations (e.g. GDPR)?
  2. What happens if I do an honest mistake when adding data to the blockchain?
  3. What if I have new requirements and I must adjust existing data?

Obviously, there are already a few techniques to cope with these challenges, just keep in mind that these usually imply a change in the way you do things as opposed to centralized systems.

Your users need to communicate with the blockchain.

In a purely decentralized environment, users should not need to communicate with any central authority, but with the blockchain itself. This is not a trivial task and currently needs quite some effort from your users’ part. To consume decentralized applications, you need specialized software. Your users need to be aware of that and they will need to go through a learning curve themselves.

On the other end of the spectrum, users are already accustomed to certain ways of interacting with software. Depending on your use-case, the real value that you can bring is finding a way to combine centralized technologies with blockchain in such a way that you can offer your users all the good stuff that they are accustomed to, while also leveraging the blockchain promise. And walking that fine line takes some fiddling with the technology

Developers need to adjust to the new paradigm too.

Because of the nature of the technology, developing blockchain applications resembles developing firmware: once you release it, it’s out there on thousands of devices. Devices over which you have very limited (if any) control. Thus, the price of updates is very high. As with firmware, get it right the first time, or you will pay the price later. This also implies that a series of best practices that developers are usually familiar with might not fit well: continuous integration, incremental builds, Agile itself. You’re more than welcome to use these internally, but your first release should be as complete and stable as possible.

Blockchain is immutable.

This also means that you need to deliver quality software from the start. And the implication is that you need to budget way more design and testing time than in centralized projects. They say that software testing cannot prove that a piece of code has no bugs, it can only prove that known bugs have been fixed. Thus, quality starts with software design. You should budget enough time to consider all the corner cases, limitations, long term consequences and security implications. You should have strong quality metrics.

Having a dedicated testing team is also important. Your developers will start with a great design and their code might be of excellent quality, yet bugs will slip through the process. This is because it is hard to accurately test your own code. People tend to build a mental model for solving a problem, and developers will use the same mental model for testing their code. In other words, they will look for bugs using the same mental model with which they’ve created them in the first place. This is human nature. A dedicated testing team can make sure that software is verified using a different mental model. Budgeting plenty of testing time is also important. The rule of thumb (that might shock you at first) is ‘5 to 10x’: for every week of development consider 5 to 10 weeks of testing. Software testing for blockchain is not just an aspect of quality assurance, but a way of risk mitigation.

Security is paramount.

Your code is accessible in some shape or form to everyone running a blockchain node (and in case of public blockchains to literally anyone). Thus, security plays a crucial role in your development lifecycle. Even more, once out there you cannot really modify it. If there is a security bug, bad actors can exploit it and there is not much you can do about it, since you cannot just patch your code, like you would in a centralized environment.

The technology and tool set are not yet mature.

The ecosystem is still in its early stages and while new implementations and tools appear quite frequently, these are not as stable as the offering on conventional technologies. Often, developers need to face the reality that something that is trivial to achieve using other technologies will turn out to be quite complex with blockchain.

Blockchain is not particularly fast.

The main characteristic of blockchain is immutability and security. By design, blockchain solutions will favor these over performances. Of course, the technology is rapidly evolving, and new solutions are proposed to boost blockchain performance, but today’s reality is that blockchain is not as performant as other centralized technologies.

 

At this point, you might incline towards giving up on blockchain, but the truth is that there are solutions and practices in place to help you deal with the challenges that you might face. The key takeaway is that blockchain not only disrupts the fields it is used in, but it has similar effects on the way you build your product as well.

So, is it worth it?

As with every technology, the answer is: it depends. Blockchain can indeed bring innovation to a whole series of industries and it has a lot of potential. In some cases, it really is unparalleled and offers advantages that simply cannot be matched by any other technology on the market. But we should use the right tool for the job. This technology is particularly good at making sure that information cannot be tampered with and there is a complete and immutable history of events, a permanent record of sorts. If that is something that you are after and you can build value on it then blockchain will prove to be a great fit for you.

are-stos-replacing-icos

RebelDot becomes the first software development company to accept crypto payment in Romania.

by with No Comment BlockchainNews
Cluj-Napoca, 7 DECEMBER 2018- Starting January 2019, RebelDot clients will be able to pay their invoices in cryptocurrency – making the company the first in the nation to officially accept crypto payments.

