Building at the frontier of mobile and web3 is exciting, but challenging. In these posts, our team of experts share advice, insights, and best practices to help you unlock the power of web3 for your iOS and Android app users.

Advice, insights, and best practices to help iOS and Android developers integrate NFT and web3 features in their apps.

Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, or BSC: Ranking the top blockchains for web3 mobile developers (January 2023 version)

We outline 5 criteria for iOS & Android developers to choose which blockchain to use, and find that Ethereum & Polygon are the best choices for mobile developers.

ERC-721, ERC-1155 or ERC-3525: Which is the best NFT standard for web3 mobile developers?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a game-changer for iOS and Android app development. [They can upend the economic model of mobile apps, unlock new ownership and investment opportunities for users and content creators, and create new revenue streams for app developers](https://dreamerly.com/blog/7-reasons-why-mobile-developers-should-add-nfts). In the current tech downturn, [when it is critical for all mobile development teams to improve cash flow and extend runways](https://dreamerly.com/blog/what-does-bear-market-mean-for-web3-mobile-developers), NFTs offer a powerful product-market fit and monetization potential. On top of that, Apple recently updated its App Store guideline to allow NFT features, opening the floodgate for a wave for web3-powered apps.

So, **the NFT moment has arrived on iOS and Android**. And it is up to you to make the best of it.

At the same time, the NFT space is rapidly changing, and there are not one, but multiple, NFT-related token standards that you should be aware of. **Picking the right standard can easily be one of the most consequential early decisions you may take as a web3 mobile developer**, because it directly affects the features you offer to customers, as well as the speed and ease of your iterations. 

In this post, **we break down the pros and cons of the three most important NFT-related token standards as of 2022: ERC-721, ERC-1155, and ERC-3525**. Through this analysis, we aim to help you understand the rationale and technical basis behind each token standard and form a clear idea on which standard best fits your iOS and Android apps. We find that **ERC-721 and ERC-1155 should be the top choices for web3 mobile developers, though ERC-3525 is worth keeping an eye on**.

## Token standards: A basis for crypto composability

The core framework to understand ERC-721, ERC-1155, and ERC-3525 is token standards. They are **specifications that guide the design, implementation, behavior, and operation of crypto tokens** on a given blockchain. To become “standards”, these specifications and guidelines need to gain wide adoption from the developer and user community of a network.

Different blockchains can have their own sets of token standards. In most cases, however, mobile developers can think of token standards in the context of the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem. This is because Ethereum has the most mature development frameworks among all networks. Ethereum also plays a leading role in driving smart contract improvements. Developers tend to propose new token standards on Ethereum first, and these standards would later be propagated to other chains.

On Ethereum, token standards are called [ERC (Ethereum Request for Comments)](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/standards/tokens/). For example, the original NFT token standard, [ERC-721](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/standards/tokens/erc-721/), specifies a coding interface with required methods and events (e.g. transfer, balance query, and approval). All ERC standards start out as proposals ([Ethereum Improvement Proposals](https://ethereum.org/en/eips/)) and go through a rigorous process of discussion, review, and adoption. 

The core benefits of token standards are **composability** and **interoperability**. Standardizing the functionality of tokens allows developers to build applications on top of them, knowing that contracts can interact with each other on a common interface. For example, a decentralized exchange can build features that work with [the ERC-20 standard](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/standards/tokens/erc-20/) and be assured that it can transfer and check balances for all cryptocurrency tokens on Ethereum. 

Moreover, these standards help save engineering efforts. An iOS developer won’t have to reinvent the wheel every time they want to create a new NFT collection, but can rely on the existing guidelines and best practices found in the NFT token standard. Given that token standards were carefully vetted, engineers can also be relatively confident in their security, speed, and scalability.

Finally, because token standards are interfaces only, they still allow for creativity and diversity in their exact implementations. iOS and Android developers can thus add features to any standards to fit their products, as long as the new features comply with the original requirements. 

To sum up, token standards underscore the power of composability on the blockchain. They are powerful accelerators for technical progress, while adhere to the decentralization vision of crypto.

With this perspective, we can now evaluate the three major NFT standards: ERC-721, ERC-1155, and ERC-3525.

## ERC-721: Wide adoption and battle-tested implementations, but high transaction costs

**[ERC-721](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/standards/tokens/erc-721/) is the foundational NFT standard.** First proposed by Dapper Labs (the company behind CryptoKitties) in 2018, ERC-721 defines the interface for NFTs as unique, non-interchangeable tokens. Each NFT cannot be replicated, and any observer can query its entire history of transactions and owners.

By 2021, NFTs have taken the world by storm, with a wide variety of applications across gaming, arts, identities, etc. Famous ERC-721 projects include some of the biggest successes in the NFT space, such as [Axie Infinity](https://axieinfinity.com/), [Bored Ape Yacht Club](https://boredapeyachtclub.com/), and [Crypto Punks](https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks).

For iOS and Android developers looking to integrate NFTs into their apps, the ERC-721 standard provides clear benefits in **1) wide adoption**; **2) existing technological frameworks**; and **3) clear adherence to the app stores’ guidelines**.

- **Wide adoption and support:** As the most established standard for NFTs, ERC-721 enjoys incredible adoption from both users and developers. This means that iOS and Android developers building NFTs using the ERC-721 standard would face little to no difficulty integrating them to any NFT marketplace, NFT dapp, or blockchain ecosystem. ERC-721, therefore, has a huge network effect, which makes it very attractive to web3 mobile developers.
- **Existing technological frameworks:** A consequence of ERC-721’s popularity is the development support and developer communities surrounding it. With the possible exception of ERC-20 (fungible token standard), ERC-721 has better technological infrastructure than any other token standard. There are robust NFT marketplaces, such as OpenSea, which handle hundreds of thousands of transactions each month. Additionally, any mobile developer today can use the OpenSea API or the Dreamerly SDKs to build ERC-721 features directly in their apps.
- **Clear adherence to the app stores’ guidelines:** In late October 2022, Apple updated its App Store Review Guideline and allowed NFT features such as listing, minting, and in-app purchase. While we believe that this policy should apply to ERC-1155 as well, as of December 2022, the ERC-721 remains the safest bet to comply with the App Store’s rules.

On the other hand, ERC-721 has two disadvantages: **high gas fees** and **limited flexibility**.

- **High gas fees:** ERC-721 has two design choices that result in higher gas fees than ERC-1155 and ERC-3525. One, ERC-721 only supports storing metadata directly on the smart contract for each token ID, which leads to higher deployment costs. Two, ERC-721 lacks the batch transfer feature, increasing the average transaction cost.
- **Limited flexibility:** ERC-721 is a very well-designed standard for unique tokens, but it lacks some of the flexibility of later standards. For example, the forced uniqueness of ERC-721 tokens may make it more difficult to use as in-game items, many of which tend to have copies (e.g. ten swords of the same type and attributes).

{% image src="https://dreamerly-prod-site-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/20221213-erc721-erc1155-erc3525-which-is-best-nft-standard-for-web3-mobile-developers-1.webp" alt="Three dices forming the word NFT" %} 
NFT: the building block for a new generation of mobile apps.
{% /image %}

## ERC-1155: Improved flexibility and efficiency, but weaker/younger infrastructure than ERC-721

[ERC-1155](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/standards/tokens/erc-1155/), also known as the Multi-Token Standard, aims to manage multiple token types (e.g. fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens, and other types of tokens) within a single contract. **Using ERC-1155, iOS and Android developers can benefit from its flexibility and efficiency and open up even more use cases and applications than ERC-721.**

Before the ERC-1155 standard, token standards such as ERC-20 (fungible tokens) require that separate contracts be deployed for each token. For ERC-721, each collection of NFTs also needs a separate contract. In contrast, an ERC-1155 contract can control multiple ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens at the same time. 

Additionally, ERC-1155 adds optimization to ERC-721 with the following features:

- Batch transfer, batch balance, and batch approval: The most important feature among these is the batch transfer, as ERC-1155 allows users to transfer multiple NFTs at once. Note that this feature drastically reduces NFT transaction fees, but is not present in ERC-721.
- NFT support: When the supply is just one, an ERC-1155 token functions as an NFT.
- Additional security with safe transfer rules.

