The concept of decentralization is slowly taking over the world by stripping down the pros of decentralization against the cons of centralization. The temptation of staying anonymous while making money-related transactions and keeping the identities safe is something that is attracting more and more users towards Web3 and decentralization. This pull has led to the term dapps getting coined to represent the decentralized version of traditional apps. While apps are governed by centralized authority, as the name suggests, decentralized apps are completely governed by blockchain-based smart contracts. So, what differentiates dapps from apps and actually makes them better than apps? Let’s find out.

What are decentralized apps (Dapps)?

Decentralized apps or Dapps are decentralized versions of apps. While apps work by the user downloading them on their device using an internet connection. This means that the activities being performed on the app are monitored by the central authority that developed the app. In addition to this, it’s easy for hackers to hack into the app-based user account and manipulate their activity.

However, in the case of dapps, the point of connection occurs via a crypto wallet. It is impossible for anyone to hack into a user’s crypto wallet unless they store their private keys safely. Also, the working of dapps is quite different from that of apps. The users have to pay a certain amount of fee in terms of cryptocurrencies to the dapp developer in order to use the dapp. Once the transaction is approved by the blockchain smart contract, a copy of the dapp code is generated which downloads a copy of the dapp on the user’s device. This is when a new block is mined on the blockchain. 

Advantages of Dapps

There are numerous advantages of Dapps over apps. Some of these are explained below.

Trustable

Dapps are considerably more trustworthy than apps. This is because instead of the data being stored in an app that is visible to all and governed by a centralized authority, dapps shift the control and ownership of the data to the user’s hands. 

Development costs

In the construction of regular applications, there are multiple costs like development, maintenance, legal, and cloud hosting costs that the developers have to pay. However, since dapps are decentralized and completely based on blockchain, all such costs are previously incurred in the development itself. On top of that, the upgradation costs are also covered. 

Security of the data

There is no denying the fact that the wallet addresses of the users are clearly visible on the blockchain whenever a user downloads the dapp code and a new block is mined. However, dapps are still more secure than traditional apps as the data stored is immune to alterations, thanks to the smart contracts of the blockchains. 

Cost of Usage

In contrast to most of the regular apps which are free to download for the users, dapps require the user to pay a certain fee. However, it only ensures that the data stored on the blockchain is going to genuine users only. 

Speed of tasks

In the initial phase, the working of dapps was considerably slowed than the regular apps. This is because the transactions in dapps are recorded only when a new block is mined. This mining takes a little more time. Nonetheless, dapps have displayed a track record of running extremely smoothly, without any interference. 

Disadvantages of dapps

Apart from the advantages of dapps, there are a few disadvantages as well. But the blockchain companies are working hard to eliminate the occurrence of these drawbacks and offer complete scalability and operability of the dapps. Some of the drawbacks of dapps are:

Harder to Modify

Since smart contracts of the blockchains rule the development and deployment of the dapps, it is hard for the developers to send out upgrades, modify the dapp code, or debug the security risks from the dapps. This is one of the most important challenges in regard to dapps and their development. 

Congestion of the blockchain network

As of now, the blockchains can only process 10-15 transactions per second, which is quite a slow speed when compared with apps. If the developers try to increase the speed of transaction processing while keeping the authenticity intact, the number of unconfirmed transactions will rise massively. 

User-experience

Blockchain technology is still new to a significant part of the world and the concept of dapps is even newer. Therefore, mostly it is hard for users to navigate through the dapps dashboard. It is because it is quite hard for developers to create a user-friendly interface that eases the interaction of users with the blockchain. 

Conclusion: Why are Dapps better than apps?

In the nutshell, it is pretty clear that dapps are better than apps in more than one way. While apps are centralized and offer lesser data security and ownership to the user, dapps are much more user-centric, offering scalability, operability, security of data, and trust among the users. If you liked the blog post, share some love on your social media by sharing it with your fellows. Also, don’t forget to follow dapps on Twitter.