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DApps

A decentralized application (dapp) is an application built on a decentralized network that combines a smart contract and a frontend user interface. On Ethereum, smart contracts are accessible and transparent – like open APIs – so your dapp can even include a smart contract that someone else has written.

DEFINITION OF A DAPP#

A dapp has its backend code running on a decentralized peer-to-peer network. Contrast this with an app where the backend code is running on centralized servers.

A dapp can have frontend code and user interfaces written in any language (just like an app) to make calls to its backend. Furthermore, its frontend can get hosted on decentralized storage such as IPFS.

  • Decentralized dapps operate on Ethereum, an open public decentralized platform where no one person or group has control
  • Deterministic dapps perform the same function irrespective of the environment in which they get executed
  • Turing complete dapps can perform any action given the required resources
  • Isolated dapps are executed in a virtual environment known as Ethereum Virtual Machine so that if the smart contract has a bug, it won’t hamper the normal functioning of the blockchain network

BENEFITS OF DAPP#

  • Zero downtime – Once the smart contract is deployed and on the blockchain, the network as a whole will always be able to serve clients looking to interact with the contract. Malicious actors, therefore, cannot launch denial-of-service attacks targeted towards individual dapps.
  • Privacy – You don’t need to provide real-world identity to deploy or interact with a dapp. Resistance to censorship – No single entity on the network can block users from submitting transactions, deploying dapps, or reading data from the blockchain.
  • Complete data integrity – Data stored on the blockchain is immutable and indisputable, thanks to cryptographic primitives. Malicious actors cannot forge transactions or other data that has already been made public.
  • Trustless computation/verifiable behavior – smart contracts can be analyzed and are guaranteed to execute in predictable ways, without the need to trust a central authority. This is not true in traditional models; for example, when we use online banking systems, we must trust that financial institutions will not misuse our financial data, tamper with records, or get hacked.