According to Blockworks, despite the growth of infrastructure for app creation in the crypto space, consumer decentralized apps (dapps) are struggling to gain widespread adoption. Developers have access to hundreds of software combinations for building dapps, but few teams are utilizing the technology. Among the top blockchain-based applications on DappRadar, only four have over 100,000 daily unique active wallets.
The slow adoption of consumer dapps is partly due to the use of total value locked (TVL) as a measure of an app's success, according to Oleg Fomenko, co-founder of Sweat Economy and the consumer-facing Sweatcoin app. Fomenko believes that TVL causes developers to focus on the wrong targets, and active users would be a more helpful metric.
Two of the top three dapps by unique active wallets use crypto rails to build apps that reward users for everyday activities. Cosmose AI's KAIKAINOW app allows users to earn rewards for engaging with content on their phone's lock screen, paid out in the KAI-CHING stablecoin, which is hosted on the NEAR protocol. The Sweat Economy app rewards users with SWEAT tokens based on their step counts, also built on NEAR.
Fomenko said that the step-counting app is designed to appeal to the 'crypto-curious' who are deterred by complicated app interfaces. Sweatcoin's internal data shows that a large majority of its users are new to crypto and Web3, making it valuable for crypto-native companies looking to reach a new audience.
However, one obstacle to consumer dapp adoption is the reluctance of developers to work on Web3 mobile apps due to concerns about Apple, Google, or regulation. A majority of the top ten dapps by unique active wallets are not available on major app stores.
