Even the best platform will always be at risk of users taking advantage of it.
There are, during the design phase, a number of precautions and assumptions one can make about the way people interact with and use an application. These help us to create a more solid platform, which users can rely on for its security and ability to deliver content that’s pertinent to their needs.
And, really, isn’t that the least you can ask for from your application?
Join us, today, as we take a closer look at AppCoins’ design philosophy, anti-fraud measures, and how we plan on creating a better app experience for you, the user.
The Solution, In A Nutshell
As with any industry, AppCoins deals with a fairly large user base, with some very specific concerns.
Which isn’t to say there aren’t fringe problems and issues that crop up from time to time.
Still, we can safely make a few assumptions, and drive the platform according to those.
Assumptions
AppCoins is an open and distributed protocol for App Stores, using blockchain tech and smart contracts.
Which means, among other things, that it services a lot of different people, with a lot of different needs.
Some assumptions we’ve been able to make regarding this, in order to push development on our app, include:
- Crowdsourcing: When it comes to development, the needs of the many outweigh the intelligence of the few.
- Incentives: Give people enough to look forward to, and they will contribute to the product you’re developing.
- New: New developers are harder to predict, and will need time to get their product in line with their end goals.
- Trusted: Trusted Apps are better apps, always. If a developer is trusted, their apps are labeled as such, and users are more likely to use them.
- Disputes: When disputing an issue, the majority wins. Similar to our conclusion on crowdsourcing, we have to side with what the most people want, as a way of developing our community.
- Reputation: It’s possible to track and measure the trustworthiness of a developer by their registered transactions in the blockchain ledger.
- Unknown Developers Can Become Popular: In cases where more than 5% of app downloads come from unknown developers, users will begin to have trust in those same developers.
- Zero-day: Community disputes may last up to 30 days. During this time, app stores have the option to hide their app, in case of zero-day attacks.
Client Side Support
The next element in our design is client side support.
Our architecture aims to provide proof-of-attention (PoA) reports based on user-app data, and force the data to be reported to the app store through use of the Binder framework. This takes into account such factors as whether the app is in the foreground, whether the screen is turned on and the device unlocked, and whether the app store’s servers have verified the app’s signature.
BlockChain tech aside, the user environment should support the AppCoins protocol as well, to monitor if the advertised app is really being used. With this mindset, we hope to circumvent the issue of reliability and usability.
The Question Of Fraud
There’s one in every bunch. Fraudsters. Users who try to fake out the system in order to gain more tokens.
And the sad fact of the matter is, they are so pervasive, and have been around for so long by this stage, there’s really no avoiding at least some degree of fraud, no matter the platform.
Still, there are some decisive steps you can take to avoid complications from fraud, and we’ve gone out of our way to take them:
- Thresholds: One way to prevent fraud is to rate users on a trust scale, derived from download information garnered from the app store itself. Simply put, users conduct more transactions on the blockchain, the app store’s lower limit threshold is raised, accordingly. The higher it becomes, the better for their trust score, and the better a downloader they are.
- Cash Out: It’s already been established that users won’t be permitted to cash out their tokens. AppCoin tokens have to be used for in-app purchases. There is a small chance some might try to register as developers and buy tokens on their own apps. In cases like these, though, up to 15% of the transaction’s volume is actually lost to the app store and OEM margin, making this kind of shenanigan much easier to detect.
- User Fingerprints: Smartphone technology has advanced to the place where we now have fingerprint technology as a standard in most phone models. Individual prints help to validate user addresses and ensure no double attribution. With fingerprint information stored on the blockchain, app stores will be able to access cross-store data, and avoid fraudsters.
- Targeting: Stores send out ads to specific users for their product, based on intelligent matching. This actually stops users who haven’t been targeted from installing apps, limiting their opportunities to “game” the system.