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Here are just a few, presented for your curiosity. I have no affiliation with any of them. One thing to understand is that the decentralized application themsel

by pa7x1 3y ago

Here are just a few, presented for your curiosity. I have no affiliation with any of them. One thing to understand is that the decentralized application themselves are running over Ethereum. The only way to see the blockchain is either running a node yourself, or through a block explorer which is running its own node and giving you the ability to explore what's happening through a web (e.g. https://etherscan.io/ https://etherscan.io/) So for each of them I'm going to present a frontend UI to the decentralized application, that is just a nice UI hosted on a centralized server that makes it easier to interact the decentralized application. And where to find the smart contracts, these are the code that is running on Ethereum. You don't need the UI to interact with them, you can always run an Ethereum node and relay your own transactions to the network. But as a user you may also simply use the web UI if so inclined. I make this distinction because as a user, if you simply see a webpage you may ask yourself what's even the difference between that and a traditional web application. The point is that the web UI is just a nice UI, that is not needed to interact with the smart contract. The web app may have downtime, be taken down, censored by your country or ISP. While Ethereum always runs, 100% availability, permissionless, and uncensorable. These properties may not matter to you or for most applications, but they do matter for some users and applications. Uniswap: - This is an exchange, like a stock exchange but implemented over Ethereum. - Frontend URL: https://app.uniswap.org/ https://app.uniswap.org/ - The smart contract(s): https://etherscan.io/address/0x68b3465833fb72a70ecdf485e0e4c7bd8665fc45#code https://etherscan.io/address/0x68b3465833fb72a70ecdf485e0e4c... Ethereum Name Service: - This is like DNS over Ethereum. It resolves the ugly addresses 0x302834... to more memorable names like "andsoitis.eth". So you can snatch yours and tell people to pay you to "andsoitis.eth", for example. - Frontend URL: https://app.ens.domains/ https://app.ens.domains/ - The smart contract(s): https://etherscan.io/address/0x314159265dd8dbb310642f98f50c066173c1259b#code https://etherscan.io/address/0x314159265dd8dbb310642f98f50c0... Aave: - This allows to lend and borrow. - Frontend URL: https://app.aave.com/ https://app.aave.com/ - The smart contract(s): https://etherscan.io/address/0x24a42fD28C976A61Df5D00D0599C34c4f90748c8#code https://etherscan.io/address/0x24a42fD28C976A61Df5D00D0599C3... Alchemix: - Self-repaying loans without risk of liquidation. You can borrow up to 50% from your own-collateral and gradually pay it back, without risk of liquidation. - Frontend URL: https://app.alchemix.fi/ https://app.alchemix.fi/ - The smart contract(s): https://alchemix-finance.gitbook.io/user-docs/contracts https://alchemix-finance.gitbook.io/user-docs/contracts ZkSync Era: - A zero-knowledge layer 2, that helps scale Ethereum. You can run decentralized application for a fraction of the price you would do on the Ethereum mainnet. The layer 2 posts proofs of correct execution to Ethereum. This way you can run tons of transactions while enjoying the security of Ethereum. - A bridge to the L2: https://bridge.zksync.io/ https://bridge.zksync.io/ - And a block explorer: https://explorer.zksync.io/ https://explorer.zksync.io/ - The smart contract(s): https://era.zksync.io/docs/dev/building-on-zksync/useful-address.html https://era.zksync.io/docs/dev/building-on-zksync/useful-add...

