AppCoins (APPC)

What is AppCoins

The advancements in technology have seen a steady rise in smartphone uptake. A Report by Newzoo shows that over 2.7b people use smartphones in the world today, generating more than $92billion annually through apps and games. A huge part of this income goes to the dominant players; Google Play and Apple Store. The duopoly allows them to charge high fees on app downloads, and other in-app purchases.

App stores also face a lot of other challenges like; malware and inefficiencies, most of the users in the developing world do not have reliable payment options, while those in the low-end market can barely afford the apps. In-app advertisements are crowded by too many intermediaries, and new developers are finding it hard to penetrate the market.

Aptoide, therefore, formed AppCoin in a bid to streamline the current challenges facing the app store industry.

How AppCoin solves the mobile app market issues

• App monetization and In-app purchases

Most people in the world do not have the means to pay for online transactions. Over two billion individuals cannot access the payment methods for In-app purchases, and only 5 percent of in-app sales come from native advertisements.

The users of AppCoin get rewarded through AppCoin tokens which they can use for In-app purchases. This means that they do not necessarily need to have any payment methods to complete transactions. The platform has also included a number of local payment methods to further ease in-app purchases.

• Advertising

The current mobile app markets allow for ad-tech intermediaries. The middlemen charge costs per installation campaigns making the transactions to be costly and less transparent. AppCoin looks to do away with middlemen by introducing a cost per attention where developers interact directly with users. It allows developers to award users who stay for longer than a stipulated duration in an app. The users will then use the rewards for In-app purchases.

The system uses smart contracts to validate transactions such that developers will only reward users who meet the set threshold. It helps in avoiding fraud.

• App approval

Most existing app approval systems have non-transparent policies that easily allow approval of malware. They also have the complex quality assurance that rejects apps without any clear reason.

The use of blockchains in the system provides for a developer reputation system which is a universal and more transparent approval process. It validates the developers’ reputation on an auditable public ledger. It also provides for a dispute system and allows users to rank the developers and the apps.

How AppCoin manages fraud

Fraud is one of the most rampant issues in the crypto world. Some users would try to gain tokens or scam others through fraudulent activities. In a bid to create a safe and trusted environment for the app stores safer, AppCoin takes measures such as:

• It incorporates the use of user fingerprints in accessing the platform both at the mobile and networking levels. This also includes routing and IP address information for authenticity.
• AppCoin allows the app store to set a threshold depending on how trustworthy the user is. Newer users tend to have lower thresholds as it increases with time to allow more transactions.
• The system does not allow users the option of cashing out tokens. This allows for easy detection and tracking of fraudulent transactions.
• The system uses ad targeting where it sends particular ads to users based on behavior and tendencies. This eliminates the possibility of a client installing a malicious ad.
• The use of blockchains allows safe storage of information like fingerprints and other user transaction details. This makes it possible for different stores to share the information for convenience.

Strategies for adoption

The success of AppCoin depends on how much it is adopted among the users. These are some of the strategies the platform uses to ensure adoption by masses:

• Initial Aptoide support

AppCoin can build on the success of Aptoide, an already established app store with over 200 million users downloading over 1 billion apps by 2017. AppCoin gets a ready market from the platform’s current partners, developers, and users.

• App store foundation (ASF)

AppCoin has a community for the different app stores that adopt the use of AppCoin currency. It is meant to help provide higher operational and financial benefits to the app developers and users. The foundation ensures proper governance, development and continuous innovation. It also generates strategies for promoting the currency to other entities like governments, Telco companies, and OEMs, thus ensuring more adoption.

• User compensation

AppCoin has a system where users get rewards for staying in an app for a given period. This encourages the adoption of several apps for existing users and draws new ones.

• Building Trust

By using smart contracts in transactions, the system will be secure and transparent to allow several users to opt for its use.

• Reducing intermediaries

Eliminating the system intermediaries means a reduction in the cost of production. This allows for cheaper pricing of the apps several users can afford.

• Organic growth

AppCoin acquires more users by engaging both the existing users and those of the competitions on the solution it brings to the market.

Uses Cases of AppCoin

These are some of the ways the different entities use AppCoin.

• Low-income users

AppCoin allows low-income users to earn token by trying new apps and games. Spending more time on the apps leads to more token which the user can engage with on the app economy.

• Users with no payment system access

Most smartphone users in developing countries do not have credit cards or access to other online payments methods for an in-app purchase. AppCoin, in that case, allows the transfer of tokens from another user with the payment options.

• New Developers

There are already a lot of apps in the market that makes it hard to penetrate. Most new developers prefer to advertise their apps, which is costly yet ineffective. Adverts only create 4% of installs, while fraud practices like false installs and clicks are rampant.

AppCoin is secure from false clicks and installs thus higher retention rate. The platform also allows for promotional tokens for the app users, which is a motivation for one to install and run the app.

• Top developers

Top developers are finding it hard to keep generating money from existing apps or to penetrate the market with new apps. AppCoin ensures better circulation of cash in the system that allows the top developers to create superior quality apps, while the users can easily afford the apps. Both parties gain in the end.

• Independent App Stores

Quality assurance is one of the challenges faced by most independent app stores. AppCoin provides for the use of blockchains in screening and confirming a developer’s reputation based on previous transaction and disputes data. This ensures only the recommended quality apps on the platform.

• Regional App Stores

Most regional app stores struggle to find top developers as most have low trust levels on the less-known platforms. AppCoin provides a trustworthy environment where top developers submit content to different stores. AppCoin allows universal app standard and provides easy payment options from any store.

• Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM)

There are several OEMs with a large market share yet do not have sufficient apps. AppCoin uses blockchain that allows these OEMs to partner with other app stores to monetize on the large market share. They keep the parent app store while generating leads from the other app stores.

Pros and Cons of AppCoin

AppCoin comes with several advantages as compared to the other existing app stores. These include:

• It allows the transfer of coins to friends and family thus allowing users without payments methods access.
• It provides for secure transactions due to the use of smart contracts.
• High-quality apps as the blockchains verify developer reputation based on previous transactions and dispute records.
• The platform allows users to earn token when using apps thus provides for a more volatile app economy.
• High liquidity as one can easily buy or sell the currency in use.
• Easy transactions as you get to use the same currency across different app stores.

The only issue that comes with using the AppCoin is privacy. The platform keeps user transaction data and history and can share these within the different app stores for verification. The concern is the safety of the data from reaching unlawful third-party entities.

Blockchain Limitations

AppCoin is using blockchain to create a global app economy through:

• Storage of data.
• Couple value storage and transfers.
• Scaling to millions of users.

Currently, the best options of blockchain systems to use are either Ethereum or Bitcoin. These can only successfully help in the storage of data. Couple value storage requires blockchain technology that has smart contracts like Ethereum.

The blockchain will face limitations like:

• Limited transaction volumes

The only way the blockchain can fully scale to the 2 billion users is by completing around 23,000 average transactions per second. That is far from the 20 average transactions it manages at the moment.

• Latency

The Ethereum operates such that one has to wait until a transaction is part of the blockchain. The validity of the blockchain can only be confirmed after creating seven blocks. While it is important for high-value transactions, it makes the AppCoin economy a little slower. The system should complete transactions almost instantly due to a large number of users.

• High fees

The fee of a system is determined by how much it costs to complete micro-transactions transfers in the range of a few cents. It costs around 10 cents of USD to execute a 1-minute transaction in Ethereum. This is way expensive yet to slow in micro-transactions.