These dApps (or decentralized applications) are similar to standard apps except that they run on a decentralized network of computers, not one centralized location. They will operate in a similar fashion to normal apps in terms of the user-interface (UI), but will essentially be based on a smart contract. They are seen as the future of blockchain by many and allow people to both use and participate in the services offered by these dApps.

While there are numerous places that these dApps can be hosted, many dApps found their home on the Ethereum blockchain. It has been around for years. Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency according to its total market cap, and the third most expensive coin in terms of USD (i.e. $260 per Ether). It is a safe bet as it hosts thousands of different dApps. However, recently, a new contender has risen to the occasion and is giving Ethereum a run for its money. That contender is EOS. But why? What makes EOS and its blockchain attract so many projects and people away from Ethereum?

With that in mind, this article is going to take a look at a few reasons why more dApps are beginning to move over to the EOS ecosystem. However, before looking at why dApps are making the switch, let’s learn a little about EOS itself and how it came to be.

What is EOS?

EOS is a powerful infrastructure for decentralized applications. They make it simple to design dApps that are both vertically and horizontally scalable, as well as ensuring usability and flexibility. All different types of apps can be created – from ones to share music to ones to track your fitness and everything in between.

EOS is a new kid on the crypto block, as its ICO began in June 2017. In total, their ICO was able to raise over $4 billion, despite them not even having a live product, which was unheard of. According to the amount raised, this was the largest ICO in history. Several big players and notable names were investors during its ICO.

Despite being so new, EOS is already making waves in the crypto world. In addition to having the largest ICO ever, EOS is also the 6^th largest cryptocurrency on the planet according to its total market cap. So now that you know a little about EOS, let’s finally take a look at why so many dApps are moving over to the EOS blockchain.

Reasons for dApps Moving to the EOS Ecosystem

It Runs Smoothly

First of all, EOS is said to run much more smoothly than other blockchains like Ethereum and NEO. When many transactions are being processed on the Ethereum blockchain, it tends to take a decent amount of time and be a little choppy. This type of thing is not an issue with EOS.

Scalability is one of the huge selling points of EOS. It is now able to process over 3000 transactions per second and is believed to scale to million TPS. Whether your app only has a couple of users, or millions, EOS will ensure it runs smoothly and won’t experience any hiccups or crashes. The platform is also capable of handling thousands of different dApps at the same time. Certainly this scalability for large and small projects alike is one reason why more dApps are moving to EOS.

No Transaction Fees for Users

Another gripe many users and developers of dApps have with the likes of Ethereum is the fact that there is a fee for nearly every kind of transaction. While these transaction fees are usually quite small and manageable, they can definitely add up over time. On the other hand, EOS charges no transaction fees, which is obviously a huge plus for users.

This means tokens can be sent free of charge and there is no cost at all to call a smart contract. Of course, developers still have to pay some operating costs. In general, EOS is much more efficient than other options as it uses a delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm that doesn’t require traditional mining.

Increased Transaction Speeds

In addition to the platform and dApps running smoothly, and transactions being free, EOS also boasts faster transactions than most other blockchains. As mentioned before, EOS can process thousands and thousands of transactions per second, while many other blockchain systems are only capable of hundreds per second.

By having faster transactions, you ensure that users will have a better experience on your dApp as they won’t have to wait for their transactions to go through. While other blockchain systems could make strides to improve their speed, they have a lot of catching up to do.

So essentially, it is the scalability, speed and low fees that is drawing many creators, developers and publishers to EOS. It remains to be seen just how many dApps will ultimately be hosted on EOS, but plenty have already moved or have said they are planning to do so. While it may be awhile before EOS completely takes over Ethereum for the largest host of dApps, it will be exciting to see what happens as both jockey for the position.

In conclusion, hopefully this article has been able to shed some light on why more dApps are moving to the EOS ecosystem.

About The Author:

Mary Ann Callahan – Follow My Vote Blog Contributor

“As an expert on Bitcoin-related topics, I’ve found myself as a Journalist at Cex.io – cryptocurrency exchange. I’m working on articles related to blockchain security, bitcoin purchase guides or bitcoin regulations in different countries.” – Mary Ann Callahan

Are YOU interested in contributing an article to Follow My Vote’s blog?

Contact Us today to find out how!

The post More dApps are Moving to the EOS Ecosystem – Why? appeared first on Follow My Vote.

2017 will be a big year for blockchain. In this blog post, we cover the top areas of the blockchain industry and what we can expect for blockchain in 2017.

There are 7 Banks that want to go live with blockchain in 2017.

A recent CoinDesk article reveals that 7 major European banks are partnering on a new blockchain-based trade finance platform called the Digital Trade Chain (DTC).