**We believe that the ERC-1155 offers powerful flexibility and efficiency for iOS and Android developers.**

- **Flexibility:** As we have seen, ERC-1155 is incredibly flexible in its support of multiple types of tokens, resulting in a wide range of possible use cases. For example, an iOS game developer can use the ERC-1155 standard to create a set of 10,000 swords with the same property, or build in-game currencies. Beyond gaming, ERC-1155 can also enable semi-fungible tokens, or SFTs. These are tokens that start as fungible tokens, but later convert to NFTs once redeemed. For example, a movie ticket can be an SFT, as it is exchangeable with another ticket before screening, but turns into a unique collectible afterwards. In our view, these only scratch the surface of the power of ERC-1155, and developers should expect to see even more ERC-1155 applications in the coming years.
- **Efficiency:** A common developer’s complaint about ERC-721 is the high transaction fees involved in each transaction. The batch transfer feature of ERC-1155 goes a long way in addressing this problem. Interestingly, ERC-1155 also provides a receiver hook feature, which prevents tokens from being stuck in a receiving smart contract.

However, developers building on ERC-1155 should be aware of the **relatively weak infrastructure around the standard at the moment**. While major marketplaces such as OpenSea and Rarible have accepted ERC-1155, many APIs and SDKs still lack built-in ERC-1155 support. The standard’s flexibility may work against it here, as we expect that it would take some time for best practices to form around all ERC-1155 applications.

For these reasons, we recommend that mobile development teams **use ERC-1155 for specialized or advanced features in their apps** and **factor in engineering and development overhead when doing so**. For basic NFT functionalities, **ERC-721 remains a safe choice to start with, especially in the development stage**. After reaching product-market fit, teams can consider switching to ERC-1155 for cost-effectiveness.

## ERC-3525: Innovative financial use cases, but too niche at the moment

The [ERC-3525 standard](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-3525) is the youngest of the three, but it offers very innovative financial applications. 

Proposed in 2020, ERC-3525 allows developers to create a group of similar, but not identical, tokens. All tokens in the group have the same values for their core attributes (represented in the “slot” property), but can have different values for non-core attributes. In addition, an ERC-3525 contains the “value” property, which is equivalent to the “balance” property of an ERC-20 token. This ensures that the value of two tokens with the same slot can be treated as fungible. If no token shares the same slot, then the token acts as an NFT. As ERC-3525’s authors put it, the standard “has the quantitative features of ERC-20 and qualitative attributes of ERC-721”. 

**The motivation behind ERC-3525 is to enable a wide range of capital assets**, including bonds, insurance policies, vesting plans, futures and options agreements, asset-backed-securities, etc. Indeed, the use of both the “slot” and “balance” property allows for financial functionalities that are simply missing in ERC-20 and ERC-721. For example, if we represent a stock plan as an ERC-721 contract, it would be impossible to transfer a portion of the equity in the contract. This operation, however, would be trivial in ERC-3525.

**What should iOS and Android mobile developers think about ERC-3525?** In our view:

- **ERC-3525 is worth taking a look if you are developing banking or finance apps, but expect push backs from the App Store and Play Store.** It is undeniable that ERC-3525 offers very valuable and creative applications in finance and investing. Still, we believe that this standard would appear too risky and speculative to Apple and Google. Unless you are a licensed financial institution, it seems unlikely to us that this standard would be allowed on the app stores in the near future. As of this writing, OpenSea has not added support for ERC-3525.
- **If you are developing non-finance apps, ERC-721 and ERC-1155 are good enough.** While there are potential applications for ERC-3525 in gaming and other non-financial verticals, the standard is still too niche at the moment, with practically no infrastructure support yet. Even Yan Meng, one of ERC-3525’s authors, suggested that ERC-1155 was simpler and had an easier adoption curve for web3 developers ([source](https://twitter.com/myanTokenGeek/status/1568802306325639169)). In our estimation, the cost of overcoming technical hurdles likely outweighs the gains from adopting ERC-3525. But, this calculation can change in a few years, if more developers start to adopt the standard.

## ERC-721 and ERC-1155 are the most relevant NFT standards for iOS and Android developers

As we have seen, ERC-721, ERC-1155, and ERC-3525 all offer compelling value propositions for mobile developers looking to integrate NFTs into their apps. However, given the practical reality of app store policies and NFT infrastructure, we believe that **ERC-721 and ERC-1155 are more relevant than ERC-3525 at the moment**.

If you are looking to add standard, well-understood NFT features to your iOS and Android apps, ERC-721 makes the most sense, especially in the development and testing phase. If you want improved flexibility, better optimization, and advanced use cases, you can consider the ERC-1155 standard. 

Whether you choose ERC-721 or ERC-1155, Dreamerly offers a suite of easy-to-use, app store-compliant, and fully configurable NFT toolkits for iOS and Android. Our goal is to make it as seamless as possible for you to build the best web3 experiences for your mobile users. So let us know how we can help.

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**About Dreamerly**

Dreamerly is a suite of easy-to-use, compliance-focused, customizable SDKs and APIs powering NFT features in iOS and Android apps. Our mission is to help mobile developers create amazing web3 experiences for their customers. 

Read more about [our vision](https://dreamerly.com/about), and follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/DreamerlyHQ).

We analyze the pros and cons of three major NFT-related token standards, and find that ERC-721 and ERC-1155 are the top choices for web3 mobile developers.

In this post, we break down the pros and cons of the three most important NFT-related token standards as of 2022: ERC-721, ERC-1155, and ERC-3525. Our analysis suggests that ERC-721 and ERC-1155 should be the top choices for web3 mobile developers, though ERC-3525 is worth keeping an eye on.

Web3 iOS development: Top 10 things developers should know

If you have been following our blog, by now you should know about [all the opportunities that NFT and crypto can bring to iOS app development](https://dreamerly.com/blog/7-reasons-why-mobile-developers-should-add-nfts). Integrating NFTs into your iOS apps can unlock new monetization avenues, improve user retention and engagement, and create valuable experiences for your customers. At the same time, web3 iOS development is still a very nascent and fast-changing field. There are significant hurdles and uncertainties that iOS developers will have to navigate and overcome.

Our team at Dreamerly knows this as well as anyone. We have had to address **countless problems and headaches when building and publishing our web3 iOS apps**. In the last three months, we have also been **collecting lessons, insights, and best practices** from **80+ crypto builders, iOS developers, and UI/UX designers from all over the world**. 

**In this post, we summarize our learnings into the top 10 things that you should know when beginning your web3 iOS development**. These guidelines can be a starting point to help you plan, develop, and market your web3 iOS apps more successfully.

## 1. Understand your target users

We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to **know your target users, and what problems you are trying to solve for them**. As Y Combinator’s famous motto goes: “[Make something people want](http://www.paulgraham.com/good.html)”, you really really need to have a working hypothesis on the problems that a set of users is facing. 

{% image src="https://dreamerly-prod-site-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/20221209-web3-ios-development-top-10-things-developers-should-know-1.webp" alt="A UX designer interviews and gets feedback from a user about a new mobile app feature" %} 
Talk to your users, and solve their problems.
{% /image %}

Even before you write the first line of code, you and your team can contact and talk to prospective customers to validate your hypothesis. To do so, we highly recommend Rob Fitzpatrick’s [*The Mom Test*](https://www.momtestbook.com/). To our knowledge, *The Mom Test* is one of the best, if not *the* best, resources for product teams to learn how to run user interviews, ask relevant questions, and draw useful insights.  

When developing web3 iOS apps in particular, you also need to think through **two additional considerations**: 1) your users’ web3 knowledge, and 2) the iOS user profile.

- **Your target users’ web3 knowledge**: For almost every iOS developer we talked to, the first question on their minds when evaluating web3 features is: Does my user base know crypto and web3? There are several angles to extend this: How many users own a crypto wallet? How many users know how to transact on the blockchain? Which blockchains do they use? Have they owned an NFT before? Do they prefer wallet login over usernames and passwords? Depending on your answers to these questions, you can craft an appropriate minimum viable product (MVP) and go-to-market strategy. If you target traditional mobile users, think about how you can smoothen the web3 onboarding process and provide effective user education on web3 benefits. If you target crypto-native users instead, be prepared to have a limited addressable market at the beginning, as most iOS users are unfamiliar with crypto.
- **The iOS user profile**: On average, iPhone users have higher income, spend more on in-app purchases, and engage more with mobile apps than their Android counterparts (see [source](https://www.appmysite.com/blog/android-vs-ios-users-a-detailed-behavioural-comparison)). On the other hand, the Android user base is more global and diverse, with a particularly strong presence in developing markets. This means that your iOS apps will have advantages in monetization, but will typically need higher quality and have a more restricted reach than the average Android apps. 

