Back when blockchains were the “cool new thing”, I signed up for this class. For our final project, we had to build our own “Dapp” (decentralized app). Most people built things that were cool, but didn’t really benefit from being on a blockchain. I wanted to come up with something that actually utilizes the trustless nature of a blockchain.
Decentralized Kickstarter
Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that enables individuals and companies to get their idea off the ground. But, you have to trust:
- Kickstarter to hold your funds until the project reaches it’s goal.
- the company to deliver the product.
By building a similar app on the blockchain, we could eliminate the need 1, but not both. A smart contract can be built to create “campaigns”, hold funds, give them back if the goal isn’t reached, or deliver them to the campaign if the goal is reached.
Main Takeaways
The most interesting thing about building Dapps is how you have to think from each parties’ perspective. In a trustless system, you have to assume that everyone involved will always do what’s best for them. This was a good learning experience to “think like the user” more broadly.
The other thing I learned is that blockchains are (or were) extremely over-hyped, have very few valid use cases, and currency isn’t really a good one.