Trendsetters Around the Dapp World

February is a special month - it's short and sweet - only 28 days (usually) including Valentine's day; everyone is gearing up for the springtime hustling. This month, we took some time and compiled a list of top 25 trend-setters who have been encouraging the development of dapp industry and inspiring all of us. 

 

It’s a showcase of what they've built and accomplished. Also, it’s a thank you note to all the people who're around the dapp world - thank you, guys!

 

Will we update the list? Dapp-finitely! The list will be a regularly updated breakdown of the top "dappers" through the year. We do hope that more and more people will be added to the list in the near future!

 

Who are on the list? Let’s find out - Meet these 25 people advocating for dapps and the future of blockchain: 

Marguerite (aka Coin Artist) is the CEO of Blockade Games, a game studio specializes in integrating blockchain and alternate reality components into puzzles and games to create experiences that transcend the digital world, and also they’re one of the earliest projects to use Loom Network’s SDK to create a seamless blockchain gaming experience.

 

Crypto artist turned game developer, Marguerite then created Crypto Puzzle, a fine art puzzle,  Neon District, a multiplayer cyberpunk RPG, and Plasma Bears, the latest project where you can craft a bear by collecting bear part. Her company now has raised over $83K with a $13M valuation.

 

What will be the next game? We’re counting on you, Marguerite!

 

Follow Marguerite on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Ameer Rosic is a serial entrepreneur, marketing guru, investor, and co-founder of Block Geek, a blockchain innovation hub. As an early dapp adopter and advocate, he has been posting videos and writing about dapps and blockchain for many years. His confident and unique style makes his content and videos captivate a big crowd.  

We’re looking forward to reading his “Dapps and Decentralized Future” 2019 edition, meanwhile, here’s a video he explains What is an Ethereum dapp and some useful sources of dapps you may want to check it out.

 

Follow Ameer on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Some people just enjoy keeping building things. You may see Todd’s name under multiple projects, from traditional tech to blockchain to crypto collectibles. CryptoGoods is one of them. It’s a site that helps you do more with your crypto collectibles. You can either use its Swag just like you use Amazon for digital goods, it can turn your crypto good into a physical one and seamlessly integrates into your dapp just in minutes. Or, you can be creative with your collectible and showcase your “artwork” to NIFTGallery and make your artist dream come true.

 

Without a doubt, we will be seeing more new projects crafted by Todd.

Follow Todd on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Jess co-foundered Codex Protocol, an industry-backed decentralized title registry for art and collectibles. Codex stores ownership + provenance while ensuring privacy. As also the co-founder at shEOS, the first female-founded EOS blockchain block producer and the founder and trustee at Foundation for Art and Blockchain, a blockchain producer connecting women and girls with technology scholarships and mentors, Jesse might be the busiest person in the decentralized world.

 

With a lot of different businesses on the go, plus just made it to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List, we believe 2019 will be the year of Jess! Keep creating and designing the future, please!

 

Follow Jess on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

“Product and data geek at Adobe by day. Coder and producer by night.” This is the self-introduction from Jackson’s website. You may not hear of Jackson’s name, but we’re sure you have heard of Dogecoin and Jackson is the creator of that “infamous” meme cryptocurrency.

 

Other than those hustles, he also has a regular YouTube show that educates newcomers to cryptocurrency by breaking down and exploring complex topics in easy-to-understand videos (Is that something we’re working on it too - demystify the dapps?!) and we do respect his work. In one of his videos, he raised a question - “What are 'Dapps' and why is nobody using them?“ and explained it well for what’s stopping the adoption of dapps.

 

Follow Jackson on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Sherman is the co-founder of Raven Protocol, a decentralized deep-learning training platform. He's also a Partner at Zeroth.ai, a Hong Kong-based VC fund that's focused on investing in promising AI and blockchain startups.

 

Sherman is a prolific writer and writes about deep tech, crypto, and artificial intelligence. You may find his articles on Forbes and Huffington Post.  

