A decentralized application (DApp, dApp, Dapp, or dapp) is a computer application that runs on a decentralized computing system.
Smart contracts are programs stored on the blockchain, and they self-execute when conditions are met. dApps are applications that don't exist on the blockchain but rather interact with the Smart contracts.
In other words, dApps are “blockchain-enabled” platforms, and smart contracts allow them to access the blockchain. Smart contracts are a safer way of managing agreements or transactions. With dApps, you can minimize transaction failure, improve control, prevent hijacking or data loss, and much more.
Smart Contracts are the core of dApps, and they run on a decentralized distribution system aka Blockchain. Instead of being linked to a centralized data server, dApps are connected to the blockchain via smart contracts.
Although dApps can appear similar to web applications in terms of user experience (UX), their back-end processes differ. Decentralized apps deliberately avoid centralized servers to transact in a distributed and peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion as opposed to using the central HTTP protocol to communicate.
All dApps are built using blockchain technology. These dApps rely on blockchains to process data through distributed networks and execute transactions with smart contracts.
Just like developers build applications for mobile and desktop devices, dApp developers create applications to function on specific blockchain networks. Blockchain networks are of two types:
Smart Contracts are written in programming languages like Solidity for execution on public blockchains while they are written in Node and Go in case of private/enterprise blockchains.
A dApp reference architecture looks like below:
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TheSpiderman eliminates the complexities associated with the creation of the Smart Contracts. In other words, the Smart Contract or the Chaincode is automatically created by the No-Code Chaincode Generator.
Businesses and Developers can simply connect TheSpiderman API to their Application frontend. TheSpiderman API abstracts the entire decentralization from the developer. Anything that needs to be decentralized can be passed to the API to be written to the blockchain via an auto generated Chaincode.
TheSpiderman also provides access to Decentralized storage by default that is based on IPFS. The Asset is automatically written to IPFS and the IPFS hash is now included in the Chaincode.
TheSpiderman architectural diagram is shown below:
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Business and Developers can continue to focus on the Application architecture and continue to leverage the API when decentralization is needed.
With a single API call, A centralized backend is quickly replaced with a private blockchain coupled with IPFS based decentralized storage.
The Block and the Transaction details are available via the Hyperledger Explorer or the API, Example:
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In the later Blogs, we will explain how ERC20 (Fungible) and ERC721 (Non-Fungible) Tokens can be created using a single API call to TheSpiderman.
