Looking for ideas for DApps on Blockstack?

If Blockstack brings the opportunity of recovering an Open Internet of Freedom for users, ideas for DApps will better come from users’ needs and freedom, rather than from existing Apps 2.0 which are based in enslaving users through data extraction.

If Blockstack is the Blockchain ecosystem with a unique power to provide Decentralized Identities to users for the control of their data, ideas for DApps will better come from making good use of such identity, rather than from Apps based only on trading products.

If Blockstack is a blockchain ecosystem protecting privacy for users, ideas for DApps that take advantage of this fundamental right will be more powerful.

If Blockstack is here to take back fundamental rights to users with their digital IDs, ideas for DApps should focus on individual rights (rights that any identified user could enforce), rights such as property rights, freedom of opinion, right to privacy and intimacy, etc. rather than collective rights (e.g. freedom of press and freedom of association).

Therefore, when looking ideas for DApps on Blockstack, this is what I do…

1. Look for inspiration out of the web, in the physical world, considering the real needs of users in terms of communication/connection. Blockstack DApps can be the bridge between the physical and the digital world more that other DApps. You can build DApps for developers or DApps, for any end-user, also for a community of end-users with specific needs end-users...

2. Look for ideas where users have to be somehow identified (e.g. for their skills, reputation…) Any idea based on identifiable users in the physical world will be a better idea, and this cannot be developed in other systems relying on total anonymity or pseudonymity.

3. Consider how your ideas benefit from privacy. There are many human relationships based on one to one, P2P private connections.

4. Ask yourself, what individual fundamental right that has been abused, your DApp can help recover?

I hope these thoughts can provide starting points for good Blockstack Ideas. Following my process, when I have an idea I go back to users in search of feedback. For this, guilds, associations or communities of independent professionals, can become the most helpful sources of inspiration. In history, the first guilds kept a record of members with proven skills who offered reliable services to the people. Today, in our “Internet’s renaissance” DApps can provide end-users the best services from reliable providers of their choice. Uber, AirBnB, etc. started that decentralisation of services… Let’s take over!

by Mirlo*

*I am not a developer, but a Blockstack evangelist and DApp user, definitely committed to the mission of the ecosystem to bring back the Open Internet that every free citizen deserves.