What are Dapps? Decentralized Applications Can Be Used for Everything From Game to Finance Platforms
From the user’s perspective, there is little difference between a decentralized app running on a blockchain and a traditional app running on the web or an operating system.
0:11 Dapp meaning
0:29 Where Dapps are found
0:35 Dapp censorship
0:40 Dapp capabilities
0:55 Dapp characteristics
1:42 Smart Contracts
2:20 Benefits of Dapps
2:55 Weaknesses of Dapps
3:17 Dapp Platforms
The main difference is that decentralized apps — DApps — run on distributed and immutable blockchain networks rather than a centrally controlled operating system. This makes them essentially impossible to censor.
In terms of what they can do, DApps run everything from games and marketplaces to decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platforms.
Under the hood, however, DApps generally share several basic characteristics that set them apart from their centralized kin.
First, DApps must be open source, meaning the code is available for anyone to see, and any updates and changes decided upon through a consensus mechanism that amounts to some form of majority vote rather than by a developer.
Second, DApps must (obviously) be decentralized. This means all data and records generated by the DApp are stored on an immutable, public blockchain.
Third, DApps are incentivized, generating and using tokens to reward validators.
By these definitions, Bitcoin itself qualifies as a DApp, albeit one with its own built-in blockchain.