29.03.2024

Tron DApps Arrive on the Samsung App Store

Tron and its tokens were already supported by Samsung’s Blockchain Keystore, which stores private keys in a secure memory compartment. The integration was announced alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH).

The Tron (TRX) project announced on April 27 that apps built on its blockchain will be featured in the Samsung Galaxy Store.

Owners of Samsung smartphones in specific countries will see Tron decentralized apps, or DApps, in an alternative app store.

As indicated by Tron, the Samsung store will feature “applications like Blockchain Cuties, Super Player, Meerkat Mining and Timeloop.”

It is worth noting that Blockchain Cuties is a multi-platform game that reports having more users on Ethereum, though it sees more transactions on Tron. Super Player appears to be an Ethereum-only project for now, according to Dappradar.com.

The remaining two apps aren’t present on any DApp aggregation platform. Even if this is not an exhaustive list, it is unclear what criteria will be followed when including DApps.

The Samsung Galaxy Store itself is an alternative app store for Samsung devices. Alongside general Android apps found on Google Play Store, it features many custom-tailored apps for the Korean company’s devices.

These DApps will be available on Samsung devices in the United States, Canada, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, Singapore and “some countries in Europe.” It appears that the availability is not universal in those markets, with Tron disclaiming that availability “varies by carrier, market and device.”

The Tron DApp ecosystem

As reported by Cointelegraph in January, Tron was dominated by gambling DApps throughout 2019. A look at Dappradar’s ranking page for Tron shows that gambling apps still account for a majority of the ecosystem in terms of user count.

In terms of volume, however, the Just DApp has shot up the charts with over $3.5 million in transacted value. This appears to be a rebrand of Djed, a clone of MakerDAO that launched in March. The volume is coming from just under 300 weekly users, suggesting that large TRX stakeholders are participating.

Recent criticism

Tron is a controversial project and its actions continue to polarize the community. Its latest scandal involves the purchase of Steemit Inc., the company behind the Steem project. As the community rebelled against the takeover, allegations of centralization continue.

According to a former Steem validator, Justin Sun is bribing the community into placing favorable validators in the Steem delegated proof-of-stake system.

Spike in Nxt and Ardor Nodes After New Incentives Rolled Out

The Nxt (NXT) and Ardor (ARDR) blockchains have seen a spike in the number of network’s nodes after rolling out an incentives program.

Jerulidia – the company behind both blockchains – told Cointelegraph on April 28 that both networks experienced a dramatic increase in the number of nodes after the firm launched a node rewards program on April Fool’s Day.

The node rewards program compensates node hosters with Ignis (IGNIS) tokens. Jerulidia intends to distribute 10,000 tokens (about $212) daily among node hosters every day for the next six months.

Incentivization worked “beyond expectations”

According to the data provided, the Ardor blockchain’s node count increased by almost 200% from 241 to 708, while Nxt’s blockchain increased by 315% from 159 to 659. The number of archival nodes increased even more sharply: Nxt archival nodes count increased by 2311% from 17 to 410 and Ardor’s by 1110% from 38 to 461.

Jerulidia co-founder and director Lior Yaffe said the results had exceeded the firm’s expectations and would have a positive impact on the network’s health and resilience:

“For a public blockchain protocol having a strong network of nodes using many different hardware brands, operating systems, cloud providers and geographies is especially important to make the network more resilient to attack, manipulation or technical failure.”

Yaffe also pointed out the firm yesterday updated Nxt to allow full-nodes to run on mobile phones. He said he was pleased with the design of the program because – while usual staking programs mostly reward large token holders – this initiative incentivizes people without large crypto holdings.

The need for blockchain nodes

Nodes are a sometimes overlooked, but crucial part, of blockchain infrastructure that are often run at the hoster’s expense. While nodes allow direct access to the blockchain and better privacy and security when used for one’s own transactions, hosting them isn’t normally compensated.

Because of this, it is important for cryptocurrency firms to make running a node as cheap as possible. When it comes to Bitcoin, as Cointelegraph reported in June 2019, all one needs to host a node is a small Raspberry Pi which costs about $35 and fits into one’s hand. In late October last year, HTC also launched a phone which is capable of running a Bitcoin full node.

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