Dapps have generated a lot of buzz. Why is that? To understand the answer first, you have got to understand the importance of applications. In the modern age, digital applications are part of everyone’s daily life. Office workers use
What Are Decentralized Applications (Dapps)? Dapps are decentralized versions of applications. In 2014, a report named, “The General Theory of Decentralized Applications, Dapps,” was released. This was the
Layer 1: These Dapps exist as themselves on their blockchain. They have their consensus mechanism and
Layer 2: The Layer 2 Dapps are generally built on top of Layer 1 Dapps. These Dapps harness the power of layer 1 blockchain. These Dapps are often considered
Layer 3: The Layer 3 Dapps exist on top of the Layer 2 Dapps. There are various types of applications that fall into this category. Gaming applications, financial applications, and medical applications are just a few categories. According to the paper, Dapps are defined as any product that utilizes blockchain technology. However, it’s worth noting that the term Dapp is usually used for Layer 3 Dapps.
Benefits And Drawbacks Dapps have lots of benefits and drawbacks. In this section, we’re going to discuss them all in detail.
Benefits Less Downtime: Traditional apps only have one server. In case the server faces any problem, the app may stop working until the problem gets fixed. However, this isn’t the case with Dapps. Dapps don’t have a single point of failure. Thousands of nodes are responsible for running the Dapp, and if a few of them stop working it wouldn’t even have a slight impact on a Dapp’s performance. Immutability: The transaction records of a Dapp are stored inside a
Drawbacks Slower Updates: In a centralized organization, making a change is super easy. If a central authority wants to add or remove any features, they can just go ahead and do it. However, the process is not so simple for Dapps. There is no central authority that can make a change. To even make small changes, there needs to be a consensus among the majority of the members. This makes it quite difficult and time-consuming to make changes. Lots of Requirements: To even launch a Dapp, the creator has to fulfil lots of requirements. There needs to be a user base, nodes, and a consensus mechanism just to get started. Difficulty In Accessibility: Getting access to a Dapp is much more difficult than getting access to an app. To use an app all you have to do is download it. However, to download a Dapp you’ll need to perform the following actions: Download the browser that supports Dapps Buy a wallet that is compatible with the Dapp Buy the coin that is compatible with both Dapp and wallet. A tech-savvy user won’t find it complicated to perform these actions. However, it’ll still take longer than simply downloading an app. As for the non-tech-savvy users, they’ll have to spend a decent amount of time just to understand how to perform these actions. Not Great User Experience: Dapps don’t have a great user experience. As already mentioned, even accessing them can be quite difficult. To make things even worse, instead of usernames and passwords, Dapps include public and private keys. These keys are extremely difficult to remember than username and password. Dapps Usage So far we have covered what the Dapps are and their benefits and drawbacks. Now, let’s discuss their usage. Browsers In traditional browsers, it’s easy for websites to track user information. Some websites ask the users to give them access to track cookies, while others track the cookies without the user’s consent. This is not the case with Dapp browsers. Dapp browsers come with integrated info blockers that stop websites from getting access to cookies without the user’s consent. The users can decide to turn blockers off for specific websites, but by default, all websites are restricted from accessing information. One more amazing feature of Dapp browsers is that they allow users to earn crypto just by browsing. In a nutshell, Dapp browsers allow users to browse comfortably while making small earnings. Gaming Dapps have introduced the Play-&-Own model to the gaming industry. The P&O model allows the players to own the in-game assets. You might be thinking what’s so special about owning an in-game asset? You can own in-game assets in traditional games, and you can even customize them. Yes, you can own the assets and even customize them, but you can’t sell them. To truly own an asset, you should have the authority to sell it. The P&O model gives you the authority to sell the asset. Voting And Governance The current voting method is inconvenient and time-consuming. The voters have to travel to the polling station, wait in line (sometimes for hours), and often under bad weather. Additionally, the current voting system isn’t fair. Tampering and other evangelical practices are often recorded. Dapp voting and governance are much better than the current voting method. It does away with inconvenient, time-consuming and unfair procedures. It allows voting to be done comfortably, quickly and fairly. And as for the possibility of tampering, it’s near impossible. NullCheck parties cannot afford to buy off all the nodes involved in the voting. This eliminates any possibility of tampering with the voting results. Overall, Dapps have a lot of benefits and bring a lot of improvements and changes in different industries. However, they also come with certain drawbacks. As the technology continues to develop and improve, hopefully more of the drawbacks will be addressed, making Dapps even more accessible and user-friendly.