‘’We always strive to come up with new ideas and be the ones starting regional trends, thus the decision to accept cryptocurrency starting January is simply solidifying our beliefs. As such, this new payment method will helps us be even more flexible for our clients. The internal process to put this plan in motion was heavily analyzed and we’ve looked at both market trends and the legal context of Romania. Accepting crypto payments is a natural next step for us, as in 2018 we integrated blockchain technology (which is at the core of cryptocurrencies) into the strategic direction of RebelDot.“ says Tudor Ciuleanu, RebelDot CEO.

According to Forbes from April 11th , the market cap for all cryptocurrencies grew to $565.1 billion in 2017 and was expected to reach over $1 trillion by 2018.

“Although the crypto market has decreased steadily this year, the potential of crypto is still there, it’s only a matter of timing. As a result, I believe it’s a good moment to consider the crypto market and blockchain technology as a strategic move for every company.’’ mentions Tudor Ciuleanu, RebelDot CEO.

 

At a local level, according to a study ran by  Norstat, 1 out of 10 Romanians say they have already bought cryptocurrencies and 1 out of 3 are planning to buy some soon. In terms of the specific cryptocurrencies, 72% of the people surveyed mentioned that they own Bitcoin, 29% own Ethereum and only 14% own Ripple.

‘’We were all surprised when, a few years ago, there was an article saying that Romania is in top 5 countries around the world regarding internet connection. Now, according to the study realized by Norstat we’ve managed to reach again the top but this time the subject is cryptocurrencies. We are in top 10 countries around the world when it comes to the percentage of population that own cryptocurrencies (1 out of 10 Romanians). I think this is a good sign for Romania and it shows once again that Romanians are brave people, willing to embrace challenges. ‘’ added Tudor Ciuleanu, CEO of RebelDot.

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Tudor Ciuleanu company meeting

RebelDot CEO, Tudor Ciuleanu, is the only Romanian investor present at Crypto Invest Summit in Los Angeles.

by with No Comment BlockchainBusinessNews
Cluj-Napoca, 17 0ctober 2018- After acquiring Imprezzio Global’s Services Division, now known as RebelDot, at the beginning of the year, CEO Tudor Ciuleanu makes a new step on the investors’ market with his participation at Crypto Invest Summit in L.A., as the only Romanian investor present at the event.

“I’m very excited that I was invited to be part of Crypto Summit together with investors and leaders across the world. As far as I know, I’m the only Romanian investor present there so it’s also a good opportunity to showcase the potential of Romanian software companies in this vertical. Looking forward to meeting as many brilliant minds as possible.’’, said Tudor Ciuleanu.

Crypto Invest Summit is the ‘’West Coast’s Largest Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Event’’ that will take place during October 22nd – 24th. The summit brings together under one roof investors from all around the Globe, as Josef Holm, co-founder of Crypto Invest Summit and CEO of Krowdster explains: “We all want to invest, but we don’t know where to begin. We’re bringing the best investors, successful entrepreneurs, smartest lawyers and accountants under one roof to show us how it’s done.”

Speakers like Steve Wozniak will be taking the stage at the event as well, to showcase the potential of the industry and talk about what to expect from blockchain in the future.

Tudor Ciuleanu is planning to invest in startups that will bring innovative ideas and scaling capabilities to the table: ‘’Cryptocurrency and blockchain are emerging trends that are gaining more and more attention from the investors. I’m looking for a startup that can surprise me with their innovative idea, scaling capabilities and passion for what they do. Passion, although not quantifiable is a key ingredient weighing in my decision process.”’  

 

Apart from his presence at the Crypto Summit, Tudor Ciuleanu will also be joining another blockchain event in Malta at the beginning of November.

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