“Gosling” Release with new Advertising and IAP flows
Another major release is upon us — the “Gosling” Release!
This release comprises new integrations from the AppCoins protocol, with advances in 2 of the 3 flows of the protocol: In-App Purchases (IAP) and Advertising.
There’s also the first major improvements in the ASF Wallet design and we’ve deployed an Airdrop in the main network that enables users to experiment with the AppCoins Protocol.
You can check the published version of the ASF Wallet in GPlay and Aptoide.
In-App Purchases (IAP) Flow
The IAP flow was the major part of the Alpha 2 release, and it was deployed in the Ropsten test network along with an Airdrop, which is still active.
For Alpha 3 (“Gosling” Release), we’ve put the flow into production, having deployed the smart contract in the main network, along with changes in the SDK and Wallet.
You can check the deployed smart contract in the main network here and in the Ropsten test network here.
Developers can now integrate the SDK and choose if they want their apps to work in the Ropsten test network (as before) or in the main network, which enables them to monetise using APPC with real monetary value.
We’ve also greatly increased the speed at which transactions are done, which is crucial for users to have the best in-app experience when buying in-app items. Transactions are now done in under 5 seconds, when before it could take up to 10 minutes!
Advertising Flow
This is the major part of this release. This flow enables developers to reward users for the attention they give to their apps, while being sure they are paying for real conversion. For users, this means they can take part of the mobile economy without having to use their money to buy in-app items, as they can buy them with the APPC they earn from giving attention to apps with campaigns associated.
Differently from the release of the IAP flow in the Alpha 2 release, we’re releasing the Advertising flow both in the main network and in the Ropsten test network at the same time, along with the required changes in the SDK and Wallet.
You can check the deployed smart contract in the main network here and in the Ropsten test network here.
This means developers now have the power to choose if they want their apps to run in a test environment, using the Ropsten test network where the APPC tokens don’t yield real monetary value, or in a real-world scenario, using the main network with real APPC.
The SDK is triggering the Wallet and sending the Proof-of-Attention (PoA)components that enable the computation of a full PoA by the Wallet. The full PoA proves the user gave at least 2 minutes of attention and this is saved in the Blockchain in the form of an Event. The SDK also triggers the installation of the Wallet to make sure users can earn the amount of APPC they are expecting to earn, since the ASF Wallet is currently the only one prepared for the Advertising flow of the AppCoins Protocol. For more details about the PoA computation, please see ANU #6.
We are also releasing 3 pages on the ASF website that showcase the technology behind the Advertising flow, and that enable developers and users to use it:
- Create Campaign page, where developers can create campaigns for their apps
- Offer Wall page, where users can check available campaigns
- How to Use Advertising Flow page, where developers and users can read about the creation of campaigns process
Create Campaign page
This page enables developers to create campaigns. A developer can create a campaign by selecting the package name of the app and then assigns values for each of the following filters:
- Start date of the campaign
- End date of the campaign
- Budget to be spent in the campaign
- Attribution value to be paid for each conversion of the campaign
- List of vercodes of the app that are eligible for attributions
- Countries where the campaign should run in
The creation of campaigns can be done in the main network or the Ropsten test network. To choose the network, developers should have Metamask installed in the browser, which is available for Chrome and Firefox, and their wallet with funds (APPC and ETH) configured there.
Offer Wall page
Users can come to this page and check open campaigns for their country.
Campaigns are divided by Available and Unavailable, where the latter means that we don’t yet have access to the APK of the app associated with the campaign. Once the APK is uploaded by the developer, the campaign will automatically become active and available.
Users can check campaigns in the main network or in the Ropsten test network either by having Metamask installed in the browser or by selecting the network with the buttons as shown in the image above. Each campaign shows the app for which the campaign is running, as well as the amount of APPC the user will earn if he installs the app and gives it at least 2 minutes of attention.
How to Use Advertising Flow page
This page is similar to the one we’ve deployed during the Alpha 2 release, where we showed how users could try out our sample app — Trivial Drive — with the SDK integrated that allowed users to buy in-app items with APPC.
It shows how developers can create campaigns, guiding them through the creation process, what they need to specify in the campaign, and how users can access those campaigns and start earning APPC from giving attention to those apps.
Other
For this release, we’ve also created an Airdrop running in the main network, which enables users that use the ASF Wallet to receive real APPC and ETH that can be used in apps that integrate the SDK to buy in-app items. Each wallet can only receive funds from the Airdrop once.
Also, we’ve published two apps with the ASF SDK integrated that showcase the two flows — IAP and Advertising — in Aptoide Dev. These apps are Trivial Drive and 2048. In addition, we have also contacted a few other developers to help us test the new flows by integrating the SDK. For that, they are also featured in this release. The developers and the corresponding apps are: Loop, Bombastic, Crossbar Challenge and Smashtime. If you want to test the mentioned apps, you can find them in the “Spend your AppCoins” or “Get Rewarded with AppCoins” bundles in Aptoide Dev.
Lastly, we’ve performed the first step of redesigning the ASF Wallet to be more inline with the experience we want to give to our users. This time we’ve started redesigning the Transactions Screen, which can be seen below.
This redesign isn’t exactly what was shown in ANU #8 but you can expect further developments regarding this in the next few days.
Once again, we invite you to follow our work and give us feedback. You can follow and comment on our GitHub repos:
See you in the next ANU!
