‘Pepo’ is the first Apple Pay approved DApp

The blockchain-based social media platform was launched recently at the San Francisco Blockchain Week

For those of you who don’t know, DApp is an abbreviation for decentralized application where the front-end interface is pretty similar to any other smartphone apps that you use but the backend code runs on a decentralized peer-to-peer network. Even the front-end for DApps can be used on decentralized storage like IPFS. Ethereum is the most popular & widely used DApp platform which employs smart contracts for its functioning.

There are tons of DApps in existence so why is the launch of this particular one a big deal? For one, it is the first crypto powered app approved by the Apple App Store. App developers would know what I am talking about — getting approved by Apple is a major validation since the company boasts of high standards around app performance, privacy & user experience. Previously, the DApp debuted at DevCon 5 in Osaka, with over 1,000 users signing up and performing over 30,000 transactions.

Meet Pepo — an Ethereum based decentralized social network that brings the crypto community together. The platform is built around the premise that good content should be rewarded. Secondly, Pepo provides an alternative to traditional social media platforms which are scarred by privacy concerns & centralized control. It provides a platform for the crypto community which truly reflects their values of privacy & decentralization.

Some of the additional features are outlined below:

Pepo is powered by OST technology — which processes micro-transactions seamlessly, at a fraction of the cost to traditional methods with a 6-digit PIN for easy account recovery.

The app offers a super-fast & seamless user experience where OST lets the app create its own ERC-20 based Pepo tokens which can be utilized for transactions within the app.

It offers a non-custodial platform where users are in control of their own funds. The seamless experience is a result of the app functioning on a layer-two scaling solution atop the Ethereum blockchain, thus avoiding the scalability issues of the main blockchain.

The decentralized architecture offers content creators to publish short 30-second videos allowing other users to see a simple menu & a button to support the video’s creator with the native tokens. No complicated private keys or browser extensions.

Blockchain technology-enabled app allows for two things — quality content gets rewarded and fake accounts are identified and filtered out.

Tokens received as rewards can be used for in-app purchases through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. The rewards can also be exchanged for gift cards or vouchers to be used in real-world stores.

Pepo is aiming to truly go mainstream and the response so far has been very encouraging. It intends to extend its reach beyond social connections to more professional networking like the one offered by LinkedIn. A snapshot of this could be seen with the blockchain developers introducing themselves in short uploaded videos and talking about the projects they’re interested in.

In related news, A Yale professor and a Goldman Sachs veteran are teaming up to come up with a new blockchain-powered rival for Facebook. This is also something that I would be on the lookout for.

Either way… the paradigm shift is happening.