What is DECENT (DCT)? | Beginner’s Guide

July 17, 2018

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What is DECENT?

DECENT is a decentralized application (DApp) ecosystem comprised of the DCore blockchain and DCT altcoin. The ecosystem includes APIs, SDKs, and other core features to help businesses build blockchain solutions.

Currently, the DCore product specializes in digital media and entertainment, but you can use the product however you like. This specialization is a step more focused than other Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) projects advertising themselves as a panacea to the world’s problems.

In this DECENT beginner’s guide, we cover:

How Does DECENT Work?

DCore is the core (Get it? Get it?!) of DECENT. It offers several entertainment and media focused components that you can build on to create DApps. Here are a few:

Custom tokens. Similar to Ethereum and Waves, you can create custom tokens for your individual use-case. If you’re a concert organizer, for instance, custom tokens make for great digital concert tickets that help to eliminate counterfeits.
Revenue sharing. A typical piece of content may have several individuals contributing to it. Contribution could range from actually creating the content to marketing to performing copyright checks. DECENT enables you to instantly (in <5 seconds) split the revenue you make from your content with the appropriate parties.
Large file transactions. To further improve content distribution, DECENT implements IPFS – a decentralized and efficient way to store and distribute content.

Some DCore Use-cases

Components are combinable as well. To explain further, let’s combine the custom tokens component with revenue sharing to create a blockchain crowdfunding campaign. For this example, let’s assume that we’re raising funds to build a product that we want to sell–a crowdfunding situation similar to Kickstarter.

To raise funds, we sell custom tokens to our supporters. Holding those tokens is proof that a supporter contributed to the campaign. The tokens are tradeable, and holders can sell them whenever they want.

Next, we bring revenue sharing into the mix. As we sell our product, we, of course, earn revenue. Through DECENT, we’re able to set up a split and distribute that revenue to our crowdfunding contributors. A system like this provides extra incentives to support the campaign.

DCT

DCT is DECENT’s cryptocurrency and is fundamental for a few different platform activities. Like Ether for Ethereum, you’re required to spend DCT to execute operations on the blockchain. You also need to hold DCT to vote for miners, but we’ll get more into that later.

There’s a total supply of just over 73 million DCT with over 50 million in circulation at the time of this writing. Additional tokens enter the ecosystem through a mining system in which token holders vote for the miners.

Delegated Proof-of-Stake

Similar to Ark, Lisk, and EOS, DECENT implements a Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. If you’re a DCT token holder, you have the right to vote for who you want as a network miner as well as how many network miners there are. Although the number of miners is flexible, there needs to be a minimum of 11 for the network to function.

Unlike a traditional Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network, you don’t receive rewards for staking and voting.

DECENT’s DPoS Voting System

Seeders

Seeders serve a similar role as DECENT miners in maintaining the network. As a seeder, you store and distribute content in return for DCT rewards. The system utilizes IPFS to execute the content exchanges.

As a publisher, you choose which seeder you’d like to store your content. Each seeder has a reputation rating, so selecting a trustworthy one is simple.

There need to be at least three seeders running on the network to send content through IPFS.

DECENT Team & Progress

Matej Michalko and Wayman Kwan founded DECENT in March 2015. Michalko’s resume is filled to the brim with blockchain experience:

Co-founder/CTO, Bitcoin Marketing
Co-founder/CEO, Coinsulting
Co-founder/Chairman of the Board, Blockchain R&D Hub
Advisor, SophiaTX

DECENT has a core team of developers and other roles but encourages the community to contribute as well.

The team launched DCore on June 30th, 2017 and released a significant update this past November. The update contained custom tokens, messaging on the blockchain, and a few features for seeders. The next release includes content streaming, non-transferable custom tokens (e.g., school credits, non-transferable tickets), vesting, and functionality to prevent illegal content seeding.

Competition

First and foremost, DECENT is a DApp platform. So, it’s competing in arguably the most crowded space in blockchain tech right now. Ethereum is the most well-known competitor while EOS, Cardano, and NEO solve similar problems as well.

DECENT distinguishes itself by building out features that are particularly helpful to content creators and consumers. If you’re planning on building a media or entertainment DApp, the DECENT team wants to be top of mind.

Looking at DECENT from this perspective, you may consider the Basic Attention Token (BAT) as a competitor. Although BAT isn’t a DApp platform, it’s deeply integrated into the online content sector in combination with the project’s Brave browser.

Additionally, quite a few projects are specializing in specifics like ticket sales or content sharing. But they don’t hold a significant market share, and most don’t serve as the foundation for DApp creation like DECENT does.

Trading

DECENT’s trading history has been relatively disappointing. Since beginning trading at $1.78 (~0.00072 BTC), the DCT price has steadily fallen to its current price of ~$0.32 (~0.00005 BTC). The coin experienced three significant price spikes through its lifetime so far.

The first substantial rise in price happened at the beginning of August 2017. It’s not entirely clear what caused it but appears to have been a partnership announcement with ATMChain. ATMChain supported DCT as a contribution option during their ICO.

The most substantial price increase followed the market bull run of December 2017 and early January 2018. Like the rest of the market, though, the price crashed back down to start the new year.

The last, and least significant, price jump coincided with the release of the DCore testnet at the end of March this year. As with other DApp platforms, higher usage volumes and popular DApps should bring the price upwards.

Where to Buy DCT

The recommended exchange to purchase DCT is Bittrex. On Bittrex, your only option is to trade BTC for DCT. If you don’t own any BTC, you should first buy Bitcoin on an exchange like Coinbase or Gemini.

You can also mine DCT. To become a miner, you need to follow the instructions provided by the DECENT team. Additionally, you need to earn enough votes from the DCT holders to secure a spot and receive your rewards.

Lastly, seeding will earn you DCT rewards. To seed, first set-up your computer following DECENT’s instructions. Then, run the “decentd” binary. Publishers will then select your node for seeding, and you’ll receive your DCT. The higher your rating as a seeder, the more likely it is that a publisher will choose you.

Where to Store DCT

You currently have two options in which you’re able to store your DCT. The first option is the DGo web-based wallet. The second is the DCore GUI wallet. A Web Wallet is on its way.

We highly recommended that you don’t store your DCT on an exchange.

Conclusion

DECENT is a content-focused DApp platform using a DPoS consensus mechanism. Although there are numerous other DApp platforms on the market, none have the content distribution focus that DECENT does.

The price and market cap rankings don’t reflect it, but the DECENT development team has been active with updates. Maybe a big marketing push is all this project needs to bring it back to its former glory.