A wise man on Twitter once said, ‘No one is going to use your DApp just because it’s decentralised.’

Could it be true?

Well, yes.

Until people understand what decentralisation is and what it can offer their lives), it’s just a concept that sounds cool.

However, the good news for decentralised projects like Sylo, is that by accepting that uncomfortable fact, one therein finds the answer…

Does that sound too philosophical?

Read Centrality CEO Aaron McDonald’s response to the disruptive tweet that sparked this article, and you’ll see what I mean…

Be better…

Solve more problems…

Provide better incentives…

Turn apathy into excitement…

I think I can speak for all of #TeamSylo when I say, “Challenge accepted!”

So let’s kick it off. How then, do we go about making our DApp better than the centralised options on offer?

According to Sylo’s head of design, James Carolan, it’s by setting the bar high when it comes to user experience (UX).

“Our bar [for creation] is any of the big, popular, centralised apps currently on offer — so we can’t bring out anything less than what WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, for example, has on the market,” says James.

“That’s the kind of ethos we have here. We always say, ‘Well would you use it?”

So how then to elevate the user experience to surpass ‘the big boys’?

“Sylo is ‘User first, user first, user first!!’,” says James.

“We design and develop according to our users’ wants and needs, we don’t add any bloat features as other traditional apps might do.”

James ‘Jimmy’ Carolan, Head of design at Sylo.

(Or in total layman terms — less is simply more.)

“A Sylo user is able to immerse themselves in our limitless decentralised ecosystem and engage with other DApps seamlessly, without the need to create another account or log in,” James says.

Well that sounds all well and good, but it’s the potential usability of the Sylo DApp to solve real world problems that will make all the difference, right?

But how exactly?

“Picture this,” says James. “A Sylo user decides that they want to meet up with some friends for a meal, so they use Sylo to call and message their friends, then they use Sylo to book a table at a restaurant, then to arrange a cab to get them there, and finally then to pay for it all. What other app lets you do that?”

The man has a point. In fact, we announced our partnership just yesterday with payment innovators CentraPay to bring the exact ‘walk away to pay’ experience he describes above to our users in 2019, starting with Australasia.

It’s kind of a big deal.

Sylo’s business director Dorian Johannink sees this everyday usability of the Sylo DApp as the key to mainstream adoption.

“In order for DApps to gain buy-in from mainstream users, they need to provide REAL value to users day-to-day lives; they can’t just be a means of interacting with digital assets,” says Dorian.

“Things like messaging, bookings, payments, transport; things that improve their everyday,” he continues. “People won’t start considering moving from the centralised services of the world until this happens, and that’s what we’re working on. Not alone, but in collaboration, with close to a dozen world-class projects already.”

But how does the Sylo DApp provide economic incentives to the community?

First of all, through the very nature of decentralisation itself, says Sylo product director Ben Jordan.

“In a decentralised setting, gone are the middlemen, meaning there is more value to share around. This will be realised by consumers in the form of cheaper services, bigger rewards and more meaningful loyalty schemes.”

Sylo co-founders; business director Dorian Johannink (left) and product director Ben Jordan (right).

“Decentralisation is really about the more efficient provision of goods and services, both digital and tangible.”

That’s enough to excite the humanitarian in me. But how about for everyone else? Turning apathy into excitement is critical for the mass adoption of decentralised technologies.

“The promises of decentralisation need to become real before people will adopt decentralised products,” says Ben. “It’s no good talking about it or showing detailed slides. Products that actually work need to be built.”

To be continued…

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