## 2. Know the App Store’s crypto guidelines

**The App Store’s unfriendly attitude towards crypto and NFT is one of the biggest sticking points for iOS developers thinking about adding web3 features into their apps**. As of December 2022, [the App Store Review Guidelines](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/) has two key clauses that you should know about:

- **In-app purchase policy for NFTs** (Clause 3.1.1 “In-App Purchase”): “Apps may use in-app purchase to sell and sell services related to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), such as minting, listing, and transferring. Apps may allow users to view their own NFTs, provided that NFT ownership does not unlock features or functionality within the app. Apps may allow users to browse NFT collections owned by others, provided that the apps may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.”
- **Cryptocurrency policies** (Clause 3.1.5 “Cryptocurrencies”): We do not quote the entire policies here, but the gist is that a) only apps that have appropriate financial licenses can facilitate cryptocurrency transactions and ICOs; b) apps cannot do on-device mining; c) only apps owned by organizations can offer virtual currency storage; and d) apps can not offer crypto for completing tasks.

In our view, **the in-app purchase policy for NFTs** (Clause 3.1.1) **is extremely useful for iOS developers**, because it opens the door for NFT features (in [our previous blog spot, we break down the revolutionary implications of NFTs for mobile apps](https://dreamerly.com/blog/7-reasons-why-mobile-developers-should-add-nfts)). Developers, however, need to ensure that they do not bypass Apple’s in-app purchase system. To do so, you can use the [Dreamerly SDKs](https://dreamerly.com/), which offer a seamless, compliance-focused, configurable suite of tools for developers to integrate in-app NFT purchases.

Apple’s cryptocurrency policies in Clause 3.1.5, on the other hand, are much more restrictive, and prevent most developers from enabling cryptocurrency transactions. Note here that Apple does not view NFTs as cryptocurrencies. Still, if you have the appropriate licenses, Clause 3.1.5 provides a straightforward route to build crypto exchanges on iOS. 

## 3. Decide on the right balance between web2 (centralized backend) and web3 (decentralized network)

When adding web3 features to iOS apps, **you will face an important trade-off between scalability and decentralization**. On one extreme, you can offload all storage and computation off-chain and leave only certain metadata (e.g. NFT ownership information) on-chain. This approach leverages the efficiency and scalability of web2 infrastructure and allows for fast iteration, but overlooks the ideal of decentralization. On the other extreme, you may package most, if not all, of your business logic into a smart contract, which maximizes decentralization, but at the cost of scalability and potential security problems. 

In a sense, the trade-off here is reminiscent of the blockchain trilemma of decentralization, scalability, and security. In our view, **app developers building out the MVP version of web3 features should opt for scalability and iteration speed over decentralization**, because it can take a long trial-and-error process to arrive at the right features. **Once the features are stable, developers can then move some logic on-chain** for a higher degree of decentralization and transparency.

## 4. Choose your blockchain

{% image src="https://dreamerly-prod-site-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/20221209-web3-ios-development-top-10-things-developers-should-know-3.webp" alt="Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon logos" %} 
Which blockchain best fits your mobile apps?
{% /image %}

While choosing the right blockchain is a very nuanced topic, here **we lay out six criteria for iOS developers to pick the best blockchain for their apps**: 1) number of transactions per second, 2) transaction fee, 3) available functionalities, 4) existing infrastructure and developer community, 5) security, and 6) adoption.
 
- **Number of transactions per second:** Blockchains vary significantly in transaction speed. Bitcoin can handle 7 transactions/second, while Ethereum currently handles [~15-20 transactions/second](http://etherscan.com/) (with a theoretical limit of 100K transactions/second following the Merge). Other networks such as Solana also boast a very high number of transactions/second ([~4K-5K transactions/second for Solana](https://solscan.io/) at the moment). If your apps need to initiate a lot of on-chain transactions (e.g. for payment or gaming apps), you should prioritize a fast network.
- **Transaction fee (also known as gas fee):** This is closely related to the transaction speed, as a higher number of transactions per second correlates with lower transaction fees. All else equal, a lower transaction fee means a better user experience. 
- **Available functionalities:** Ethereum is the clear leader in enabling almost all blockchain use cases, as it has the most developed standards for smart contracts among all blockchains. Recently, we have also seen the rise of application-specific blockchains (also known as AppChains) that support a particular use case or vertical. For example, [ImmutableX](https://www.immutable.com/)’s goal is to empower web3 games.
- **Existing infrastructure and developer community:** The existing infrastructure and developer community of a blockchain is crucial for iOS developers, because they are the source of guidance, standards, and toolkits to help iOS teams execute on their vision. Older chains such as Ethereum and Bitcoin have the best developer community, but we have seen younger chains such as Arbitrum, Solana, and Polygon making strides in building their support networks. With respect to development infrastructure, we highly recommend starting with an [EVM](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/evm/)-compatible chain to leverage the existing support from the Ethereum community.
- **Security:** In March of 2022, the Ronin blockchain was attacked in one of the biggest hacks in crypto’s history ([source](https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/29/tech/axie-infinity-ronin-hack/index.html)). This drives home the importance of understanding deeply the security features that each blockchain offers. In some cases, you can consider privacy-focused blockchains such as the Gnosis Chain to satisfy the privacy requirements of your users.
- **Adoption:** In the spirit of the old saying “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM”, it is always important for developers to track the adoption trends of different blockchains. Recently, we saw Polygon making impressive progress in onboarding major companies and brands, including [Stripe](https://stripe.com/blog/expanding-global-payouts-with-crypto), [Instagram](https://thedefiant.io/meta-polygon-nfts), and [Nike](https://sports.yahoo.com/nike-launches-swoosh-web3-platform-181505505.html).  

## 5. Pick the right wallet integration

{% image src="https://dreamerly-prod-site-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/20221209-web3-ios-development-top-10-things-developers-should-know-4.webp" alt="A crypto wallet with Bitcoin tokens" %} 
Wallet is the window into web3 for most users.
{% /image %}

Let’s face it: the crypto wallet UX on the iPhones and iPads is terrible. So many iOS developers and users have complained to us about missing functionalities, bugs, and complicated wallet usage flow. That is why **it is super important for you to think carefully about crypto wallet integration**.

Roughly speaking, there are two integration routes at the moment:

- **Wallet app connection:** In order to use web3 features in your app, the end users first have to download a third-party wallet app (e.g. MetaMask, Trust Wallet, or Ledger). When starting the web3 feature, your app would redirect users to sign in with the third-party wallet app using the WalletConnect SDK, then redirect them back to your app to unlock the feature. This wallet connection flow is the traditional and most popular integration route for iOS developers, but the UX is difficult to follow and sometimes buggy.
- **Traditional authentication with wallets in the backend:** In the last few years, tools like Web3Auth and Magic Link have pioneered another wallet integration method. In this method, users would sign in using traditional authentication channels (username, email, social login). The backend would then create custodial or non-custodial wallets associated with users’ authenticated identities. Effectively, this hides the complexity of wallet authentication from the users, resulting in a much smoother experience. However, there are concerns over the security and centralization of the backend wallets.

We recommend that web3 developers **start with the wallet app connection method in their testing phase**. **Once you get to production, you can add the traditional authentication method using Magic Link or Web3Auth** to improve the onboarding flow for web2 users.

## 6. Price your app correctly

Because crypto and NFTs unlock many innovative monetization strategies for iOS developers (see [link](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/18/technology/web3-definition-internet.html)), it is worth thinking whether you should experiment with new pricing models in connection with your new NFT features. For example, should you charge a percentage of NFT trading amount like Axie Infinity? Or should you allow your end users to create new NFTs and earn a fee for every new creation?

While this decision depends on your business model, user behaviors, and personal preferences, we think there is some wisdom in putting some price on the new NFT features to test product-market fit. You can always remove the price later.

## 7. Launch fast

We get it. Any builder and creator would love to get their creation *perfect* before releasing it to the world. We have also heard from many product teams worried about the potential user blowbacks from releasing an unfinished feature. However, this fear is almost always misguided. 

Remember, it is still extremely early for crypto and NFTs, and no one could claim that they have nailed the product-market fit equation for web3. Hypotheses will have to be torn down; product roadmaps will have to be updated; your understanding of users will have to change. And the sooner you can do that, the better. 

As a result, **launching a mediocre web3 feature as soon as possible, then getting user feedback,** is a much better process than waiting to build the “perfect” web3 feature. As long as your crypto feature improves your users’ lives by just a little bit, you can launch it.

