What are the top ten DApps on Ethereum?

Ethereum is the blockchain network with the second largest market value after Bitcoin. In fact, there are many blockchain applications with different functions on Ethereum, called DApps (Decentralized Applications). These multi-functional DApps make Ethereum viable. Today, let's take a look at the main Ethereum DApps and what functions they provide.

Ethereum: The largest second-generation blockchain platform

Ethereum is a decentralized open-source blockchain with smart contract capabilities. Ether is the platform's token. Ethereum was conceived in 2013 by Russian programmer Vitalik Buterin. Other founders of Ethereum include Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin.

In 2014, the development of Ethereum began and crowdfunded, and it went live on July 30, 2015. The platform allows anyone to deploy permanent and immutable decentralized applications on it, with which users can interact. Decentralized financial applications provide a wide range of financial services without the need for typical financial intermediaries such as exchanges or banks. Ethereum also allows the creation and exchange of NFTs. On October 27, 2021, Ethereum began implementing a series of upgrades, including a transition to proof-of-stake, aimed at increasing transaction throughput.

Ethereum's relatively important technical contribution is smart contracts. Smart contracts are programs stored on the blockchain that can assist and verify the negotiation and execution of contracts. The well-known magazine "The Economist" believes that smart contracts can allow databases of many organizations to interact at a low cost and allow users to write sophisticated contracts. Because the content of smart contracts is public, smart contracts can prove that their claimed functions are true. On the other hand, the public nature of the contract also means that if there is a loophole in the contract, anyone can see it immediately.

In addition to smart contracts, Ethereum can be used to create decentralized programs, such as Opensea (a well-known NFT trading platform), Uniswap (a decentralized exchange), Metamask (a blockchain wallet), etc. In fact, there are many other functions and software on Ethereum, which may be one of the reasons why Ethereum is the largest second-generation blockchain platform.

Top 10 Ethereum DApps by usage

Source: DappRadar

DApps are applications that can run autonomously, usually through the use of smart contracts, running on a decentralized computing blockchain system. Like traditional applications, DApps provide some functionality or utility to their users. However, unlike traditional applications, DApps run without human intervention and are not owned by any one entity. Instead, DApps distribute tokens that represent ownership. Without any one entity controlling the system, the application becomes decentralized.

The trustless and transparent nature of DApps has led to greater development in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space by leveraging these features. DApps can be divided into multiple categories based on their functions and nature: exchanges, games, finance, gambling, development, storage, wallets, governance, property, identity, media, social, security, energy, insurance, and health.

Below, we will introduce the representative DApps mentioned above.

NFT trading leader OpenSea

OpenSea is an online trading market for NFTs and the most used DApp on Ethereum. Opensea was founded by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah in New York on December 20, 2017. Users can generate NFTs for free on OpenSea and offer them to direct buyers or auctions. OpenSea is mainly based on the Ethereum ERC-721 standard and Polygon (Ethereum's layer 2 scaling solution).

OpenSea went through a seed round of financing from Y Combinator in 2018. In November 2019, OpenSea raised $2.1 million in venture capital (primarily from Animoca Brands). In March 2021, OpenSea raised another $23 million in venture capital (primarily from A16z Capital). In July 2021, OpenSea announced another round of $100 million in financing.

In February 2021, OpenSea had revenue of $95 million, $147 million in March, and $2.75 billion in September. In September 2021, OpenSea released its own Android and iOS mobile applications. In January 2022, OpenSea raised $300 million in financing (led by Paradigm and Coatue Management), with a valuation of $13.3 billion.

OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer said the newly raised funds will be used to improve customer support and security, invest in the broader NFT and web3 communities, and recruit and product development. OpenSea is committed to expanding the entire NFT ecosystem. OpenSea will launch a grant program with opportunities to directly support developers, builders, and creators who shape the future of NFT. OpenSea's goal is to promote the scale and growth of the broader NFT ecosystem, including raising the profile of emerging creators and investing in people who shape the NFT space to make them better.

Uniswap

Uniswap is a decentralized Crypto exchange. Uniswap is also the name of the company that originally built the Uniswap network platform. Uniswap has 3 versions so far. Versions 2 and 3 are the second and third most popular DApps on the Ethereum network. The Uniswap network platform facilitates automated trading between Crypto tokens on the Ethereum blockchain through the use of smart contracts, in stark contrast to Crypto exchanges operated by centralized companies.

