How to Create dApps
Multiple enterprises in the retail, banking, and gaming sectors are taking the lead in developing their Decentralized Applications (dApps) to help streamline development processes, enhance application security and improve user experience. With thousands of dApps built on a variety of networks like Ethereum, EOS, Tron, and NEO, dApps are gaining quick traction in the crypto space.
dApps run on a blockchain or a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, in contrast to traditional applications that rely on a single database, controlled by a central authority. By eliminating the “middleman,” dApps enable direct user-to-user communication and settlements.
This article will take you through the concept of dApps, how to develop a dApp, and some key dApp features that are taking the crypto space by storm.
What are dApps?
Decentralized applications are open-source software applications not owned by a central authority. dApps are fundamentally ‘smart contracts’ or sets of smart contracts that process information, conduct transactions on a distributed ledger infrastructure. Smart contracts are programms of their own that automatically perform tasks, i.e. update states, when specific conditions have been met. This removes the need for a third party that usually would have performed the task mentioned. However, not all applications are well suited or require to use a dApp.
An e-commerce store would be best developed via the traditional development method, simply because a dApp infrastructure is harder to maintain, as it runs in a complex environment. An e-commerce store has multiple Input/Output actions being performed in real-time, which can reduce the environment’s performance if developed as a dApp.
But dApps have many advantages. The underlying mechanism of “decentralisation” sets dApps apart from traditional applications. No one can shut them down and hence there is no downtime. All transactions conducted on a decentralised blockchain are visible to everyone on the network, thus maintaining transparency among network members.
What is dApps Development?
The key difference between dApp development and traditional app development is how code must be checked before pushing it into production. dApp development is often compared to hardware development because of the rigorous testing and prototyping that needs to be done before the product is released in the market. A dApp cannot be changed once it is coded and launched on the mainnet. Any bug in the smart contract can lead to users’ funds being jeopardised and then backfire on the dApp developers. While traditional app development mainly emphasises fast iteration cycles, in dApp development, building a minimum viable product is considered a best practice. A minimum viable product enables developers to test the product, incorporate fixes and release updated app versions as quickly as possible.
dApps development uses popular programming languages. Languages which are simple to work with and increase the dApps security. The various developer tools for programming smart contracts that interact with the dApp include Parity, Truffle, and Oyente.
What are the benefits of dApps?
Some of the prevalent advantages of using dApps include:
Prevent Internet Censorship
Internet censorship prevents individuals from accessing or publishing certain content to the internet. In the case of dApps, a single entity on the network cannot prevent users from submitting transactions, reading data from the blockchain, or even deploying dApps.
Zero Downtime
dApps do not rely on a centralised authority and run on a decentralised, peer-to-peer network of computers. Thus, there will be no downtime as there is no question of a single point of failure.
Verifiable Behaviour
On a decentralised network, all transactions are recorded and visible to the network members. The source of these transactions can be verified in case of any fraud. Take an example of the Concordium blockchain network that uses the consensus algorithm. Before any transactions take place on the blockchain, every account on the Concordium network must be linked to a real identity, which is further verified to prevent fraudulent transactions. Though the transactions on Concordium are done anonymously using Zero-Knowledge -Proof (ZKP) cryptography, users can rest assured that a legitimate account is performing the transactions.
Closing Thoughts
Decentralized applications present a new frontier in software development. The primary reason for its increasing popularity is its difference from conventional applications that rely on a central, client-server network model. The benefits of creating dApps include: zero downtime, verifiable nature and preventing internet censorship, positively affect both the developers and the users.
