It is known that most of distributed applications (dApps) operate on the Ethereum blockchain. A report by Fluence Labs in 2019 showed the percentage to be 87%. The amount of dApps on the EOS and TRON blockchains is shown below.
Most lists of dApps available from websites such as dapp.review and DappRadar, only show the number of daily users and the amount of transactions. While this information is good to know, it does not help a dApp developer.
A report from Peking University (PU) gives more data about dApps on the Ethereum blockchain. One important piece of data that it gives is the amount of ETH transferred.
Ethereum dApps data
In 2018, State of the DApps showed the total number of dApps on the Ethereum blockchain was 1,749. The PU report was able to get complete transaction data for only 995 dApps. Here is a general summary of their data:
Categories of dApps
The list of dApps on the Ethereum blockchain by State of the DApps shows 17 different categories. But the category with the largest number of dApps is not the dApps that is used most frequently. As an example, there are more dApps in the game category, but it ranks lower in how it is used.
Number of dApps
The table below shows the five categories with the greatest number of dApps. These five different categories are 74.5% of the total. Games, gambling, finance, and exchanges are in the list.
Below is the data for all the different categories of dApps. The order sequence starts with the largest number of transactions.
Types of dApps most used
The following three metrics was used to measure the how dApps were used:
- the number of user accounts
- the number of transactions
- the amount ETH transferred.
Number of users
The table below shows the four categories with the greatest number of users. These four different categories are 72.5% of the total. Finance and exchanges are in the list.
The PU report shows that only small amount of the available dApps are selected. The results are:
- less than 20% of dApps have all the users
- 80% of dApps are used by only less than 1000 users.
These results are equivalent to those found by Fluence Labs. They found that 58% of dApps had less than 50 daily users and that 12% of the dApps have more than 500 daily users.
Number of transactions
The table below shows the four categories with the greatest number of transactions. These four categories are 80.0% of the total. Games, gambling, finance, and exchanges are in the list.
The PU report shows that only small amount of the available dApps are selected. The results are:
- 5% of the dApps have 80% of transactions
- more than 80% of the dApps have less than 10,000 transactions
Amount ETH transferred
On the Ethereum blockchain it is necessary for a user to pay “gas” (in ETH) to do a transaction. The table below shows the five categories with the greatest number of ETH transferred. These four categories are 98.7% of the total. Games, gambling, finance, and exchanges are in the list.
The table below shows the amount of revenue received if each dApps has an equivalent number of transactions. Only the exchange and finance dApps earn more than $1 million USD. At this time (June 24, 2020) 1 ETH ~ $250 USD.
The PU report shows that 60% of DApps receive less than 10 ETH or about $2,500 USD a year.
The Fluence labs report referenced above found that 55% of dApps developers have selected to receive revenue from transactions fees. Since the PU report shows that most dApps earn only small amounts from transaction fees, it may be necessary for a dApp developer to select an alternative monetization method. The other monetization methods include selling a subscription or having advertisements.
Conclusions
Exchanges, finance, gambling, and games rank the highest for most dApp metrics. But only exchange and finance dApps earn more than $1 million USD.
