Decentralized Applications (dApps) - Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 - Homework Post for Task 8 by @acbaby

Source Edited by @acbaby on iMark app

QUESTION 1
What are dApps? Explain the working system of dApps? What are the differences between dApps and other applications? Explain the advantages and disadvantages of dApps? How can dApps developers promote their apps? What should we pay attention to when using dApps? How do we find the information of a DApp that we want to know? Provide the steps (Screenshot required).

INTRODUCTION

Hi steemianos, hope we are all in good shape. Today I will be answering the first question of the proposed homework questions of bigginers courses of Crypto Academy Season 4. The question in bold above is the one I will be answering and I have decided to put the questions into its smaller factions for us to easily understand all about dApps. I hope this assignment will provided us with enough information about dApps. Get ready why we start.

QUESTION 1a:

What are dApps?

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dApps is simply the acronym for decentralized Applications. Thus, dApps are applications built to be used like any other application but they are not controlled by any authority therefore leaving the users with full right over their information and activities carried on these applications. They are supported by the blockchain technology. Each dApp is supported by a particular blockchain and often has a cryptocurrency to the app. Generally the blockchain is a technology that provides a decentralized system of operation which has high level of transparency.
These applications are different from the normal applications such as Facebook and Twitter in that they aren’t controlled by any authority and they can operate in a peer to peer network mechanism with the ability to combine different smart contracts.

The major characteristics of decentralized applications can be seen on the table below.

Character	Description
Algorithms	dApps have consensus mechanisms that are used to mine cryptocurrency within every particular dApp blockchain. These mechanisms gives value to native token of every block and also are used to verify transactions and validate new blocks. Examples are Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms.
Transparency	Every transaction carried out on a dApp is made public with users Id kept anonymous. That is dApps constitute the blockchain open transaction ledger recording transactions.
Security	All information on dApps are stored on the blockchain and a dApp once created can not be closed since it is already attached to a block and is not controlled by any authority.
Open source	The source codes of dApps are available in computers around the world making it available for every user. Changes in dApps can only take place due to majority decision.
Decentralized nature	dApps have no main authority as authority has been given to every user. Users are also kept anonymous making it difficult for any government authority to bypass and check the transaction details of individual users.
Incentivization	miners who verify transactions and validate blocks are given incentives in the form of a newly minted token or by other means but the means to an end is to reward validators after a group of transaction verification.

QUESTION 1b:

Explain the working system of dApps?

The working system of dApps requires that they have an open source code working without a third party intervention. This makes dApps to be controlled by users only, and this can be seen as users can propose and also vote on changes they want to be implemented on the dApp. The information of a dApp is stored publicly on a blockchain network and accessible to all users. dApps must be decentralized and void of a central point. dApps operation may take into consideration an existing consensus mechanism such PoW or PoS from which transaction verifications can be carried out and contributors rewarded in the native token of the dApp. dApps have different cryptocurrency tokens (smart contracts) that are used to reward users in the system. Smart contracts are the contact point between dApps and the blockchain. This gives credit to the decentralized nature of dApps since the blockchain technology is built on a decentralized foundation.

QUESTION 1c:

What are the differences between dApps and other applications

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dApps functions like centralized apps but differ in so many characters. Some of these differences are expressed below.

1. Decentralized nature
dApps allows users to own and control their activities without being dependent on a centralized authority. This gives users sole right to their data. For example an app like Twitter has the capacity to band a user but with dApps no authority does this unless majority of users vote out this user due to activities he/she carries out that doesn’t suit the community.

2. Transparency
All transactions and activities on dApps are made public with individual identity kept anonymous. No authority can take a decision to keep an activity private and out of the reach of some catergory of users.

3. Security
Due to the decentralized nature of dApps, the security system is stronger compared to that of other Apps. Since there is no central point of attack, it is quite difficult to access and break protocol on any dApp.

4. System speed
dApps will operate at faster speeds compared to the normal apps. This character comes from the automatic nature of validating activities on dApps.

5. App maintenance
Since dApps are self controlled, the worry of how to maintain dApps is lesser compared to other App. Secondly, for any development to be done on a dApp, it will require that users deliberate on it by votes rather than other Apps where the central authority takes decision for the users and develope the app without their concern.

