OrbitDB is a p2p database system. As such it does not provide support for secure and efficient smart contract development. However, it provides a crucial part of the decentralized development stack; data storage, allowing dapps to become truly decentralized. 

Storing more information off-chain (and directly, with the user) will reduce the need for additional functionality onchain, simplifying smart contracts. A smart contract with less "moving parts" will be easier to secure and audit, thus reducing the attack surface area.

An application of off-chain data collection could be used in a voting mechanism whereby votes cast are stored to an OrbitDB database and later "rolled-up" and cryptocraphically signed before being "ratified" online via a smart contract. Such a feature could be extended to other concepts such as micro-payments.

Usage statistics publicly available on website, github and package pages:

https://github.com/orbitdb/orbitdb
https://www.orbitdb.org
https://www.npmjs.com/package/@orbitdb/core

During IPFS Camp 2024, OrbitDB was downloaded over 41,000 times.