Proponent: 16JVrgg7t6m5UXAtDBM7jYp9XjAxALRVFP6GuKVFmi9HLw8d (Batman, Polkadot)

Date: 13 Oct 2023

Amount Requested: 1,800 DOT (~$7,500)

Short description: This is a follow up proposal to referenda 72 that aims to fund further development of the dotappstore – an ecosystem App Store that acts as a "front-page" for discovering Polkadot projects.

What changed?

After expressing the rationale to drop the project I received mixed feedback from the community - some people seemed to like the idea of having an ecosystem app store like this and were disappointed after hearing this.

Specifically, some noted that doing something with a non-zero probability of success and running an experiment like this (provided cost is low) is better than doing nothing and waiting for something to happen.

The primary concern that led to initial withdrawal was the challenge of competing on foot traffic unless its officially adopted

But, I recently received info about Parity's intent to decentralize the marketing collaterals and give community more control over what gets endorsed by official channels.

Given this, I decided to reapply and let the community weigh the pros/cons and the risk/reward, instead of me making this decision.

Pre-Context

We lack a welcoming and directional 'frontpage' for the ecosystem to guide users effectively.

Current options like https://www.dotmarketcap.com/ and https://polkaproject.com/#/ have too much information, and leave the user overwhelmed and confused.

The dotappstore is an attempt to create a user-friendly listing platform to capture and navigate traffic, notably benefiting from SEO and backlinks.

This platform could furthermore direct users to promising new applications and establish itself as a 'trusted source' for newcomers to enhance our ecosystem's reliability and user assurance.

What is the funding for?

This proposal aims to cover the development costs for Dynamic App Pages, featuring:

• User authentication flow for teams and users
• ‘Upvote’ feature to recommend apps by popularity
• ‘Claim’ feature for app pages to allow permissionless update of information by authenticated teams
• 'Report' feature to flag malicious projects

Additional Information

• The codebase is fully open-source and available on github: https://github.com/iammasterbrucewayne/dotappstore/

• You can see the concept for the page in the screenshot below and try it yourself on https://dotappstore-git-feature-app-pages-iammasterbrucewayne.vercel.app/

FAQ

Q. How is it different from the explore page on Talisman or Nova Wallet?

A. The explore pages offered by wallets suffer from the lack of a detailed app page.

Wallets redirect users straight to the app listed on their page without first giving them an overview of the same.

Conventional app stores have detailed app pages that increase conversion rates by setting the right expectations before redirecting users to an app.

They do this using the following information:

• Visual Aids: Screenshots help them determine if the app's user experience aligns with their preferences.
• User Ratings: Feedback from other users can be instrumental in helping potential users decide whether an app is right for them.
• Developer Contact and Support: If users have questions or concerns about an app, the app page provides a way to contact the developer or access a support website.

This proposal aims to add these key pieces of information to the dotappstore.

Q. How do you plan to acquire distribution for this?

An app store like this notably benefits from SEO and backlinks. As the number of ecosystem projects grow, dotappstore will grow with it.

The critical constraint for the platform is therefore listing projects, which in turn is subject to the following factors:

1. Ease of listing projects: For this, the dotappstore will allow for permissionless listing of projects with minimal manual intervention and a report feature to flag and take down malicious projects.

2. Volume of new/exciting projects launching in the ecosystem: For now I trust the OpenGov to be responsible for this, but I do have ideas for onboarding talent and users to the ecosystem to stimulate the DOT economy, documented here.

Q. Is there an eventual path to profitability?

While profitability is not an immediate concern due to distribution being the critical constraint for a project like this, there are several ways to monetize the platform like project advertisements and paid project verification.

Closing note

I think an independent, community-driven app store like this can help users navigate the ecosystem with ease and solve the discoverability problem for projects building for/on Polkadot.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

As always, both support and criticism are equally welcome :)