Decentralized Applications – dAppsDecentralized applications (dApps) are applications that run on a P2P network of computers rather than a single computer. dApps, have existed since the advent of P2P networks. They are a type of software program designed to exist on the Internet in a way that is not controlled by any single entity.
- Decentralized applications don’t necessarily need to run on top of a blockchain network. BitTorrent, Popcorn Time, BitMessage, Tor, are all traditional dApps that run on a P2P network, but not on a Blockchain (which is a specific kind of P2P network).
- As opposed to simple smart contracts, in the classic sense of Bitcoin, that sends money from A to B, dApps have an unlimited number of participants on all sides of the market.
Difference between dApps & Smart ContractsdApps are a ‘blockchain enabled’ website, where the Smart Contract is what allows it to connect to the blockchain. The easiest way to understand this is to understand how traditional websites operate.
- The traditional web application uses HTML, CSS and Javascript to render a page. It will also need to grab details from a database utilizing an API. When you go onto Facebook, the page will call an API to grab your personal data and display them on the page. Traditional websites: Front End → API → Database
- dApps are similar to a conventional web application. The front end uses the exact same technology to render the page. The one critical difference is that instead of an API connecting to a Database, you have a Smart Contract connecting to a blockchain. dApp enabled website: Front End → Smart Contract → Blockchain
As opposed to traditional, centralized applications, where the backend code is running on centralized servers, dApps have their backend code running on a decentralized P2P network. Decentralized applications consist of the whole package, from backend to frontend. The smart contract is only one part of the dApp:
- Frontend (what you can see), and
- Backend (the logic in the background).
A smart contract, on the other hand, consists only of the backend, and often only a small part of the whole dApp. That means if you want to create a decentralized application on a smart contract system, you have to combine several smart contracts and rely on 3rd party systems for the front-end.
dApps can have frontend code and user interfaces written in any language (just like an app) that can make calls to its backend. Furthermore, its frontend can be hosted on decentralized storage such as Swarm or IPFS.
source : blockchainhub
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