6. Rewards
dApps rewards their users when their activities brings much interaction but other Apps prefer to make money from major activities carried out by users and the authors end up with nothing monetary.

7. Profitability
On financial dApps, a user can lend an amount to another user and upon refund the lender gets 100% interest whereas on other financial applications, users store money and the central authority gives it out as loan taking most of the profit and giving the lenders a very small amount from the profits.

QUESTION 1d:

Explain the advantages and disadvantages of dApps?

The common advantages of dApps over other applications and in their respective purposes are given below.

1. dApps operating without a third party makes them very secured and discourages unscrupulous activities. Therefore dApps are invulnerable to attacks since there’s no physical office or bank where theft can take place.

2. With financial dApps a user can send money to anyone in the world without paying any interest to a third party. This saves money for users as they can bypass the much fees spent on centralized financial Apps.

3. dApps are applicable to almost any type of industry and so can be used the same with ordinary applications with a plus on their decentralized nature and rewards.

4. With dApps there’s preference given to users. That is, a user can choose on a particular activity to get involved in. For example, a user can decide to share an experience or their medical check up or even a financial loan. It all depends on the user.

5. The means of data distribution is not from a central point which makes it impossible for data to be controlled by a single authority.
   Transaction speed and activities on dApps are very fast in execution since the system is automatic.

The common disadvantages of dApps have been expressed below.

1. Development within a dApp requires that users come to an agreement by voting and this often takes a longer period of time to settle.

2. The process of making verifications on dApps can discourage a new user because it takes time and energy and can be boring.

3. Fixing API problems are time consuming with dApps compared to normal centralized applications.

4. dApps require a certain number of users to function properly.

5. dApps are quite difficult for a first timer to use. The means of directing new users on how to operate within a dApp is not done quite well as seen on centralized applications.

QUESTION 1e:

How can dApps developers promote their apps?

dApp developers promote their apps by submitting them to certain

sites such as dappclap, dapradar, dappbang and others. To do this, developers simply login and submit their dApp in any of the directories websites. Also, dApp developers are known to advertise their apps on social applications well know such as Twitter,Telegram, and Reddit.

QUESTION 1f:

What should we pay attention to when using dApps?

Although dApps are well secured apps that comes with much advantages to the centralized applications, we have to pay attention to the different dApps with use. Why I am saying so is because some dApps are very risky especially for a new user.
Due to how fast dApps are growing in use, unscrupulous developers tend to operate applications that looks like dApps but their interior workings are decentralized. Examples are dApps that looks like ponzi-scheme with the get rich quick conception. Users are advices to research properly about a dApp before using it in order to avoid being victimized by “bad dApps”. It’s good the next part of this question enables me to explain the steps involved in getting information about a dApp.

QUESTION 1g:

How do we find the information of a DApp that we want to know? Provide the steps (Screenshot required).

To get the information about a dApp is simply by carrying out the following steps. In this example I will focus on the dApp “Pancakeswap” and this example will show all necessary information about this dApp.

step 1
Search the website dappradar.com and you will be directed on different dApps that exist on this site. Click on the menu button that I sent at the top right of the page.
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Step 2
To check the ranking of dApps on this site, click on “Rankings”
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Step 3
After clicking on ranking, the following information will come forth. The ranking of different dApps as at this time are displayed on the screenshot above.
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Step 4
To check the information of a particular dApp, you can simply click on it or search it by name. The ranked dApps are shown below. In this case I have searched on the information of Pancakeswap from the ranked dApps.
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The screenshots below shows several statisticaleasure of Pancakeswap such as the volume, numbers of users, transactions, transaction history and graphical format.
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Here you can check the information of Pancakeswap in 7days, 24hrs , and also in a month. This can be done by simply clicking on the different time inditervalsmof your choice.

CONCLUSION

Decentralized applications have exceptional features which will enable users do a lot more with them as opposed to the centralized applications. They have evolved with these feature improving everyday. These applications can be used in almost every industry offering its credited decentralized value to the normally centralized applications. Irrespective of the decentralized nature of dApps, some developers might create dApps that may become very risky for user and for users to avoid this, it is required that users carry out proper research before every dApp venture.

Thanks to my professor @wahyunahrul for the lecture.
Thanks for reading guys
Steem on!!