DApps: Revolutionizing the Digital Landscape

Dapps or decentralized applications are applications that are built and run on a blockchain or peer-to-peer network as opposed to running on a single computer. The applications are decentralized and are not governed or controlled by a single authority. Dapps are open-source and distributed that letting anyone access the code once a developer releases the dapp in a blockchain. Dapps restructures the world of applications using the powerful technology blockchain. Dapps can be built for varied purposes like finance, social media, gaming, arts, collectibles, etc., Before you know about dapps, you must know what is blockchain and what are the basics.

How does a Dapp Work?

Dapps are public, open-source, and decentralized. It is free from the control of the central authority. On the other hand, conventional apps are controlled by a central authority and their code runs on centralized servers.

Similar to conventional or traditional apps, dapps also include frontend code and user interface(which can be written in any language) for making calls to the backend.

To access the decentralized application you must need cryptographic tokens. dapps use smart contracts for their app logic. A smart contract is a set of rules or programs stored on a blockchain that will execute, control, or document events and actions automatically in order with the terms of a contract or an agreement.

The dapps are non-changeable once it is deployed in the blockchain network. The dapps can be decentralized as they are controlled by smart contracts, not by an organization or individual.

Advantages of Dapps

• User Privacy: You don’t need to interact with your real identity with a dapp.
• Trustless behavior: It uses Smart Contracts to complete the transaction without a central authority.
• Transparent: Dapps are transparent and no entity in the network can block the users from deploying apps, submitting the transaction, or reading records from the blockchain.
• Integrity: Data is immutable once you store it in a blockchain. Therefore hackers cannot forge the transactions that are public.
• No downtime:After the smart contract is deployed on the blockchain, the network will serve the clients looking for the contract. It is difficult to attack the dapps.

Disadvantage of Dapps

• Hard to maintain: As its code and data are published on the blockchain it is harder to modify thus it’s difficult for the developers to update their dapps once they are deployed.
• Limited Scalable: Decentralized applications are limited in scalability and they depend on distributed ledger technology to process the transactions.
• Expensive: It needs an expensive infrastructure like a dedicated server and specialized nodes to run the dapps.
• Performance issues: Due to the complex network architecture and transactions confirm across a large peer-to-peer network, it can be slow, ineffective, and unreliable.
• Security issues: Highly risk of attacks by hacking, malicious actors, and data breaches.
• Regulatory ambiguity: It’s hard to deploy the dapps in specific jurisdictions where the public blockchain is subject to various regulations.