Blockchain data provider DappRadar published a blog post on Tuesday outlining how it calculates its data for the number of “active” users interacting with decentralized applications (dapps), including metaverse platform Decentraland.
DappRadar said that it tracks the number of Unique Active Wallets (UAW), the number of transactions and the volume of those transactions across different dapps. It does this by tracking “unchangeable decentralized application data from the blockchain, providing verifiable insights for all its users.”
For example, when tracking the number of transactions to or from a smart contract, that data point is tracked live on the blockchain.
“It’s important to note that data on the blockchain is unchangeable, and therefore it doesn’t lie,” the post said. “However, this data doesn’t always mean the same for each dapp. Furthermore, blockchain data doesn’t always paint the entire picture.”
It went on to explain that a standard measurement it uses for its DappRadar Rankings is “Unique Active Wallets,” which shows the dapps with the “most user wallets interacting with it.”
“The DappRadar tooltip describes the UAW or user data as the ‘number of unique wallet addresses interacting with a dapp’s smart contracts.’ So, to be counted by DappRadar, a user needs to make a blockchain transaction.” It noted that any dapp activity outside of the blockchain ecosystem is generally not tracked, which could account for discrepancies between its measurements and measurements reported from the dapps themselves.
Specifically, it noted that the key metrics it provides for metaverse worlds are based on smart contracts, “which are mainly submitted by dapp developers.”
“The Decentraland team is currently updating their list of smart contracts and we’re therefore recalculating their metrics,” it added. “Dapp developers can claim ownership over their presence on DappRadar, and provide all the necessary smart contracts to track their project properly.”
DappRadar’s statement follows a recent CoinDesk report sharing data from the platform, which suggested that Decentraland had only 38 “active users” last Friday. Decentraland has since said that it sees an average of 8,000 “daily active users,” calling other data measurements for “daily active users” into question.
In a statement, Decentraland explained that it considers an “active user” to be “someone who enters Decentraland and moves out of the initial parcel they entered the world into.” It added that it is now working with DappRadar to improve its data tracking.
“Initially, DappRadar was only tracking 13 Decentraland contracts – they will now track over 3,000 and will begin working on a way to include meta-transactions in their tracking as well,” the metaverse platform wrote.