brabel 3y ago
Out of curiosity, despite knowing all too well what to expect, I had a look at just one of your links, the "Alchemix" one. What the... are we supposed to do with "self-repaying" loans, really? I clicked on "Learn More" under "Leverage your wealth" and was taken to a developer documentation page [1] with highly jargoned prose that give me even less idea of what this thing could really help me with. How the hell can I leverage my wealth, please?? Ok, just a loan, how do I get one??? Seriously here's a small excerpt from that site: "For example, if governance sets the liquidate() cap for DAI to 20 million with a 10 minute cooldown, then the maximum amount of DAI that can be liquidated from all of the strategies used by the alUSD Alchemist over the span of 10 minutes is 20 million. The cooldown period is linear, so if the 20 million cap gets hit, no more DAI can be liquidated in that block, but after 5 minutes users can liquidate up to 10 million DAI." What the actual... ?? If this is your example of a good crypto app we should be using, thanks but, no thanks. [1] https://alchemix-finance.gitbook.io/v2/ https://alchemix-finance.gitbook.io/v2/
- pa7x1 3y ago
  You are looking at the developer documentation. It explains the different classes and methods they expose, it's technical and the target audience is supposed to be technical. I didn't provide this example as a particularly good example of a decentralized application but as one that provides some unique financial product that is hard to find an equivalent in traditional finance. From the point of view of a user what it allows you to do is: 1. Deposit some collateral (e.g. ETH, rETH, or some USD stablecoin...) 2. Leverage that collateral up to 50%. I.e. You get debt of up to 50% of the collateral. 3. Do whatever you want to do with your leverage. 4. Meanwhile the collateral is put to work producing some yield that is repaying the debt you were issued. More interestingly, you can't get liquidated. Fortunately, if you don't find it interesting you don't have to use it.
  - brabel 3y ago
    > You are looking at the developer documentation. Did you miss what I said?? > I clicked on "Learn More" under "Leverage your wealth" and was taken to a developer documentation page > It explains the different classes and methods they expose, it's technical and the target audience is supposed to be technical. I am about as technical as it gets. If this is not for me, really, this is for such a tiny minority of people who are just very interested in finance, and in particular using cryptocoins, as to be completely out of reach for anybody else. Like every other crypto app I've seen so far.

by pa7x1 3y ago

brabel 3y ago

Out of curiosity, despite knowing all too well what to expect, I had a look at just one of your links, the "Alchemix" one. What the... are we supposed to do with "self-repaying" loans, really? I clicked on "Learn More" under "Leverage your wealth" and was taken to a developer documentation page [1] with highly jargoned prose that give me even less idea of what this thing could really help me with. How the hell can I leverage my wealth, please?? Ok, just a loan, how do I get one??? Seriously here's a small excerpt from that site: "For example, if governance sets the liquidate() cap for DAI to 20 million with a 10 minute cooldown, then the maximum amount of DAI that can be liquidated from all of the strategies used by the alUSD Alchemist over the span of 10 minutes is 20 million. The cooldown period is linear, so if the 20 million cap gets hit, no more DAI can be liquidated in that block, but after 5 minutes users can liquidate up to 10 million DAI." What the actual... ?? If this is your example of a good crypto app we should be using, thanks but, no thanks. [1] https://alchemix-finance.gitbook.io/v2/ https://alchemix-finance.gitbook.io/v2/

pa7x1 3y ago
You are looking at the developer documentation. It explains the different classes and methods they expose, it's technical and the target audience is supposed to be technical. I didn't provide this example as a particularly good example of a decentralized application but as one that provides some unique financial product that is hard to find an equivalent in traditional finance. From the point of view of a user what it allows you to do is: 1. Deposit some collateral (e.g. ETH, rETH, or some USD stablecoin...) 2. Leverage that collateral up to 50%. I.e. You get debt of up to 50% of the collateral. 3. Do whatever you want to do with your leverage. 4. Meanwhile the collateral is put to work producing some yield that is repaying the debt you were issued. More interestingly, you can't get liquidated. Fortunately, if you don't find it interesting you don't have to use it.
- brabel 3y ago
  > You are looking at the developer documentation. Did you miss what I said?? > I clicked on "Learn More" under "Leverage your wealth" and was taken to a developer documentation page > It explains the different classes and methods they expose, it's technical and the target audience is supposed to be technical. I am about as technical as it gets. If this is not for me, really, this is for such a tiny minority of people who are just very interested in finance, and in particular using cryptocoins, as to be completely out of reach for anybody else. Like every other crypto app I've seen so far.