## 8. Be determined, tactful, and flexible in the app review process

Yes, Apple has allowed NFT transactions on their platform. But, the decision to allow your web3 features or not still rests in the hands of iOS app reviewers, and as iOS developers, we all know how [opaque the app review process can be](https://www.wired.com/story/apples-app-store-review-fix-fails-placate-developers/).

{% image src="https://dreamerly-prod-site-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/20221209-web3-ios-development-top-10-things-developers-should-know-2.webp" alt="The App Store logo on an iPhone screen" %}
App store review is always a headache, but it can be overcome.
{% /image %}

From our first-hand experience, **iOS app reviewers tend to be very cautious around crypto and NFTs**. This means that you should expect to see a lot of back-and-forth and even rejection on the first try. Still, they are mostly reasonable, and **as long as you can show clearly that you follow their App Store’s guidelines, have good intentions, are cooperative, you should be able to pass the app review process**. Determination, tact, and flexibility are your best friends in this process.

**Our team at Dreamerly is also here to help**. Feel free to contact us at [hello@dreamerly.com](mailto:hello@dreamerly.com) or through our [Twitter](https://twitter.com/DreamerlyHQ) with your questions, and we will try our best to guide you through the process.

## 9. Get the word out

Integrating web3 to your iOS apps is a great way to expand your user base to more crypto-native customers or improve the engagement of your existing users. Given how new and revolutionary crypto is, however, **you should have a plan on how to market the web3 features, educate your users if necessary, and generate buzz**. 

Web3 and mobile teams have come up with very creative strategies on making users know about new web3 functionalities. For example, web3 product managers emphasized to us the importance of building Discord or Telegram communities for crypto-native users. This represents a key difference in user behaviors, as web3 users have much higher expectations of regular communication, updates, and engagement from the developer teams than traditional iOS users. Twitter is also a powerful channel to reach web3 users, because Crypto Twitter is always abuzz with activity.

To reach users who are less familiar with crypto, a different approach is necessary. Many iOS teams focus on accessibility in their crypto marketing materials. For instance, they may replace technical definitions like “NFTs” with more user-friendly terms like “digital collectibles” or “virtual goods”. Another strategy is to plan out a series of FAQs, blog posts, and product announcements to help educate and onboard users to crypto. We recommend the [Reddit NFT page](https://nft.reddit.com/) as a very successful case study of how product teams can introduce web3 to their user base.

## 10. Don’t sit around. Iterate

As Richard Feynman said: “the imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man”, **the most important thing for iOS teams to do is to constantly iterate, push out new updates to their web3 features, and get user feedback**. The best product teams never stop talking to users and making changes to their apps.

As you get user feedback and suggestions about the new web3 features, you may end up with a long list of improvements and fixes to build. This is a great problem to have, though it may be difficult to decide the right priority and focus. We like the suggestion from Paul Buchheit, the Gmail inventor, to look for the [“90/10 solution”](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4D-yc-s-essential-startup-advice). In other words, look for a method that achieves 90% of what you want with only 10% of the effort. This avoids feature creep and keeps your iteration process fast.

## It’s time to build

If you take away anything from this post, let it be this: **Launch and experiment with web3 features in your iOS apps as fast as you can**. If it does not work out, great. It is a useful learning milestone regardless. But if it works, web3 can help push your iOS apps to a new height, especially at a time when most app developers are still behind on the crypto adoption curve.

If you need any help on this exciting journey, remember that our team at Dreamerly is just a DM away. 

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To help you launch fast, Dreamerly offers a suite of easy-to-use, app store-compliant mobile NFT toolkits. With our SDKs and backend architecture, you can integrate NFT features into your iOS apps with just a few lines of code, while ensuring that your apps follow the App Store’s guidelines. 

Our mission is to help mobile developers create powerful web3 experiences for their customers. Read more about [our vision](https://dreamerly.com/about), and follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/DreamerlyHQ) for the latest updates.

We offer 10 tops for web3 iOS development, which cover the key considerations that iOS developers need to know when integrating web3 features into iOS apps.

We outline the top 10 tips for web3 iOS development. These tips cover the most important considerations that every iOS developer needs to know when integrating crypto and NFT features into their iOS apps.

7 reasons why mobile developers should add NFTs to their apps

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have taken the world by storm. From the breakout successes of [Axie Infinity](https://axieinfinity.com/) and [Bored Ape Yacht Club](https://boredapeyachtclub.com/) to adoption by [Reddit](https://nft.reddit.com/) and [Instagram](https://about.fb.com/news/2022/05/introducing-digital-collectibles-to-showcase-nfts-instagram/), engineers, creators, and influencers have traded, built, and experimented with various forms of NFTs. As a mobile developer, you may be wondering if it makes sense to adopt this new technology in your apps.

In this blog post, we provide **an in-depth analysis of the core technology and use cases of NFTs** and offer **seven reasons why iOS and Android app developers should add NFTs to their apps today**. We draw our conclusions from **our 80+ interviews with mobile developers, crypto engineers, and NFT experts across the world**.

## What are NFTs?

**Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are units of data on a blockchain that represent the uniqueness of digital items** (see [link](https://ethereum.org/en/nft)). The key to understanding NFTs is the concept of non-fungibility. If an item or product is non-fungible, that means it is *not interchangeable* with another item. Examples include your driver’s license, college diploma, or personal CD collection. There are millions of college diplomas out there, but your diploma is unique because it has your name, educational institution, year of graduation, and headmaster’s signature. In other words, non-fungible tokens have unique *properties*.

In contrast to non-fungible tokens, we have fungible tokens. These are items that can be exchanged and traded with one another, because their *value*, not their properties, defines them. The clearest example is the US dollar or Bitcoin, as 1 USD bill is always exchangeable with another 1 USD bill.

But what exactly can NFTs do for mobile developers? In the following sections, we describe how NFTs have the potential to revolutionize mobile development and the Internet as we know it and provide seven benefits that NFTs can bring to iOS and Android developers.

## 1. Scarcity can upend the abundance of mobile apps

{% image src="https://dreamerly-prod-site-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/20221207-7-reasons-why-mobile-developers-should-add-nfts-1.webp" alt="The Apple App Store and the Google Play Store have created an abundance of apps" %} 
The Apple App Store and the Google Play Store have created an abundance of apps.
{% /image %}

Today, the most famous examples of NFTs are avatar images (e.g. Bored Ape Yacht Club, Crypto Punks) or game characters (e.g. Axies, CryptoKitties). To many people, these look like toys, speculative bubbles, or worse, scams. **Look closely, however, and one can see the early signs of a revolution driven by digital scarcity.** 

To know why, consider the economic model of mobile apps in particular and the Internet in general. Before the app stores, and especially before the Internet, delivering software was costly: developers had to package their applications in CDs, find distributors in different markets, and pay various middlemen to ensure that consumers could install a copy. The only viable economic model then was to put a price on each software copy. That all changed when the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store removed the distribution and transaction cost of apps. A developer in India could distribute their apps to billions of users all across the world with one click. **The marginal cost of mobile apps has become zero**: it costs developers nothing to offer their apps to one additional customer. The result is **abundance**: the world population is now the addressable market for any mobile developer (see [link](https://stratechery.com/2021/the-creator-opportunity-the-value-of-abundance-tv-and-sports-follow-up/)). Since the Apple App Store’s first version in 2008, hundreds of thousands of developers have published millions of iOS and Android apps to serve billions of users all over the world. On top of that, in-app content has also been commoditized, with billions of YouTube videos, TikTok clips, and in-game items being produced daily.

This world of abundance is fantastic for consumers, but one questions whether it is always good for producers, creators, and developers. In many cases, abundance implies *a lack of pricing power* for producers. In this lens, **the uniqueness of each NFT helps re-impose digital scarcity**. By tokenizing their content as NFTs, musicians, artists, game creators can create verifiable records of the content’s ownership and provenance and bring about new forms of monetization. For example, singers have sold their NFT songs for thousands of dollars each on Catalog, an NFT music platform (see [link](https://beta.catalog.works/haleekmaul/touch)). Relationships such as that between artist and fan can be un-commoditized through NFT tickets, memberships, and collectibles.  

As a huge and growing amount of content is being published in mobile apps every day, **mobile developers have a massive opportunity to leverage the scarcity model of NFTs and make their apps more economically appealing to users, creators, and contributors.** 

## 2. Programmability unlocks new use cases and innovative business models

One great feature of NFTs is that they are not static concepts; instead, they are a programmable standard. That means **each developer is free to adopt, modify, and experiment on NFTs however they want to fit their product needs, create new experiences for their customers, and unlock innovative business models.** As an iOS developer told us, “developers should think of NFTs as a powerful canvas on which people can envision new landscapes and uncover new treasures.” 

