Using curated Ethereum data to build smarter

Supporting more than a dozen top ecosystems, we’ve observed countless web3 product launches, and seen strong patterns emerge in successes and failures.

There’s no secret to launching a successful web3 product. Your odds of success are primarily determined by your preparation and strategy, both of which can be improved by proper use of good data.

In this article, we’ll break down 3 common mistakes haunting would-be successes, as well as strategies for using on-chain data to avoid them.

Preface: Data integrity

Blockchain data isn’t hard to find. Several providers, chain explorers, and analyst dashboards are common. But the available data is incomplete, encoded, nonstandard, and difficult to access and make sense of.

Well-curated data solves these problems. Flipside is a team of industry-native experts who’ve curated, decoded, and contextualized data across 26 top protocols and counting.

The data provides a validated source of information that is human-readable, and extensively tagged and labeled for ease of interpretation. Armed with data of this quality, developers and entrepreneurs can ensure that they are building on a solid foundation, free from inconsistencies and inaccuracies that can lead to significant issues/costs down the road.

Because most chains are EVM-compatible and Ethereum is bridged almost everywhere in web3, Ethereum data is a foundational starting point. Even once you’ve specialized in a different ecosystem, it can provide powerful context for broader industry trends and help you compare across ecosystems.

Now, here's how you can use data to avoid typical launch mistakes and set your products up for success:

Mistake 1: Poor scalability and network congestion

One of the common mistakes startups make is not adequately preparing for scalability, leading to network congestion.

You’ve built a scalable product, but whether it will actually scale doesn’t just depend on your code. The protocol you launch on is of critical importance. Its average (and maximum) user activity, historical downtime, and the competitive landscape within the ecosystem all determine the strain your product will place on the network, as well as how much of the network’s resources can even be allocated to your users.

Nothing feels worse than a perfectly prepared launch halted by transaction failure, or worse, prohibitive gas fees.

How to use curated data to avoid this:‍

Curated Ethereum data provides insights into network behavior and trends, so you can plan accordingly. As early as possible, use data to find the ecosystem with the right market fit, including the proper user base and daily activity level for your product, as well as the right competitive landscape.

Real-time data makes it possible to pre-empt misfortune; if gas fees spike out of nowhere, you can postpone launch until they’re back to normal. Your users will appreciate it, and, when they see how you used data to inform launch on their behalf, will respect your company that much more.

Mistake 2: Not building for proven needs

Building a web3 app without a clear understanding of market needs can lead to failure. Every idea should be tested against data; many ideas are conceptually great, but fail to activate specific market sectors.

Countless high-potential products have imploded at launch because their features did not address real pain points or opportunities in the target users’ current experience, or included features that were too advanced/early for the current state of the market.

In web3, where user activity is stored on-chain, this is an unnecessary tragedy.‍

How to use curated data to avoid this:

Before spending time and money building a new product or even just a new feature, you can analyze on-chain behavior to ensure it’s the next logical step forward for existing active users.

Curated Ethereum data can help you ensure your solutions are based on proven market demands. Analyzing historical data, tracking transactions, and understanding user behavior between bridged ecosystems provides insight into industry trends, activities growing and shrinking in popularity, and other crucial intelligence.

Use data to drive your decisions, and you’ll find an edge in web3 that excites your users and unnerves your competitors.

Mistake 3: Missed timing or targeting at launch

“Build it and they will come” is just a misquote of a line in a movie. It isn’t the standard in product launches - in excited markets, saturation crowds out all but the best of marketers, and in quiet markets, low energy dulls even the most innovative releases.

In both cases, your launch must be specifically tailored to the right audiences at the right moments. Many products design launches around their ideal user, only to discover that their ideal user is distracted, or worse, not present during certain market phases.‍

How to use curated data to avoid this:‍

A successfully timed and targeted launch depends not only on who you ultimately envision using your product, but the available markets at the moment you’re planning to launch. With data, you can adjust both your timing and targeting to find the ideal moment and the most accessible user segments at that time.

With curated data, you can get as granular as a single wallet address, studying user movements across time and ecosystems. Finding patterns in their activity can suggest times and segments with the highest potential for a positive launch, and ideal addresses can even be targeted as early adopters and brand evangelists with specialized pre-launch campaigns to help you more steadily ramp up to your launch date, rather than launching blind.

Succeed or fail; the data decides

Curated data is more than user tatistics. With granular activity down to the single user, and coverage of every top blockchain and protocol, it’s an invaluable tool that can save you from failure or even supercharge your launch.

Don't leave your success to chance. Start your free trial today.