Decentralization, dapps and the future of the web
The changes to be made to the second most important cryptocurrency, Ethereum, in around two weeks to lighten its transactional structure and make it more efficient and agile, are focusing attention on one of its most important ecosystems: decentralized applications, or dapps.
What is a dapp? Exactly what its name suggests: an app that operates autonomously through the use of smart contracts, pieces of software anchored in the blockchain that are executed when certain premises established in its code are met. Unlike apps, dapps offer operate without any human intervention and are not owned by any company, and instead distribute tokens, leading to decentralized ownership among their users.
In other words, dapps are simply blockchain-based apps that run code for a specific function or use case. Like any app on our smartphone or computer, with an interface that allows users to click, scroll, type in text fields, and send data or content to use for a specific purpose. From the user’s perspective, dapps are the same as a normal app, but they have a key difference: resorting to the blockchain on the back-end to record data linked to users’ wallets.
Most dapps have typically used the Ethereum blockchain, mainly because it was the first to grow based on an ecosystem that wasn’t just focused on the use of…