 

“As the technology pushes the globe towards new economic models, we will only demand more from smart contracts, dapps, and the verification solutions that uphold their integrity,” says Sherman.

 

Follow Sherman on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Evgeny is the CEO and co-founder at Fluence Labs, a company aims to develop a decentralized network capable of carrying out real-time high-volume data processing for the emerging Web3.

 

Early 2019, a DApp Survey Results 2019 was published by Evgeny and his team. It provided the insight of the current state of dapp and dapp development as well as an outlook of dapp ecosystem and adoption in 2019.
 

Follow Evgeny on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Spencer is an investor at DTC Capital. Many VCs share their views on startups, people, and business and one of them we’re currently keeping eye on is Spencer Noon - he talks about dapps - his remark “Good dapps aren’t distinguishable from apps”, we just can’t agree more. If you are looking for startup insights and of course, crypto stuff, you can follow him on Twitter, then you will find the gems like this:

 

"Even if investing in dapps isn't your thing -- highly recommend speaking to teams building them. You'll gain some incredible insight into what goes into building something user-facing in crypto.

Topics to drill in on:

+ user flow

+ gameability

+ governance

+ dissolution plan"

 

Thanks for sharing all these, Spencer!

 

Follow Spencer on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Brian writes about NFTs, to be precise, he has been writing about NFTs and dapps since early 2018. His NFTY.News is packed with non-fungible juiciness. He is also one of the contributors on Dapp.com :)

 

“If intergalactic blockchain would cease to exist, I can’t use my spaceship in CryptoKitties. There’s no use for it.” - Brian, circa early 2018. And now interoperability is truly happening with two amazing teams, CryptoKitties and Gods Unchained, and we’re sure that there's more to come!

 

Follow Brian on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Adel is the co-founder of DAPS Coin and The Crypto Collectors. At DAPS Coin, she is building the world’s first fully private trustless blockchain and  The Crypto Collectors is a blockchain technology, crypto collectibles, and gaming publication. She is an award-winning marketer, top public relations specialist, and a blockchain evangelist influencing the world of privacy coins and dapps. Her experience is complemented by a portfolio including brands such as Adobe, Enjin, Huawei, Pitney Bowes, and Hootsuite. Adel also hosts #BlockchainChat on Twitter which interviews leading influencers and businesses involved in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Besides TCC, you can find her articles on The Next Web and Hackernoon. 

 

Also, Adel is the one who’s always sending you positive energies - Can we call her female GaryVee?

 

Follow Adel on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Qiao is the engineer and product at Messari, a platform promotes transparency in crypto by providing live price data, fundamentals, news, research and helps investors make better decisions. Qiao is a believer in decentralized technologies such as cryptocurrencies that shift the balance of power from the elite to the commoner. He has been involved with the crypto community since 2012.

 

He writes about in-depth crypto related topics and 100% worth reading.

 

Follow Qiao on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Michael is a writer and content consultant for blockchain startups. His works cover topics from the China market to high-tech, from AI to blockchain and dapps.  

 

“The age of dApps and digital assets is just beginning.” - Michael.

 

Follow Michael on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Tony leads product at Decentraland, a virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. He is also a writer and investor in emerging technologies.

 

He writes about crypto and games and his website is an ongoing essay about crypto and game. 

 

Follow Tony on Twitter and LinkedIn.

As a crypto veteran of years, Steven is the founding partner at Amentum Capital, a hybrid cryptocurrency investment firm focused on the diversity, interoperability, security, and sustainability of blockchain-based digital assets. He hosts and edits BlockChannel, a podcast and educational publication focused on Bitcoin and Ethereum with 100k+ monthly listeners.

 

Steven also advises Cent, a blogging platform enables anyone to earn money by sharing their wisdom and creativity. It uses Ethereum’s layer two solution to scale the dapp’ user experience as well as serve a large number of users on the blockchain.

 

Follow Steven on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Olive is a Russian-American technology entrepreneur and visual artist. She is the founder and CEO of Decadent, a rapidly growing startup that is building an entertaining social dapp for peer-to-peer display, buy and sell digital collectible sand in-game items.