Arguably, the most famous use case of NFTs’ programmability at the moment is royalties. Specifically, NFT royalties are automatic payouts that the original creator of the NFT receives every time a secondary sale of their NFT occurs. According to Galaxy Digital, NFT creators on Ethereum alone have earned over $1.8B in royalties ([source](https://blockworks.co/news/nft-royalties-top-1-8-billion-galaxy-digital)). We also see other very interesting applications of NFT royalties. For example, Mirror, a web3 publishing site, automatically routes earnings to the Ethereum addresses that contributed to a research project or novel ([source](https://dev.mirror.xyz/mQ03-JXlfdoBnRrZisC5X3kM9nBkOILlHwxbdq382Gw)). The implications for these use cases are profound, especially at a time when there is discontent over creator earnings on existing apps such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram ([source](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/style/black-tiktok-strike.html) and [source](https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/4/21121370/youtube-advertising-revenue-creators-demonetization-earnings-google)).

But that is just a start. **The founders, developers, and creators we met have described to us a vision of an NFT-powered mobile economy.** At this moment, they are using NFTs to solve difficult problems in mobile gaming, domain ownership, live streaming, social networks, messaging, and so many others. We expect to see even more NFT use cases in the near future.

## 3. NFTs as investments connect the supply and demand sides in mobile apps

{% image src="https://dreamerly-prod-site-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/20221207-7-reasons-why-mobile-developers-should-add-nfts-2.webp" alt="Music fans buy and sell music albums" %} 
How will NFTs change the dynamics of buying and selling music albums?
{% /image %}

There is no avoiding it: NFT investments have a bad rap. A significant portion of the NFT space was plagued with Ponzi schemes, scams, and grifts in the last few years. That is not, however, the full story. **NFTs as investments can bring about very positive transformation in the relationships between creators (the demand side) and consumers (the supply side) in a mobile app.**

Anyone that has attempted to build a two-sided network on iOS or Android can tell you how impossible the task is. It is so incredibly difficult for game developers to convince artists to create new in-game items, for social media teams to attract the initial batch of dancers or photographers, for ride sharing companies to build the first driver fleet in a city, for booking app builders to convince both hotels and tourists to try out their marketplaces, and so on. In many cases, the economic incentives just do not work. Why should designers and artists contribute to a game not owned by them, when the financial rewards are close to non-existent?

NFTs offer the solution to overcome this challenge. For example, [Royal](https://royal.io/) allows fans to invest in music and own a piece of an album’s streaming royalty rights through NFTs. In other words, the music NFT holders collect a portion of royalties whenever the album plays on Spotify and Apple Music. Suddenly, supporting artists or streamers is now more than an altruistic endeavor, but an investment vehicle for fans and users to generate profits and share the successes of their content creators.

From an economic point of view, this brings together a new alignment between the demand and supply side of a market. From an app developer’s perspective, **it is a golden opportunity to turbocharge their user base and build enduring network effects.**

## 4. Shared ownership brings new value to app users

Mobile users have become much more conscious of mobile app practices in recent years. While previous generations of users extolled the virtue of free apps, today’s users raise concerns over data privacy, identity theft, and unwarranted tracking. In fact, [study](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/85-of-android-users-are-concerned-about-privacy/) after [study](https://www.statista.com/statistics/248488/frequency-with-which-us-internet-users-worry-about-online-privacy/) have shown that the vast majority of mobile users now worry about privacy, location tracking, data sales, etc. Being a free app no longer works as a value proposition. 

**This is where NFTs come in, with a new value proposition of users’ shared ownership.** In our view, this works in two ways:

One, NFTs can empower **ingenious designs in which users participate in setting the direction and product roadmap of mobile apps.** Experiments in DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) have suggested that this can be a powerful way for users and app developers to work collaboratively. Because it is also crucial for developers to gather feedback from users, we see NFTs as a potential mechanism to bring developers and users even closer together and reduce the time and effort to reach product-market fit.

Two, many game developers have told us how excited they were about **sharing the value of in-game items, actions, and benefits with gamers.** In their telling, this is an amazing and natural development of the relationship between gamers, games, and developers. If this becomes a reality, mobile games can become a democratized, open, and fair environment for all participants to enjoy and grow. We find great inspiration in this vision, and believe that it can be applied to other mobile verticals beyond games.

## 5. NFTs can improve mobile apps’ user retention and engagement

By now, **everyone knows the sobering statistics around mobile apps’ retention.** According to mobile intelligence startup Quettra ([source](https://andrewchen.com/new-data-shows-why-losing-80-of-your-mobile-users-is-normal-and-that-the-best-apps-do-much-better/)), the average mobile app loses **77%** of users within just three days after the install. After 30 days, **90%** of users leave the app. Some verticals, such as education, face even tougher retention problems. And without strong user retention, user growth will inevitably plateau and decline.

More worryingly, there is no systematic method for a mobile app to improve user retention. Most advice that we have seen centers around talking to users, improving the onboarding flow, or tackling another set of users. These are helpful suggestions, but they don’t provide app developers with a clear, well-defined toolkit to fix retention. We also note that retention is a very different problem from new user acquisition, as most business verticals and markets have well-understood user acquisition strategies.

Interestingly, most developers and founders we talked to told us that **they saw improved retention and engagement among NFT holders relative to non-NFT holders.** While the evidence is still largely anecdotal, the reason might lie in the promise of investment profits and the value of shared ownership. Several developers also found that NFTs helped them create and sustain active user communities outside the apps. This is incredibly valuable, as it suggests significant opportunities for developers to cross-sell other apps and services to their NFT communities.

All this indicates that **NFTs can offer iOS and Android developers a much needed route to drive retention and find product market fit.**

## 6. Developers can find new monetization opportunities with NFTs

We have talked at length about how NFTs can create new monetization opportunities for content creators. **For developers themselves, NFTs can also help realize new business models and monetization strategies.** 

For instance, Axie Infinity, the leading NFT games, have found great financial successes by taking a 4.25% fee when players trade NFTs on its marketplace and by charging fees for breeding Axies in-game. In 2021, Axie Infinity generated $1.5B in revenue, an incredible amount for a startup ([source](https://forkast.news/headlines/nft-game-axie-infinity-revenue-2021/)). Bored Ape Yacht Club, on the other hand, monetizes successfully through both direct sales (selling Bored Ape NFTs and Otherside Metaverse Land NFTs) and secondary resale royalties. 

Given the flexibility of NFT programmability, we expect to see even more business model innovations from NFT apps and projects in the near future.

## 7. NFT derivatives (semi-fungible tokens and soulbound tokens) promise even more diverse and advanced use cases for mobile developers

The power of crypto and NFTs also comes from constant innovation. Two recent standards offer even more use cases and applications for web3 developers: **semi-fungible tokens** and **soulbound tokens**.

**Semi-fungible tokens (SFTs) are a form of assets that can be both fungible and non-fungible during their lifecycle.** When an SFT is first created, it acts as a fungible token and can be exchanged with another SFT. However, once it is redeemed, the token loses its face value and becomes an NFT. An example is a movie ticket, which has face value and can be exchanged for another movie ticket before the movie screening. After the screening ends, the ticket loses its face value and becomes a unique collectible. Many game developers have said that SFTs are especially useful in mobile games, as they can represent both in-game currency and items.

**Soulbound tokens (SBTs) are another innovative concept,** inspired by the game World of Warcraft ([source](https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/01/26/soulbound.html)). The easiest way to think of SBTs is that **an SBT is an NFT that cannot be traded or sold** (i.e. non-transferable). Thanks to this property, SBTs unlock advanced use cases in governance, identity, and decentralized finance, among others.

While both SFTs and SBTs are still young at the moment, we foresee strong adoption and experiments on these standards in the coming months, so iOS and Android developers should closely follow them for ideas and inspiration.

## From here to there: How to add NFTs to mobile apps

From the above analysis, it is clear that NFTs represent amazing opportunities for iOS and Android developers to improve their products, serve their customers, and build new business models. The next question is obvious: How do developers get started in integrating NFTs into mobile apps?

