Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 Beginners' course - Task 8: Decentralized Applications (dApps) : Home work task for @wahyunahrul
Good day fellow Academians ,
Today marks my task 8 of the season 4 Beginners' fixed courses and below is my presentation.
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).
What are dApps?
These applications work like regular apps, but with the absence of a single authority.
Features
- Open source
- Peer-to-peer
- Smart contracts
- Decentralised
- Operate on blockchains
Explain the working system of dApps?
All dApps operate on blockchain network or technology. They use open-source system and more importantly they succeed with the help of smart contracts whereby transactions are recorded automatically without the help of human assistance or third parties.
dApps operate on a peer-to-peer system which means there are no third parties involved or required to confirm transactions.
dApps charge some small amount of fees for the transactions to proceed and this fees are paid in different tokens depending on the type of blockchain the dApp is operating on.
What are the differences between dApps and other applications?
Below are some dichotomies between dApps and other applications.
| dApps | Other (Centralised) Apps |
|---|---|
| They operate on blockchains | They don't operate on blockchain |
| Slow operating speed | High operating speed |
| High security is assured | Low level of security |
| Transactional or operational fees | No usage fees involved |
| No central authority and restrictions | There are central authorities and restrictions |
| Low development and maintainence cost | High development and maintainence cost |
| No ownership of the apps | There is ownership |
| They perform similar functions | There is diversity of functions |
| They use Tokens | No Tokens involved |
How can dApps developers promote their apps?
dApss developers can promote their apps through the following ways:
Advertisements; dApps developers can promote their apps on websites and social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, Discord etc.
Submission of dApps to dApps directories or promoters such as dappclap, dappradar, dappbang dapp100 etc. so that their works would be published and promoted.
Explain the advantages and disadvantages of dApps?
Below are some advantages and disadvantages of dApps
Merits
Censorship resistance. It is difficult for any individual or government to put restrictions on the access to dapps since there is no single authority.
They do not rely on a single point of failure like that of a hosting server and this ensure no downtime or restrictions since they exist on a P2P network of computers
Autonomy, they ensure user's operation autonomy due to their decentralised nature as compared to other centralised apps where there are restrictions.
Data in dApps can't be manipulated by anyone.
High level of security, there is also a high level of security on the side of dApps due to the blockchains systems they associate themselves with, as compared to the Centralised apps.
They also have the ability to be connected to each other since they have same or similar functions.
Demerits
The open-source and smart contract nature of dApps make them more prone to hackers especially the weaker ones (dApps).
There is no central authority to help on wrong transactions therefore if someone makes a wrong transaction it is irreversible leading to huge lose, stress and frustrations.
Most of the dApps are not user-friendly which most at times leads to frustrations especially on the part of new users.
Verification in dApps are very difficult since they lack a central authority.
Fixing an issue in a dApp is more or less like a pain in the neck since it requires all users to update themselves on the system order to fit into the new development.
dApps are not easily accessible due to the complex nature of the Ecosystem.
What should we pay attention to when using dApps?
As rational beings whenever we are doing something or want to engage in something there are some traits we should try to consider in order to prevent future damages. Same procedure applies in the crypto and dApps world.
Users should try their possible best to pay attention to High risk dApps because they are not fully decentralised as they claim to be and they are full of scam.
They normally have a bearing of Ponzi-scheme and they are full of fake promises.
Examples; Forsage, Etherchain, Hex etc.
They present themselves as sheep in wolves clothes.
Thorough research is therefore recommended to avoid such High risk dApps
How do we find the information of a dApp that we want to know? Provide the steps (Screenshot required).
Below are the steps on how to find the information about a dApp you want to know.
- To find information of a dApp that you want to know, firstly you need to visit www.dappradar.com and you will have a beautiful display of the webpage. you can click here for a visit
- Incase you don't find your preferred dApp being displayed on the homepage, you should navigate and click on "menu" at the top right corner of the page and search the dApp or visit the "ranking" list to check it up.
The rank list of dApps you can choose from.
- After coming across or searching the dApp just click on it and you would have the opportunity to see all the relevant information concerning the selected or searched dApp such as Volume, Transactions, Users, Balance and the Historical Activity of the selected dApp in the form of graph on the right side.
This is an interesting lesson and I have really enjoyed every bit of it.
The saying "knowledge is power" is indeed true. For now I am more enlighten in the world of dApps and I am hoping and willing to learn more.
Thank you very much Prof. @wahyunahrul for your great efforts.