By
Darya Rudz
October 20th, 2023
The new platform is expected to revolutionize the current software and applications market, offering benefits to both consumers and developers.
Spheris is a blockchain development startup working on a new platform that will allow software developers to distribute their apps without the need to deal with third parties like app stores and other intermediaries. Known as a Decentralized Application Marketplace (DAM), the system is an Ethereum-powered alternative to existing software marketplaces.
Ecommerce and Global Economy
Over the last years, internet has played a major role in globalization, breaking down borders and connecting people all around the world. It is in this area of connecting both ends of merchandising that ecommerce has grown into one of the largest industries in the global economy.
Ecommerce has changed the way businesses operate, affecting product availability, transportation patterns, pricing, and consumer behavior. It allows new technologies and business models to eliminate barriers that used to separate one industry from another. This, in turn, drives competition and innovation, thus facilitating economic growth.
A Lopsided Market
Although the blockchain technology has brought certain improvements to the global economic development, it also revealed some major problems within the current ecommerce ecosystem.
Regarding the software market, existing ecommerce platforms, such as Apple AppStore, Google Play, Steam, GOG, and Amazon AppStore, are known for the high fees they charge developers for hosting their apps. In addition to the registration fees, developers have to pay a minimum of 30% per transaction, what is too high if compared to completely free service Spheris is offering.
Those who decide to distribute their software on their own, have to pay fees charges by payment processing companies like PayPal. Additional expenses include hosting, web development, marketing and SEO. In both cases, developers must form a legal entity to be able to operate and receive payments. This is an additional resource-consuming process, which discourage people from starting commercial software development.
A Significantly Growing Market
Software applications are essential vehicles of applied technology. This theory becomes more important as we are moving towards the era of Augmented Reality (AR) and Internet of Things (IoT). The global software market will likely keep rising in value, given the growing adoption of hardware and software. Besides, developers pool will continue to expand, increasing overall competition in the market. This requires a more rewarding ecosystem for the main players within the industry.
Today’s situation is about to change with a new solution from Spheris. With no registration and transaction fees, the new tool will allow developers to return 100% of their revenues.
The platform will eliminate the need for third party entities by:
- Providing a decentralized marketplace where no single entity holds the power, and a transparent platform that discourages fraudulent trades. Also, there are no restrictions on who can participate.
- Being an open source platform where the blockchain acts as a ledger, keeping records publicly for anyone to verify, trust between two parties becomes irrelevant, since the system is designed to work by verification without you relying on the other party.
- Blockchain platform allows users to determine and control their level of anonymity, allowing them to decide if they want to be seen or not.
This Decentralized Application Marketplace is comprised of five components that form the whole of Spheris platform. They include:
- Catalog:This is a database of registered developers and applications which enables easy navigation and search through the platform for specific services and products.
- Browser:The DAM interface permits entry and interactions on the platform.
- Manager:This is an enhanced crypto wallet for managing subscriptions and payments via a P2P payment system.
- Signal:An anti-piracy subscription validator component.
- Storage:A storage integration framework for fast and easy remote content distribution.
The Spheris’ “Free-Trade” Zone
These functionalities are created to enable a more or less free-trade ecosystem that would open-up the software market and eliminate the bias associated with the centralized platforms. Such platforms, for instance, can restrict apps that they perceive as competitors or the ones they consider controversial. The Spheris platform creates an opportunity for healthy competition among software developers and enables the participation of players that don’t meet the criteria established by the current centralized platforms.
The Spheris platform is based on the Ethereum blockchain due to the robustness and flexibility that it offers, which enables the achievement of the company goals. Ethereum offers blockchain storage protocols such as Swarm9 or IPFS10 provide decentralized storage solutions, giving developers and consumers another optional layer of decentralization.
The Spheris team is now in the process of raising finances through the ICO that began on September 19, 2017. Unlike many other blockchain projects, the startup already has a pre-alpha software, which they plan to continue to developing into a finished platform.