Dreamerly is here to help. **We offer iOS and Android developers a suite of toolkits to enable NFT mining, selling, and trading with just a few lines of code.** Our easy-to-use, compliance-focused, and fully configurable tools address the [biggest challenges that mobile developers have faced when adding NFTs](https://dreamerly.com/blog/20221122-why-so-few-crypto-mobile-apps). For more information, visit [our page](https://dreamerly.com/). 

Mobile developers can also check out our previous [blog spot](https://dreamerly.com/blog/which-mobile-platform-should-web3-developers-build-on), where we discuss the pros and cons of building NFT features on iOS vs. Android.

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**About Dreamerly**

Dreamerly is a suite of easy-to-use, compliance-focused, customizable SDKs and APIs powering NFT features in iOS and Android apps. Our mission is to help mobile developers create amazing web3 experiences for their customers. 

Read more about [our vision](https://dreamerly.com/about), and follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/DreamerlyHQ).

We break down the core technology and use cases of NFTs and offer seven reasons why iOS and Android app developers should add NFTs to their apps today.

Should mobile developers adopt NFTs? We analyze the core technology and use cases of NFTs and offer seven reasons why iOS and Android app developers should add NFTs to their apps today.

How to use Dune Analytics like a pro: A 7-step guide for crypto developers

Blockchain technology does not only revolutionize the concept of trust, value, and ownership, but also brings about a sea change in data and analytics. For the first time in history, transaction and financial data, which are closely guarded by banks, card networks, and governments, become open and accessible to everyone.

**But how can crypto developers and mobile engineers take advantage of this data?** Ironically, while the blockchain removes the problem of data scarcity, it creates new challenges in data interpretation and analysis. In our conversations with 80+ web3 developers and mobile engineers, so many have told us how difficult it is to make sense of blockchain transactions, aggregate them, and draw useful conclusions. Luckily, there is a free and powerful tool to do just that: Dune Analytics.

In this post, we explain **why it is important for crypto developers to analyze blockchain data**, **what is Dune Analytics**, and **how you can master Dune to improve your web3 apps in a 7-step process**.

## Why is blockchain data so important for crypto developers?

Blockchain data consists of the transaction, account, and metadata information sent by wallet addresses and processed by nodes and validators. For instance, every time an address transfers tokens or invokes a smart contract, the blockchain may record the sender, recipient, transaction amount, timestamp, balance changes, function calls, etc. In other words, blockchain data captures information on all the activities and participants on the network.

It is thus obvious why blockchain data is so essential for web3 developers, as it represents a huge trove of insights across the entire user, validator, and business experience. **These insights, in turn, can form actionable hypotheses for nearly every team in an organization, from product and engineering to marketing, sales, and customer success.** 

Furthermore, blockchain data is *objective*. While user interviews and surveys can be extremely useful, they can only show the *stated preferences* of users, not their *actual behaviors*. As such, crypto developers can view blockchain data as almost a ground truth to uncover clear opportunities for user, product, and business growth.

## What makes blockchain data analytics difficult?

**Analyzing and understanding blockchain data, however, is notoriously difficult.** In our view, there are three main challenges to blockchain data analytics: 1) blockchain data is optimized for processing, not querying; 2) the data structure is complex, incoherent, and fast-changing; and 3) best practices and standards are not mature yet.

We breakdown these there challenges below:

- **Blockchain data is optimized for processing, not querying:** When blockchain designers build their network architecture, they focus on the blockchain trilemma of decentralization, scalability, and security. Their incentives are to optimize these three dimensions as much as possible. Data querying is an afterthought. As a result, blockchain data is often not human-readable, encoded, and arcane. For example, to understand the smart contract logic in a transaction on Ethereum, a data analyst has to find the ABI of the contract, parse the function signatures, and piece together the function calls from events, logs, and metadata. If the contract owner omits events, the analyst can easily miss critical information and get stuck in their analysis.
- **The blockchain data structure is complex, incoherent, and fast-changing:** The coherence and accessibility of blockchain data is heavily dependent on the implementation of each smart contract. In some extreme cases, each smart contract requires a completely different data analytics procedure. Additionally, complex smart contracts may rely on outside databases such as IPFS to store critical metadata, resulting in a complicated set of data relations. For instance, to query Bored Ape Yacht Club apes owned by a given address and filter by one of its features, a data analyst needs to process all transfer events, read the metadata from IPFS with the Token ID and IPFS hash, and aggregate the results ([source](https://thegraph.com/docs/en/about/)). Even then, once the contract is updated, the data workflow may simply break. 
- **Best practices and standards are not mature for blockchain data yet:** It is clear to everyone that there is no mature data standard within a blockchain network, much less across different chains. As hinted earlier, an Ethereum data analyst might lack access to critical information in function calls, logging, and metadata. At the same time, a Solana data analyst can face the opposite problem, as the Solana network produces too much data and requires heavy storage, computation, and filtering capabilities.

Thankfully, Dune Analytics makes it much easier for crypto developers to overcome these challenges and make sense of crypto data.

## Dune Analytics: SQL querying for blockchain data

**Dune Analytics is a tool for blockchain research and analytics for crypto engineers, analysts, and investors.** It enables users to query, extract, and visualize blockchain data. There are three key product innovations that Dune offers: 1) SQL structure, 2) community dashboards, and 3) data coverage.

The most important innovation that Dune brings about is its **conversion of raw blockchain data into SQL data tables**. Effectively, Dune Analytics imposes a well-defined, easy-to-query data structure on complex blockchain data. Because SQL is a very familiar framework for data analytics, Dune Analytics enables its users to run extraction, filtering, and join operations to connect, aggregate, and draw insights from disparate blockchain data sources. On top of that, Dune Analytics uses powerful machines to allow for fast execution of heavy computations. To be sure, it is not always perfect, as we do encounter missing data, undecoded information, or data errors in Dune’s table. But by and large, Dune’s data structure is extremely valuable in a maze of intertwined blockchain data.

The second data analytics improvement from Dune is its **community dashboards** ([source](https://dune.com/browse/dashboards)). There are tens of thousands of user-generated dashboards on a wide range of topics, from DeFi and NFT to OpenSea and decentralized exchanges. This is not only a powerful source for users to learn and draw inspiration from, but also a place for crypto developers to showcase their apps. We believe that over time, these community dashboards will form the foundation for best practices in interpreting blockchain data.

Finally, Dune covers **a wide range of blockchain networks**. As of December 2022, the project contains data from 8 blockchains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, among others. Dune has also started to allow community tables and user-generated tables, which enable more in-depth and advanced use cases and broaden the range of analysis that one can run. 

**In the next sections, we offer a 7-step guide for you to learn how to use Dune Analytics as a crypto developer.**

## Step 1: Master SQL

Learning SQL is an essential skill if you want to master Dune Analytics. Having a strong understanding of SQL will allow you to write more complex and powerful queries to support your analytics needs.

If you are a new to SQL, we have compiled below a list of free SQL resources to get started:

- **Watch videos:** YouTube videos are a great method for visual learners to familiarize themselves with SQL syntax and vocabulary. We highly recommend Kevin Stratvert’s [SQL for Beginners Tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0nxCDiD-zg), StatisticalProgramming.Net’s [Learn Basic SQL in 10 Minutes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEtnYWuo2Bw), and Web Dev Simplified’s [Learn SQL in 60 Minutes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3qvj9hO_Bo).
- **Online SQL tutorials:** If you prefer interactive lessons with examples, exercises, and quizzes, check out [SQLCourse.com](http://www.sqlcourse.com/) and [W3Schools](https://www.w3schools.com/sql/).
- **Online courses:** We have seen many crypto developers benefit from courses taught by industry professionals, such as Khan Academy’s [Intro to SQL](https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/sql) and Udacity’s [Intro to Relational Databases](https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-relational-databases--ud197).
- **Books:** Written textbooks on SQL often provide very detailed explanations and examples and cover SQL programming much deeper than other resources. We recommend the [SQL for Web Nerds](http://philip.greenspun.com/sql/) by Philip Greenspun.
- **Online communities:** For specific questions and debugging issues, Stack Overflow, Stack Exchange, and Reddit are your best bets.       

## Step 2: Understand blockchain data models and architecture

Although Dune Analytics does a good job of decoding transaction information and organizing blockchain data into human-readable tables, it is important for web3 developers to have a very strong handle on blockchain data structure and data models. This involves two substeps: **a) understanding specific blockchain networks’ data models**, and **b) knowing Dune’s data architecture**.

