DappRadar announced that it would take action to remove bots from its statistics. The website analyzes the traffic and transaction volumes of more than 1,000 distributed applications on EOS and Ethereum.
This new development allows the site to provide more accurate data, according to a recent tweet. This announcement implies that the robots mainly concern the main applications, in particular the EOS-based gaming applications:
We have begun to exclude robots from DappRadar statistics (DAU) for multiple Dapps (BetDice, EOSPlay, Eos Win). Our priority is to provide clear and accurate data.
– DappRadar (@DappRadar)
DappRadar also warned developers against using smart contracts with free chips because they can be quickly emptied by robots:
“So far, we’ve found that freebies in the blockchain are NO-GO products, and most ‘FREE EOS 0.1 for newcomers’ cause thousands of robots to consume their smart contract funds.”
The precision challenge
Inaccurate data is a problem for many data analysts. Since most blockchains are publicly visible, they often strive for detailed data.
But when it’s time to interpret the information, data aggregators can ignore the nuances that exist in reality. Bots are just one problem: cryptocurrency whales and user-entered data are also problematic for data aggregators.
In particular, robots can corrupt the data by performing a large number of consecutive actions or posing as a large number of users. In the case of DappRadar, robots do not reflect the true popularity of any application and are unlikely to be translated into real users.
Who needs Dapp data?
Providing accurate data is definitely a good thing, but the DappRadar announcement leaves much to be desired in terms of transparency. The website did not explain in detail how the robots are identified or explained in detail.
This may be due to the nature of the website. Market scanners that report inaccurate data have been heavily criticized for their user bases, and some have provided extremely detailed explanations of their practices. However, there is some pressure on Dapp trackers because dapp data is generally not used for investment decisions.
DappRadar statistics are most interesting for developers creating competing applications. In the meantime, users often wonder if an application is reliable and resistant to attacks that statistics can not guarantee.