What is Blockchain Platform, Protocol, Dapp?

What are Platforms, Protocols & Dapps? How to distinguish Platform, Protocol & Dapp in the most detailed and understandable way for newbies.

In this article, I will help you distinguish three types of Blockchain projects: Platform, Protocol & Dapp. At the same time, provide data for you to see the community’s interest in each type of project.

Hopefully, it will help you easily group the projects you are interested in. From there, set an appropriate level of expectation when participating in investment.

Below are examples of some projects classified into three groups Platform, Protocol, Dapp.

Basically, these three groups are different both in terms of token type, operation method, purpose and audience.

Platform Overview

Define

• Blockchain Platform (Blockchain platform) are projects that build their own Blockchain platforms, allowing developers to program on it to create other Dapps.
• An example for you to easily imagine: Blockchain platforms are like phone operating systems. We have IOS, Android, Windows Phones. Dapps (decentralized applications) are Apps developed on the above operating systems. It can be games, an application to watch movies, listen to music (Youtube, Vimeo, Zing Mp3,…).
• A blockchain Platform is called strong when it has many Dapps built, attracts many Developers & has many users…
• The token inside that platform is called a coin

Salient features

• Each Blockchain Platform has a Smartcontract. It is smart contracts, to enforce the requirements that the Blockchain designed.
• Each Blockchain Platform has a different consensus mechanism, the most popular are proof of work (bitcoin uses this mechanism) and Proof of Stake.

Read more:

• Learn Proof of work
• Learn Proof of Stake

User

The users who interact with the Blockchain platform are the developers of the Dapp and the protocol. They interact with the platform to build their application.

For example: Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), EOS, NEO, TRON, Binance Chain (BNB), TomoChain (TOMO)…

The tokens ETH, ADA, EOS, NEO, BNB are called coins that run on their own Blockchain platform.

In particular, Bitcoin is the first coin and has its own Blockchain. But, Bitcoin does not allow developers to build or build Dapps on it.

When it comes to Blockchain platform projects, people often refer to the technology side through parameters of transaction speed, scalability, tps, and stability to compare them with each other.

Factors to consider when investing in Blockchain Platform

There are many different Blockchain platforms, but I think the trend & hotness of these projects are not the best right now. However, it is an opportunity for us to choose potential projects to invest in.

Some criteria you need to pay attention to:

Judging by the technical indicators of Blockchain:

• Blocktime (block generation time): The shorter the better.
• Transaction Processing Speed (TPS): The lower the better.
• Transaction fees: The shorter the better.
• Number of Nodes (with PoS) & Number of Minners (with PoW): The bigger the better
  By the time I write this article, there is Solana (SOL) that meets the above criteria.

What is the ecosystem of that Blockchain like?

• The stronger the Ecosystem, the stronger the Blockchain. Currently there is Ethereum (ETH) as the platform with the largest number of active DApps, and attracting the most users and Devs.
• New projects, check Dapp development speed, number of users, .. how. If well developed, how far can the project reach in the future. If OK, then consider investing.
• Interoperability with other blockchain ecosystems.

Read more: Criteria for evaluating a Blockchain Platform

Some blockchain platforms with good ecosystems you should be interested in, such as Ethereum, Tomochain, Binance Chain (BNB), Solana (SOL), Cosmos (ATOM)

Protocol Overview

Define

Protocol is a group dedicated to developing optimal protocols for a particular purpose. To be faster, applications can use these protocols to develop their applications instead of rebuilding from scratch.

Protocol projects will play a role in between. Dapp projects that want to build on a certain Blockchain can use the services that protocol projects provide.

Crypto operating within the protocol are tokens because it does not have its own Blockchain.

User

Protocol users are either Dapp or platform developers. They rely on existing protocols to build the right product (app) to solve a specific problem.

Example: Some Protocol projects: Loopring, Thorchain (RUNE), Matic, 0x (ZRX), Kyber (KNC)…

• Loopring is the optimal protocol for decentralized exchange. Dapp projects that want to provide a DEX solution can use Loopring’s service to build decentralized exchanges faster and save more time.
• The second example is the Matic Network. Dapp projects apply Matic’s solution to increase performance. Specifically about the transaction speed and scalability of that project.

Overview of Dapp

Define

Dapp or decentralized application: Are applications built on existing platforms & protocols. Those Dapps focus on solving problems in a certain area. The tokens will be used inside the Dapp.

Since Dapps are built directly on platforms, the nature of these decentralized applications will depend on those platforms.

For example transaction speed, tps, scalability, stability.

User

The main users of Dapps are end users. They are end users, they do not need to have knowledge of Blockchain can still use Dapp like normal applications.

Eg:

• Nexo lending solution.
• Gowithmi project provides Blockchain services via digital map.
• Decentraland VR game project is built on Ethereum platform.
• CryptoKitties game.
• Triip.me is a tourism service project built on the Tomochain platform.

I give an example to make it easier for you to imagine:

• Blockchain platform is similar to the skeleton of an apartment building.
• Dapps (decentralized applications) are apartments built on that framework. They are built on a skeleton by builders (developers).
• The blockchain protocol is the rules for the use of that building. Based on these normalization rules, builders (programmers) can know how to build standards on that framework.

Potential of Platform, Protocol & Dapp project teams

We reiterate the history of Blockchain projects.

In 2015 when Ethereum was founded laid the foundation for the first Blockchain Smart Contract platform.

From then to 2017 & the first half of 2018, we saw a lot of Blockchain platform and protocol projects born such as Vechain (2015), EOS (2017), Tron (Sep 2017), NEO (Jun 2017), Ontology (Jan 2018) , TomoChain (Mar 2018), Kyber (Sep 2017), Constellation Labs (Jun 2018)…

That could be the first phase, forming foundational projects that will help build a solid infrastructure for decentralized applications later on.

And you can see, from 2018 to now, the number of Dapps has increased very quickly. This is understandable when we already have a significant amount of platform and protocol projects to build a solid foundation for the infrastructure.

Investment Opportunities

Blockchain technology or the Cryptocurrency market is only about 10 years old and can be considered a stub. So we still need more solid infrastructure projects.

The later Blockchain platform and protocol projects are better and more optimal than previous projects. Harmony, Klaytn, Cosmos, Matic… are examples of more sublime innovation of recent projects.

Infrastructure projects are always important and choosing a new & good protocol and platform project is always a good choice for investors with a long-term vision.

What about Dapps (decentralized applications)?

Dapp about a year ago is developing very fast. This dapp plays an extremely important role in the success of Blockchain platforms. At the present stage, Dapp is still new and is starting to attract users.

From a broader perspective, I want you to picture it like this: All Blockchain platform projects and protocols are built just to serve end users through Dapps.

If we consider Protocol and Platform as smartphones in the beginning stages, Dapp is similar to the applications on it.

Dapp is the future of Blockchain and I believe that in the coming time we will hear more about Dapp on media channels.

Finding out and choosing a Dapp project to invest in at this early stage will be a wise decision of investors.

Summary

Above is an article about Blockchain projects by platform, protocol & Dapp groups. Hope you were able to distinguish projects by group.

At the same time, based on the data of each project group, you can make your own judgments about the future and development of these projects.

Which project group are you interested in? And how do you predict the development of future projects? Please comment below to discuss with idolmeta.net.