One, you should **develop in-depth knowledge of the data models of the blockchains that you are building on**. As an example, Ethereum developers need to know Ethereum’s account types, smart contract logs and events, and concepts such as ERC-721, while Solana developers should be familiar with Solana’s programs, different types of transactions, and cross-program invocations. This knowledge will help you build a clear mental model when working with Dune’s data tables. For Ethereum data, we highly recommend the [OurNetwork channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtOsWfAKH8UuVg_pVr0r4Nw).

Two, you can **start learning about Dune’s data architecture from its [Documentation site](https://dune.com/docs/reference/tables/)**. We recommend starting with reading through Dune’s five types of tables: Raw Tables, Decoded Tables, Spells, Community Tables, and User-Generated Tables. In most cases, developers can start building queries with the Raw Tables and Decoded Tables, then move to Spells and Community Tables for more advanced use cases.

## Step 3: Know your blockchain explorers

This sounds like an obvious suggestion, but we cannot stress enough how crucial it is to develop a working intuition with blockchain explorers. This means that you should master at least one explorer for each blockchain ecosystem that you work with. If you are new to the crypto space, it is a good idea to use the most popular explorer for a given chain; e.g. [Etherscan](https://etherscan.com/) for Ethereum, or [Solscan](https://solscan.io) for Solana. 

While building and running queries on Dune Analytics, you should **regularly test and check your queries against your blockchain explorer**. This includes both simple checks like address verification and more complex tests such as logging and tracing analysis. Over time, you will develop a better grasp of the quirks of different blockchain explorers by navigating through their UIs and experimenting with different features. For instance, to take advantage of all the features that Etherscan offers, you can watch [this tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spnwIsE5ziQ)  

## Step 4: Start your first Dune Analytics queries   

You are now ready to start your first Dune Analytics queries! The first thing to consider is to choose which queries to work on. Our recommendation is to **start with a standard business question on a popular smart contract or token on the Ethereum blockchain**. By doing so, you can rely on the project’s user community for data questions and debugging as well as draw inspiration from Dune’s user-generated dashboards. We have found that a web3 project’s Discord community tends to be very generous in helping unblock your Dune Analytics issues. For instance, if you get stuck at a query on SushiSwap, you can try posting your problem on SushiSwap’s Discord or searching for similar queries on Dune’s Browsing page.

We’d also suggest that **your first queries should be focused and achievable**. Tackling queries that are too broad or ambitious right from the start can easily become overwhelming and result in frustration. Good starting queries include daily transaction volume on Uniswap, the number of active traders on OpenSea, or the monthly lending volume on Lido.

## Step 5: Build a dashboard

Once you finish building and running your queries, the next step is to build a dashboard. A Dune Analytics dashboard is a visual display of your analysis and is a great way to highlight your work to the Dune community. Dune also provides drag-and-drop tools and pre-built widgets to help you transform your data results into charts and infographics. 

After you are done with your dashboard, you can share your work by publishing it to the user-generated dashboard section on Dune or post your learnings on the Dune Analytics Discord community.

## Step 6: Learn from the experts

One of the best strategies to continually learn and grow your blockchain analytics skills is to **connect with other developers and experts in the field**. 

The first action you can take is to **join the Dune Analytics Discord server**. This is a large and active community of web3 developers, crypto investors, and data analysts, who are always willing to provide new Dune users with advice and guidance. The Dune Analytics team also regularly engages with the community on Discord channels and provides FAQs, feature updates, and news announcements.

In addition, **there are many Dune data analysts whom you can follow**. Our favorite experts include [Spring Zhang](https://twitter.com/superamscom), [Boxer](https://twitter.com/0xBoxer), [El DIPsy](https://twitter.com/crypto_DIPsy), [Andrew Hong](https://twitter.com/andrewhong5297), [Kofi](https://twitter.com/0xKofi), and [danning.eth](https://twitter.com/sui414).   

## Step 7: Apply to your own project

At this point, it is important to step back and think through how you can leverage Dune Analytics to improve the user experience of your apps. In this section, we provide some suggestions on what you can do to create actionable insights from Dune:

- **Understand your business needs:** The starting point is to really understand what part of the user experience you are trying to move, or what business aspect you are trying to enhance. This in turn depends on target user base, strategic positioning, and product features. For instance, if you are an NFT marketplace, Dune Analytics can help you gauge your trading revenue and volume, number of buyers and sellers, popular NFT collections, and floor prices. If you are a lending protocol, you can use Dune to calculate lending and borrowing volumes, analyze lending pools’ health, and run risk analysis instead.
- **Combine with product usage data:** Some of the most successful use cases of Dune that we have seen is coupling product usage data (e.g. Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Amplitude on the front end) with the blockchain analytics from Dune. Projects that combine both sources of data are able to visualize the full user journey, study the engagement and ROI of specific features, and improve retention.
- **Run market research and competitive analysis:** The great benefit of Dune Analytics in particular and blockchain data in general is how public the activities of smart contracts and users are. A quick search or a simple query on Dune Analytics can easily give you a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses, user behaviors, and product strategy of each player in a market. On a macro level, Dune queries can enable trend analysis, industry research, and price prediction.
- **Build in public:** As hinted earlier, Dune Analytics dashboards can be a useful marketing tool to introduce crypto users to your project. We have also seen projects sponsoring data analytics competitions to attract engineers, data analysts, and investors. 

## And you’ve got a powerful analytics tool to improve your web3 product

You now have Dune Analytics as a powerful tool that will help you keep track of your business performance, inform your product strategies, and serve your customers. 

Be sure to re-evaluate your Dune queries every time you change your core features or smart contract logic. We recommend reviewing your queries once a quarter at least, though some crypto teams like to do it much more often. As you gain more experience in using Dune, you will find that you can brainstorm more business questions and discover new ways to empower your product, engineering, and customer support teams.

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**About Dreamerly**

Dreamerly is a suite of easy-to-use, compliance-focused, customizable SDKs and APIs powering NFT features in iOS and Android apps. Our mission is to help mobile developers create amazing web3 experiences for their customers. 

Read more about [our vision](https://dreamerly.com/about), and follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/DreamerlyHQ).

We explain why blockchain data is important, what is Dune Analytics, and how you can master Dune to improve your web3 apps in a 7-step process.

How can web3 mobile developers take advantage of blockchain data? We explain why blockchain data is important, what is Dune Analytics, and how you can master Dune to improve your web3 apps in a 7-step process.

Which mobile platform should web3 developers build on: iOS, Android, or Solana Mobile?

Our previous [blog post](https://dreamerly.com/blog/20221122-why-so-few-crypto-mobile-apps) talked about the challenges of building mobile apps for web3. Still, the vast majority of web3 developers told us that they are very determined to build on mobile. This leads to a very important question for engineers looking to create web3 mobile apps: **Which mobile platform to build on?**

**In this post, we analyze the pros and cons of building web3 apps on iOS, Android, and Solana Mobile.** Our goal is to suggest a set of well-defined, insightful, and relevant criteria for web3 developers to decide between these platforms.

## iOS: High-value network, but stringent gatekeeping

{% image src="https://dreamerly-prod-site-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/20221205-which-mobile-platform-should-web3-developers-build-on-1.webp" alt="iPhone displaying the Ethereum icon, on a table with notebooks, plants, and a pen" %} 
Building web3 apps on iPhone.
{% /image %}

The iOS mobile stack provides a very interesting contrast for web3. **On one hand, Apple is notoriously difficult about crypto features** (see our previous [blog post](https://dreamerly.com/blog/20221122-why-so-few-crypto-mobile-apps)). The App Store’s review process is both stringent and opaque, making it very difficult for web3 teams to navigate. **On the other hand, the Apple ecosystem is home to the most valuable and high-spending user base in mobile and offers strong privacy and security features.**

In our view, **there are three key benefits of developing web3 apps on iOS: 1) monetization, 2) tooling, and 3) security.**

- **Significant monetization opportunities:** Due to Apple’s market positioning, its user base has relatively high income and loyalty, with very strong presence in North America and Europe. Studies after studies have shown that iOS users spend much more than Android users. In 2021, iOS users account for only 30% of app downloads but 66% of mobile app revenue ([source](https://www.appmysite.com/blog/android-vs-ios-users-a-detailed-behavioural-comparison)). This implies that on average, an iOS user outspends an Android user by 4-5 times.
- **Stable and mature developer tools and services:** iOS is a well-established and mature platform, with a range of tools and services for developers to reliably build, test, and distribute apps. For example, with the Xcode environment, iOS developers can enjoy a unified, consistent app development experience instead of patching together disparate tools. Xcode is also reasonably flexible, supporting a wide variety of languages, including Objective-C, Swift, Java, Python, Ruby, etc. 
- **Strong user privacy and security features:** Apple has long portrayed itself as a champion of privacy and security. This strategy is evident in many ways, from the [App Tracking Transparency](https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/05/19/apples-anti-tracking-tech-is-mostly-working-but-it-cant-block-everything), which requires apps to explicitly ask users for tracking permission, to iCloud’s end-to-end encryption. Even the App Store’s restrictive app review can be viewed in this light, as it does discourage many spammy apps and create a safe environment for users. We see that this emphasis both aligns with crypto’s ethos and web3’s high requirement for security.

