Easing ĐApp Interaction for Non-Blockchain Users from a Conceptual Modelling Approach

Abstract

Blockchain decentralized applications (ÐApp’s) are applications which run on blockchains nodes. Thus, to interact directly with this sort of applications, users need to have a blockchain address, wallet, and knowledge about how to make transactions to interact with ÐApp’s. Therefore, the knowledge required to use a ÐApp can easily make users to desist when trying to interact with them. To tackle this issue, we propose a software architecture that will be in the middle of the user and the ÐApp, thus making users initially unaware of the fact that they are interacting with a ÐApp. This is achieved by analyzing the relationship between ÐApps and Apps by using UML modelling. Next, based on the previous analysis, we created a middleware for users to interact with a ÐApp in the same manner they do with a traditional web app, i.e., by using usernames, passwords and user interface elements instead of addresses, private keys or transactions. To put the developed middleware into practice, we developed a ÐApp that makes use of it. This ÐApp registers the time control of workers from companies by using blockchain to store the data in a secure and non-modifiable manner. Finally, we performed an experiment, thus demonstrating that a ÐApp that implements the proposed middleware would improve its usability for users with no experience with blockchain.

Keywords

• blockchain
• ÐApp
• UML
• conceptual modelling
• ethereum
• smart contract