 

“Virtual objects can be as valuable as tangible ones.“ - OA

 

Follow Olive on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Mike is the head of The Block, a community, tribe, and platform for blockchain enthusiasts. It’s probably most people’s go-to site for knowledge and resources because they “simplified the crypto”, and of course, those regularly breaking stories.

 

Mike and his researchers have put together several articles about dapps on The Block and we highly recommend them to you.  
 

Follow Mike on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Peter is the research analyst at CoinDesk. He tweets about the dapp market stats and also writes about industry insights. While everyone is still debating over whether the crypto winter is over or not, Peter and his team are quietly working on a data site called CoinDesk Crypto-Economics Explorer. Even though it’s still in beta, the site looks pretty compiling already!
 

Follow Peter on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

If you have a dapp game and think about expanding your market to Asia, Japan might be your one of the first stops, because they’re still setting the trend in the gaming industry, no matter blockchain game or traditional game. If you are digging the Japanese gaming market, Hikaru might be your ideal go-to person, because he is THE Japanese blockchain game influencer.

 

Alright, say no more, go contact him at Twitter or his website now.

 

Follow Hikaru on Twitter.

Kevin is a cryptocurrency market researcher. He continually shares dapp stats and updates of developments status in the crypto market. Just like our dapp market observer, he often includes the numbers of dapps, users, and transaction volumes in his shared stats.

Follow Kevin on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Omar, also known as Crypt0, is a prolific commentator for all things blockchain. He covers the latest cryptocurrency news, sentiments, and opinions on his YouTube channel every day, and he talks about dapps frequently.  

 

Will you “stay cryptic” with us and Omar?

 

Follow Omar on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Stefano is the Executive Director of Aragon, a community with the mission to empower freedom by creating tools for decentralized organizations to thrive. Currently, he is “routing capital and attention towards important things,” such as dapps.

 

“It’s interesting to think about the impact this no/low friction environment, in which dapps share ‘user base liquidity’ with the underlying platform, can have on dapps adoption curves: we would not be surprised if a killer Dapp reached 100 million users faster than any centralized app has ever done.” Stefano states in one of the posts - “Is it Dapps times yet?”  
 

Follow Stefano on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Matt is the founder of Sloloblock Solutions, a company that helps to build commerce with cryptography, game theory and digital assets that scale. He believes the revolution will not be centralized.

 

Last year, Matt Lockyer along with two other fellows Nick Mudgeand Jordan Schalm released the ERC-998 Composable Non-Fungible Token Standard draft. The ERC-998 enables ERC-721 tokens to own other ERC-721 and ERC-20 tokens, and also allow dapps to create new pathways to have more interoperability experiences among dapps.

Follow Matt on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Cole is the founder of On-The-Chain, a weekly newsletter that takes a focused look at the most interesting things happening on-chain. Weekly news, insights, and exclusive Q&A with industry thought leaders, you can find them all at On-The-Chain. Don't forget to subscribe and keep up with on-chain stuff! 

Follow Cole on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

therealwolf (Such a cool name, right? We do call him therealwolf. Spoiler alert: If you’re curious about his real name, stay tuned for our upcoming AMA with therealwolf and you can ask him about that.) is a developer and Steempreneur at Steem Apps, a site that provides an overview of all the Steem dapps with data of ranking, user and usage.

 

He is a 100% diehard Steemian and he believes Steem is the blockchain of opportunities. Go check out his Steemit and feel his passion!
 

Follow Mr. wolf on Twitter. 

Ben is the Editor-in-Chief at BREAKERMAG, an online magazine that covers blockchain’s innovators, from groundbreakers to lawbreakers. BREAKERMAG is one of the news outlets that we love.

 

Before BREAKERMAG, Ben was an NYC-based staff writer for Fast Company. He wrote “2018 Is Going To Be A Massive Year For Blockchains” at the end of 2017, so Ben, where are we now and what do you think of 2019 and beyond?

 

Follow Ben on Twitter and LinkedIn.