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PDX AND HOW THE RISE OF DECENTRALIZED APPLICATIONS WILL ENHANCE DATA INTEGRITY

JAN 10

PDX AND HOW THE RISE OF DECENTRALIZED APPLICATIONS WILL ENHANCE DATA INTEGRITY

The PDX team is currently laying the groundwork with its development and engineering team to shortly commence the development of a proprietary crypto-to-fiat payments app that interfaces with both merchant point-of-sale terminals, physical and online, as well as a consumer's digital wallet. Clearly, the PDX app will usher in the new era of decentralized applications.

Read on to find out what decentralized applications are and how the PDX app will transform the retail sector.

PDX ICO

Since their advent a decade ago, cryptocurrencies have changed numerous aspects of the business world. Today, members of online crypto marketplaces can exchange their fiat currencies for digital coins and transfer them across the world in mere minutes, without facilitation by traditional banks. Moreover, cryptos have proven themselves to be an attractive, albeit overly unpredictable option for investors looking for an opportunity that is not complicated by third-party financial service providers.

Despite the apparent benefits of cryptocurrencies, however, the real price lies with the technology that makes it all tick: blockchain. By allowing any form of digital information to be stored, revised and exchanged without intermediaries, blockchain opens up the world to possibilities that go beyond crypto coins. One of the most exciting prospects stems from the app sector in the form of decentralized applications, commonly referred to as “dapps”.

Even more intriguing is that, by employing the distributed, immutable blockchain ledger for peer-to-peer information transfer, dapps become directly and consensually owned by their users rather than by unreachable software companies. This model brings to light several advantages, the key of which is data integrity.

Decentralized Applications Explained

A dapp is a software application that uses the blockchain to manage the state of all network actors. On the surface, the app can look like another serving the same purpose with a centralized framework, but things are entirely different underneath.

Traditional Web apps use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to render webpages. These pages interact with centralized databases that keep all the data that is to be accessed by users. When you log onto Twitter, for instance, an API called by the webpage will process your data and display the information you expect on the page.

Decentralized applications use the same technology to render pages at the frontend, but the backend, they communicate to the blockchain, which spreads data across multiple distributed nodes rather than holding it on one central server. Any access, revision or transfer of information involves the participation of all members of the network. In a decentralized version of Twitter, therefore, no single party would have the authority to delete a tweet after it has been consensually posted on the network.

Decentralized Applications for Data Integrity

Users of typical apps place their personal information in the hands of centralized servers, databanks, and standalone computers. By taking advantage of blockchain’s decentralized nature to enable peer-to-peer app communication, dapp technology enhances data integrity in several ways.

1. SECURITY

Nowadays, the hacking of company servers and the compromise of user data is everyday news. Centralized databases are attractive targets for hackers looking to steal social security numbers, credit card information, e-commerce account passwords, and other forms of valuable information. This means users are typically vulnerable to various kinds of cybercrime, from fraud to identity theft. On the other hand, companies are forced to invest heavily in data security, and those that do not do so suffer tremendously when an attack causes detrimental damage to their public reputation.

With Dapp technology, backend app data is distributed across the multiple blocks of the blockchain, eliminating central points of failure. While an ambitious attacker would probably manage to lock one user out of the app, they cannot gain access to the entire system.

2. ACCOUNTABILITY

Keying in personal data onto an app interface is like throwing it into an abyss. Users usually have no idea where it goes or who uses it and are often left with no choice but to trust a few lines of privacy policy statements. By being the sole custodian of user data, centralized companies can sell, alter and mishandle it as they see fit, and if not exposed perhaps by sloppiness or whistleblowing, such malice would stay hidden from the public eye.

Dapps keep information about all transactions on the immutable blockchain ledger, where any piece of data can be changed only by appending a new block, rather than altering an existing one. All records, from the time a transaction is initiated, remain on the blockchain indefinitely for every authorized member of the network to access, creating a sense of unparalleled accountability and transparency.

3. CENSORSHIP RESISTANT

Because a dapp lacks centralized administration, it can theoretically, facilitate functions that are entirely censorship-resistant. Users of decentralized applications can vote on how their apps evolve or change, which is in stark contrast to existing applications. So, while Facebook's updates are essentially mapped out by Mark Zuckerberg and his team, dapps are directly user-governed.

Information in dapps can never end up in the hands of controlling authorities unless the users themselves agree to make it happen. Any transfer of data in a dapp is done so without interference, even in countries where such communication is censored.

4. SELF-SUSTAINING INVESTMENTS

The most popular applications in the world today all have one thing in common" they are user-driven. Nearly all the content on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and the like is generated by users. Sure, instant information sharing is a valuable service, but you wouldn’t be wrong to wonder why the users that keep these apps operational do not benefit more from their work.

Dapp technology enables an authentic and productive model where users can receive tangible rewards for being an app's workforce. It is a self-sustaining resource that can give its stakeholders the ability to directly invest in app development. By rewarding creators for content, dapp developers can encourage their users to provide the right data.

The PDX App

The PDX app will be decentralized and thus promises to significantly transform the retail sector. The dapp will offer simplicity and ease of use for the consumer - no more difficult than paying with cash or a visa card is today. For the merchant the app offers a host of benefits:

• Transactions are instantly verified and confirmed through the blockchain. No chargebacks.
• No more waiting 3 days to be confirmed and paid.
• Elimination or at least significant reduction of fraud.
• Merchant gets instantly settled in whatever currency they choose.
• Interchange fees reduced from 3 or 4%, to no more than 1%.
• Peer-to-peer - all the middlemen are gone, except PDX’s bank, which is there for less than 30 seconds.

On the merchant's end of any transaction, the PDX payments app will be embedded into their existing POS terminals.

They won't need new hardware. The consumer will go to the store, point their phone-enabled wallet's QR code at the POS terminal, and the transaction is completed and instantly confirmed. Simple. And the merchant won't even necessarily "know" they are being paid in crypto, because our banking platform will instantly convert the crypto used in the transaction to whatever other currency the merchant prefers.

For the consumer, the PDX payments app is embedded in their wallet, and is simple and easy to use. All they have to do is point it at a POS terminal in a store, or transmit their QR code online. Voila - bill paid or purchase confirmed!

Dapps Are the Future of Software Technology

The ongoing blockchain onslaught is promising to transform numerous practices. It may still be a bold and fairly distant conjecture, but services like money transfer, asset financing, and even social media management will eventually prove redundant when the world adopts self-sustaining, trust-less and decentralized networks. In the coming years, dapps for mainstream purposes such as payments and cloud storage could very likely surpass the popular applications of today.

For app users, therefore, the software world seems to be gearing up for a more, secure, transparent equal and resourceful future. If you are in the app industry, however, now is the time to look into what decentralized technology can offer. It won’t be long before existing frameworks are rendered obsolete.


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