The different categories of DApps
Existing decentralized applications can be classified into 3 different categories:
- The first category refers to DApps that have their own blockchain. For example Bitcoin and Ethereum can be considered DApps: Bitcoin is a monetary system independent of the banking system, and Ethereum is a decentralized global computer. Ethereum could also be compared to operating systems such as Windows, MacOS or Linux Ubuntu.
- The second category refers to DApps that use the blockchain of DApps of the first category to work. For example, Leeroy, an equivalent of Twitter that uses the Ethereum blockchain, or Hive, a blogging / information system similar to Medium.
- The last category refers to dApps that use a second layer protocol in combination to work. For example, SAFE Network uses Omni and issues its own tokens called “safecoins” for its operation (click to know the slp price).
What are the advantages of DApps?
A decentralized application has certain advantages that characterize it:
- Resilience. Unless otherwise provided for this purpose, a DApp never stops working. This means that there is never a downtime and never a maintenance period that can affect the user.
- Transparency. Anyone can inspect the code, which is obviously open source: this guarantees some security if the application has been running for a long time. In addition, all interactions with the autonomous contract(s) are recorded publicly, which facilitates legal remedies in the event of a dispute between two users.
- Resistance to censorship. Except as provided for this purpose, a DApp is by definition resistant to censorship, in the sense that it is difficult, even for its creators, to prevent an action from occurring. This is particularly beneficial for social networks that have experienced massive episodes of banishments and censorship of content creators who do not respect political correctness or have extreme ideas in recent years.
- Cost reduction. Generally, each time you use a DApp, a fee is charged to pay for the activity of the validators. These costs are generally minimal. As a result, in some industries where the cost of intermediaries is high, this saves money by eliminating intermediaries (here you find looks price).
- Users’ personal data does not belong to a company that can choose to do with it what it wants unilaterally. Generally, they are owned only by DApp users.
What are the defects of DApps?
Conversely, DApps can also have certain disadvantages that are not found on conventional centralized applications:
- Decentralized applications can be quite slow, especially when the network running them is saturated, or is not designed for speed.
- For DApps that require a lot of actions and whose conventional intermediaries have a low cost, this can become more expensive than using a conventional centralized application.
- Blockchain prevents the interruption of the operation of a DApp. The only way to make a DApp stop working would be to completely shut down the network, or introduce an upgrade that prevents the DApp from working.
- User interfaces are generally not as pleasant as on a conventional application.
- Specific knowledge is needed to be able to program them. For example, if you want to create a decentralized application on the Ethereum network, you will have to master the Solidity programming language.