They have a tentative plan to launch in Q3-Q4 of 2017.

Those backing the platform’s development are looking to establish a secure place to manage open account trade transactions for both domestic and international commerce. DTC utilizes a permissioned ledger, with authorized parties allowed to submit transactions on the platform.

Open account trade transactions involve products being shipped before the actual payment is due, meaning that trust among the transaction’s parties is imperative. With DTC, those plugged into the system will be able to track the progression of those transactions, from initiation to settlement.

Thus far, the banks involved – KBC, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Natixis, Rabobank, Société Générale and UniCredit – have signed a memorandum of understanding that lays out the basic groundwork for future development. That said, the banks are looking to launch DTC sometime in 2017, with an eye to building support in markets like France, Germany and the UK.

Conferences involving blockchain in 2017

A conference that caught our eye recently is the MIT Technology Review Conference: The Business of Blockchain.

The event will be held at the MIT Media Lab on April 18, 2017. The purpose of the one-day conference is “to explore the opportunities and challenges associated with public digital ledgers, or blockchains.”

Blockchains have the power to create entirely new kinds of businesses and more people are starting to realize this everyday.

Blockchain is still relatively new. The industry is still in its infancy. We can expect a variety of new use cases to be introduced in 2017.

Bitcoin in 2017

Bitcoin is the largest and most well know blockchain project. It is currently traded all around the world and more businesses are beginning to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment.

In addition to growth and adoption, Bitcoin will focus on security and scalability. The DAO hack demonstrated the need for advanced security protocols for all blockchain projects. Scalability is also an issue.  “Today the Bitcoin network is restricted to a sustained rate of 3.3 tps (7 tps theoretical) due to the bitcoin protocol restricting block sizes to 1MB. Scalability will remain the holy grail of blockchain technology.”

Ethereum in 2017

Many people believe the public blockchain with the most attainable and impactful scalability roadmap is Ethereum.

Here are some of the Ethereum projects to look out for:

Infura is an enterprise-grade Ethereum-based blockchain infrastructure being used in IoT, and in conjunction with the public Ethereum blockchain and Inter Planetary File System (IPFS). Developers interface with Infura via Web3/RPC.

MetaMask is a bridge that allows you to visit the distributed web of tomorrow in your browser today. It allows you to run Ethereum dApps right in your browser without running a full Ethereum node.

BlockApps is an enterprise-grade Ethereum-based blockchain infrastructure solution used in banking, payments, insurance, supply chain and others. BlockApps is designed to provide a permissioned Ethereum environment which easily operates at scale, allowing applications to handle a high volume of transactions per second. Developers can build interfaces with their permissioned blockchain using a REST API.

Steemit in 2017

Steemit.com is the world’s fastest growing decentralized social media platform. Steemit connects to a robust blockchain database called Steem. This blockchain database distributes rewards in cryptocurrency to the users who bring the best content (blogs, comments, videos etc.) to the Steemit site.

On January 17th, 2017 Steemit.com was featured on Forbes.com. Author, Roger Aitken covered the 2017 comprehensive roadmap for Steemit.com.

The big news surrounds the Steemit.com migration to Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest hosting provider. Steemit has racked up over 120,000 registered users in around 6 months and they need to be able to handle more traffic as the platform grows.

Steemit Co-founder & CEO, Ned Scott is quoted several times throughout the article:

 “2017 will be our banner year and the community will see a ton of upgrades from now until the end of March. Migrating hosting to reputable third parties allows us to focus all of our time and attention on development of the site, software, and community – not on scaling or maintaining servers or hosting infrastructure.”

Follow My Vote in 2017

Follow My Vote continues to pioneer end-to-end verifiable blockchain voting software in 2017. See our Github repo for updates on our software.

In 2016, we managed to get featured on Forbes.com and successfully integrated our stake-weighted voting software with the BitShares blockchain.

It’s important to note that, when designing our stake-weighted voting system’s architecture, we designed it in such a way to ensure that our blockchain voting software was portable from one blockchain to another. (contact us if you are interested in a custom blockchain voting solution)

2016 was filled with momentous achievements for Follow My Vote. Here you can see we reached out to and networked with some of the top technology leaders and politicians. (Gary Johnson & John McAfee featured)

We anticipate that 2017 will be filled with many Follow My Vote software releases and partnerships, in an effort to bring end-to-end verifiable blockchain voting to the world.

Learn about our stake weighted blockchain voting software.

Learn about our 1 person 1 vote blockchain voting software.

About the author: Will Long is the Marketing Manager of Follow My Vote.

The post What’s In Store For Blockchain In 2017? appeared first on Follow My Vote.