Addressing the Elephant in the Room
In January of 2019, long before the world became saturated with layer-one networks, the EOS blockchain stood tall as the main challenger to Ethereum’s supremacy. With sub-second block times, a novel resource model and drastically reduced fees, EOS drew in a host of early adopters looking to bring blockchain dApps to the mainstream.
LiquidApps created the DAPP Network on EOS with the vision of boosting EOS scalability even further and empowering developers to build previously-unthinkable applications. To this end, we invested tremendous time, energy and resources not only in developing superior technology, but also communicating our capabilities to the EOS community in order to draw developers into the DAPP ecosystem. Through our hackathon, webinars, blog posts, AMAs, Youtube videos, targeted advertising and constant community engagement, we were able to onboard a wide swathe of talented developers building on EOSIO and helped them scale their dApps at a fraction of the base layer costs. We recruited the best of the best to join the LiquidApps team and ramp up their contributions to the DAPP Network on both the R&D and marketing teams.
But over time, developers disappeared from the scene. What began as genuine enthusiasm and creativity, dissipated into frustration and burn out.
Holding Our Horses
Back in 2018, we all believed that EOS held superior technology, a promising community and a tactical warchest, and we chose it as the base layer for the DAPP Network for these reasons.
We built the DAPP Network on EOS in anticipation of its ongoing growth. Many developers were interested in the new technology and the anticipation was further fuelled by promised investments from Block.One, the architect (and beneficiary) of the EOS token launch, despite strategic legalese around their un-affiliation. We created numerous products, services, and infrastructure critical for developers building EOS dApps, there simply became fewer and fewer developers interested in building on EOS at all. Though competing EVM technology may not be superior, it did gain critical mass, so much so that even investors won’t support EOS developers without committing to migration to an EVM compatible chain.
Unfortunately, it seems like EOS will take more time than we thought to elevate itself into a true player in the smart contract space. By no means is this a shift in responsibility, but it is the reality of the current situation that has recently been discussed (e.g. Yves La Rose’s “The Current State of EOS and Where We Go Next” article).
“As it stands, EOS has been a failure of monumental proportions on various levels. To many, and understandably so, it’s a project they would rather not associate themselves to anymore. There’s no way of sugar coating it.”
(Yves La Rose, Chairman of the EOS Foundation)
For EOS to ever gain traction again — it’s going to take time and many resources. When that happens — we still own a significant advantage with the base layer technology for when developers will finally arrive. We created and built the best technology for EOS. We know how to offer DAPP Network tech to the developers within the ecosystem when they come. It is a frustrating and sad story, and also one that has been loudly and quietly unfolding throughout this community since we all saw EOS was the only ecosystem that didn’t take off during the latest bull market, despite best efforts from the team here and so many of you out there.
We have been actively involved in creating a community- driven independent foundation ever since the mainnet launched. Recent weeks might have seen the first winds of change blowing with the newly-formed EOS Foundation, and we are pleased it’s now on the right track. As a result, Zack left the LiquidApps team, which was unfortunate but necessary — since an EOS second layer solution is less necessary without more development on EOS — which is one the top goals of the foundation. With many funds and efforts, the EOS Foundation has been positioning itself as an ecosystem leader, stating it will support EOSIO where Block.One failed us. We will continuously assist Yves, Zack, and the EOS Foundation in their endeavor, with the hope that our mutual vision can be realized.
Facing Forward to the EVM Ecosystem
About a year ago LiquidApps introduced a new governance model for the DAPP Network. Token users and community members have adopted it with open arms, and since suggested, debated, proposed, and approved a wide variety of initiatives and updates that steer the DAPP Network resolutely in the direction of its community’s goals. In the past few weeks, the community has been arguing about marketing efforts, avoiding the fact that there are no developers on EOS to work with.
In light of this, we have decided it’s time to confront the obvious issue, which almost no one wants to address. The true elephant in the room, if you will: EOS is slowly dying from lack of developers.
DAPP Network has not stagnated in the meantime. Recently, DAPP Labs announced the contribution of DAPP Workers to the DAPP community, a technology that is EVM-compatible and could become a standard to allow numerous code languages to easily communicate with and run on top of EVM-compatible blockchains. When the DAPP Network community decides how to incorporate the DAPP token model and license into DAPP Workers, its GitHub repository will be made publicly accessible for everyone to review, use, and influence. We look forward to seeing it drive a new wave of EVM-compatible dApps.
We’ve been discussing DAPP Workers with several community leaders, who have expressed their interest in spearheading this initiative among potential communities and projects. We know how innovative this technology is, and we have full confidence in the community leaders that guides it. Our community has done an incredible job since it has undertaken responsibility for marketing, and it will continue to lead the way forward in embracing new developers from different ecosystems and projects through DAPP Workers, Gitcoin fund-raising, and other activities that sprung up from within the community by its members.
With a robust governance system in place, the DAPP Network should not only build upon the DAPP workers technology but also equip the community’s marketing gurus with the tools to spread the word about DAPP workers, especially on Ethereum.
The Mainstream Moment Is Closer Than Ever
When we first embarked on this journey to make dApps available to the masses, blockchain was still a niche subject way out of the public eye. Since then, we have witnessed a massive explosion in interest, usage and funding across the blockchain space. From DeFi to NFTs to Bitcoin’s adoption amongst institutional investors and nation-states, the blockchain space has taken gigantic leaps in the last 3 years, and we’re proud to have pioneered many of the innovations that are taken for granted today. In the meantime, we will keep making an effort in getting closer to mainstream adoption.
The foundations for flourishing success have been laid. With the collaborative and integrated efforts of the community, the rising tide of the DAPP Network will lift all lifeboats. Onwards we go.