Uniswap was created by Hayden Adams, a former mechanical engineer at Siemens, on November 2, 2018. Uniswap has received investments from venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm Venture Capital, Union Square Ventures LLC, and ParaFi. According to Coinmarketcap data, Uniswap's average daily trading volume was $2 billion in February 2022.

The first version (V1) of the Uniswap platform was released in November 2018, proposing the concept of AMM (Automated Market Maker). Version 2 was launched in May 2020, and version 3 was launched in May 2021.

Compared to centralized exchanges, Uniswap uses liquidity pools instead of market makers, aiming to create more efficient markets. Liquidity providers provide liquidity to the exchange by adding a pair of tokens to a smart contract that can be bought and sold by other users. In return, liquidity providers receive a percentage of the trading fees earned by that trading pair. For each trade, a certain amount of tokens is removed from the pool in exchange for an amount of other tokens, changing the price. There are no fees for listing tokens, allowing access to a large number of Ethereum tokens, and users do not need to register. As open source software, Uniswap's code can also be forked to create new exchanges.

Metamask

MetaMask is a software Crypto wallet based on the Ethereum blockchain and is the fourth most used DApp on Ethereum. It allows users to access their Ethereum wallets through a browser extension or mobile application. MetaMask was developed in 2016 by ConsenSys Software Inc., a blockchain software company focused on tools and infrastructure based on Ethereum.

MetaMask allows users to store and manage account keys, broadcast transactions, send and receive Ethereum-based Crypto and tokens, and securely connect to decentralized applications through a compatible web browser or the mobile app’s built-in browser.

The application includes an integrated service for exchanging Ethereum tokens by aggregating multiple decentralized exchanges (DEX) to find the best exchange rate. This feature, called MetaMask Swaps, charges a service fee of 0.875% of the transaction amount. As of November 2021, MetaMask's browser extension has more than 21 million active users per month.

Prior to 2019, MetaMask was only available as a desktop browser extension for Google Chrome and Firefox browsers. Starting in 2019, MetaMask began releasing mobile app versions for closed beta testing, followed by a formal public release for iOS and Android in September 2020. In October 2020, the desktop extension added a built-in DEX aggregation service, MetaMask Swaps. The product was launched on mobile devices in March 2021.

Polygon POS

Nowadays, everyone can create their own blockchain network. Larger and more established blockchain networks such as Ethereum have some problems such as network congestion (too many people using it) and high usage fees (many people using it, which drives up the price). Many blockchain networks nowadays focus on faster transaction speeds and lower transaction fees. Some people wonder if it is possible to combine or expand two blockchains or multiple blockchain networks, which gave rise to blockchain bridges. Blockchain bridges are software used to connect one blockchain to another. It is a service that connects two networks at the same time.

Polygon is Ethereum's blockchain bridge, a protocol and framework for building and connecting blockchain networks compatible with Ethereum. The main purpose of Polygon is to expand the infrastructure development platform of the Ethereum network. Today, Polygon's expansion solutions have been widely adopted by more than 400 Dapps, more than 350 million transactions, and more than 1.5 million users.

1inch Network

1inch Network is a DEX network that aims to find the most profitable DEX exchange for liquidity providers through a small number of decentralized exchanges. It is the 6th most popular DApp on the Ethereum network. Users can use 1inch Network to query all data of DEX exchanges in the Ethereum ecosystem, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon and other networks.

1inch Network is the idea of ​​Russian developers Sergej Kunz and Anton Bukov. As avid DeFi enthusiasts, Kunz and Bukov began experimenting with arbitrage robots during the ETHNewYork hackathon in 2019, creating the first 1inch Network-related concept product.

The 1inch Network platform has raised about $15 million in funding and is now managed by the 1inch Network Foundation, a non-profit organization. 1inch Network's protocol finds the best market price by splitting orders across multiple DEXs. The protocol uses robots and other algorithms to increase investors' DeFi profits. One of the biggest advantages of 1inch Network is that it provides liquidity on multiple markets on three blockchain networks.