However, there are also important downsides to developing on iOS:

- **Apple’s reluctance to web3:** By and large, iOS remains a more unfriendly environment to crypto than Android is. Apple’s policies limit cryptocurrency trading to only apps made by licensed exchanges and financial institutions, and mandate at least a 15% revenue cut on NFT transactions. Most recently, Coinbase’s app update was blocked, because Apple argues that the gas fees of NFT transactions have to be paid via in-app purchase ([source](https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/1/23488448/coinbase-ios-wallet-app-apple-nft-fees-in-app-purchase-store)). This attitude results in a two-fold effect: web3 developers are discouraged from building iOS apps, while iOS developers fear adding crypto features may lead to app removal.
- **Smaller, less global user base compared to Android:** The high price points of the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch mean that they are unaffordable to the vast majority of mobile users, especially in developing countries. In important web3 markets such as Brazil, India, and Vietnam, Android dominates with 80%+ market share. This creates a real dilemma for iOS developers, having to manage crypto’s promise of inclusivity against Apple’s relatively exclusive user segment.
- **Security quirks:** The close nature of the iOS ecosystem stands opposite to crypto’s vision of accessibility and openness. But beyond philosophical issues, the iOS mobile stack also introduces several roadblocks for web3 developers. For instance, Apple tends to curb the use of wallet authentication as the sole authentication method. In other words, developers need to maintain a traditional login system and add additional wallet integration logic.


## Android: Big, but fragmented

{% image src="https://dreamerly-prod-site-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/20221205-which-mobile-platform-should-web3-developers-build-on-2.webp" alt="An Android phone held in a palm" %} 
Android dominates in market share for most markets.
{% /image %}

**Web3 developers face a completely different set of tradeoffs on Android.** More specifically, the Android platform offers a large global market and a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops, but lacks a standardized framework due to its open-source nature.

**Android development brings three benefits for web3 developers: 1) a global user base, 2) a strong developer community, and 3) flexibility and customization.**

- **Global user base:** A key advantage of building web3 apps on Android is its large and diverse user base. Android is the most popular mobile operating system in the world, with over 2.5 billion active users. This means that web3 app developers building on Android have access to a huge potential market for their apps, and can reach a wide and diverse range of users. This can help web3 app developers to grow their user base and increase the adoption and usage of their apps, and can provide them with valuable insights and feedback from their users.
- **Strong developer community:** In addition to the large and diverse user base, Android also has a strong and active developer community. The open-source nature of the Android platform has fostered a vibrant and engaged developer community, with a wealth of resources and support available to engineers. This can be very valuable for web3 app developers building on Android, because they can tap into this community for support, guidance, and inspiration.
- **Flexibility and customization:** By being open-source, Android gives developers a high degree of freedom to test different web3 integrations and crypto features. This is especially important for a nascent field like crypto, which needs experimentation to find product-market fit and build best practices. Android developers can also have the option of using app sideloads and installations via APKs, effectively giving their apps a massive iteration boost. Finally, Android’s philosophy fits perfectly with that of crypto developers, many of whom are ardent supporters of open-source software development. It is therefore not a surprise that we have seen more web3 apps on Android than on iOS.

Still, building Android apps is not easy for web3 developers, for the following reasons:

- **Lack of consistent and standardized platform:** One of the main disadvantages of building web3 apps on Android is the lack of a consistent and standardized platform for web3 app development. Too often, the Android development experience is marred by fragmentation. For instance, the most recent Android versions are not fully adopted by and compatible with all devices. Moreover, web3 developers face a huge UI/UX headache from the hundreds of distinct Android devices currently available.
- **Security and privacy concerns:** Most industry experts agree that Android users face significantly higher risks of downloading malicious apps, rooting issues, and privacy concerns than their iOS counterparts ([source](https://nordvpn.com/blog/ios-vs-android-security)). This hurts web3 developers in two ways. One, users are less willing to try new crypto features. Two, their apps can be targeted by malware from other apps, resulting in disastrous consequences.
- **Competition with other apps and lower revenue per user:** Because the Google Play Store’s review process is less strict than that of the Apple App Store, there can be a flood of low-quality apps that can make it difficult for your app to stand out. Moreover, the average Android user often has lower spend and higher churn than the average iOS user. This forces Android developers to capture a much larger user base in order to make the same revenue amount as iOS developers.


## Solana Mobile: Too early for now, but worth keeping an eye on

{% image src="https://dreamerly-prod-site-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/20221205-which-mobile-platform-should-web3-developers-build-on-3.webp" alt="A Saga phone running the Solana Mobile framework" %} 
Testing the Solana Mobile OS on the new Saga phone.
{% /image %}

The Solana Mobile stack is a direct response from the crypto industry to address the limitations of iOS and Android. Based on Android, Solana Mobile’s value proposition is to provide a seamless, crypto-first mobile experience for web3 believers. The framework is built by the Solana Foundation and is deeply integrated with the Solana blockchain, known for high transaction speed and low gas fees.

**We think that unless you are a hard-core Solana developer, it is still too early to develop on Solana Mobile.**

The biggest challenge of Solana Mobile is **the lack of an existing user and developer network**. While the duopoly of iOS and Android has attracted criticisms from both users and developers, we believe that it is extremely difficult to break their network effect. Solana Mobile, or any other mobile platform, would have to overcome the classic chicken-and-egg problem: users won’t use Solana Mobile if there are only a few good apps, while developers won’t build apps if the platform has too few users.

In addition, we see **a steep learning curve** for developers building on Solana Mobile. By and large, its technical stack is untested. Despite significant efforts from the Solana Foundation, the compatibility of the Solana Mobile platform with existing tools and technologies for mobile developers remains largely unknown. Coupled with the problem of a very small developer community, this translates to significant hurdles for Solana Mobile developers.

Even so, we’d argue that **it is worth keeping an eye on Solana Mobile**. A phone and a mobile stack built specifically for crypto are an interesting and bold idea. First-class support for crypto may solve many challenges faced by iOS and Android developers, while inspiring new, innovative mobile-first crypto use cases. Solana’s integration can unlock performance and scalability for Solana Mobile apps and can be the perfect fit for blockchain games, social networks, and marketplaces.

## Final words

In summary, iOS and Android each offer a unique set of opportunities and challenges for web3 developers. Given that the majority of Internet traffic now comes from mobile devices, we believe that **web3 developers should evaluate both platforms to “meet the users where they are” and delight them with powerful web3 capabilities.**

Dreamerly is here to help. [Our mission is to dramatically remove the challenges of building web3 on both iOS and Android](https://dreamerly.com/about). With the Dreamerly SDKs, developers can stop worrying about blockchain integration, app store rejection, and backend issues, and can focus on what truly matters: their customers.

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&nbsp;

**About Dreamerly**

Dreamerly is a suite of easy-to-use, compliance-focused, customizable SDKs and APIs powering NFT features in iOS and Android apps. Our mission is to help mobile developers create amazing web3 experiences for their customers. 

Read more about [our vision](https://dreamerly.com/about), and follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/DreamerlyHQ).

We explore the pros and cons of building web3 apps on iOS, Android, and Solana Mobile. Our analysis suggests iOS and Android offer the best opportunities for web3 developers.

We explore the pros and cons of building web3 apps on iOS, Android, and Solana Mobile. Our analysis proposes a set of well-defined, insightful, and relevant criteria for web3 developers to decide between these platforms.

Tips & Troubleshooting

Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, or BSC: Ranking the top blockchains for web3 mobile developers (January 2023 version)

ERC-721, ERC-1155 or ERC-3525: Which is the best NFT standard for web3 mobile developers?

Web3 iOS development: Top 10 things developers should know

7 reasons why mobile developers should add NFTs to their apps

How to use Dune Analytics like a pro: A 7-step guide for crypto developers

Which mobile platform should web3 developers build on: iOS, Android, or Solana Mobile?

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