Decentralized apps can use blockchain technology to secure the data they store and distribute it across a decentralized peer-to-peer network that a third party does not manage. The decentralized web and network protocol architecture in which websites are hosted on multiple computers and communicate directly without going through a centralized server or service provider. This makes them difficult to block or censor while increasing privacy and security. And while it may take some time for this new way to conceive web pages before becoming mainstream, in the meantime,
Here are some of the best decentralizing technologies currently available online!
The open Web can be seen as the opposite of the centralized Internet.
decentralized web and network technology allows the data to be stored in a way that is not held by any single entity, rather having it spread across various nodes on a distributed network. The data is not stored on one central server and cannot be hacked or spied on. The currently popular word "blockchain" usually refers to cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, but we will also discuss blockchain technologies that have been developed for web applications.
What are DApps?
DAPP (or decentralized app) is an application whose software runs on a peer-to-peer network without any central authority or third party. Dapps can interact with the Blockchain (and other distributed systems such as smart contracts) without anyone or anything to monitor or approve the transactions between peers. This feature makes DApps an essential part of the "decentralized web and network where every page and application runs peer-to-peer, not managed by any centralized entity.Decentralized apps are also known as dapps because they are native to a decentralized network.
What is blockchain technology?
The decentralized Web relies on blockchain technology that underlies cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. A blockchain is a digital ledger comprising a series of records (blocks), each containing data that depends on preceding ones. The blocks are linked to each other through cryptography (a process of securely sharing a secret) and can be verified automatically by computers. When one block is added to the Blockchain, it is "chained" to the previous one, forming a connected set of data .
Figure 1. The Blockchain is a distributed database that stores records in blocks and links them together. © CC0
The first use of blockchain technology was for digital currency bitcoin in 2009. Bitcoin uses the same type of distributed database as the Blockchain — a chain of linked records or blocks — but it does not use cryptography for security (as opposed to public-key cryptography). Blocks are linked by using a special type of code known as "hash predicates". This means that the system can issue new bitcoins and verify transactions.Blockchain technology is also applied to smart contracts, which allow decentralized web and network organizations to be formed on a blockchain agreement. These are further explored below.
What is the decentralized Web?
The decentralized web and network is an internet protocol architecture in which the websites are stored on multiple computers and communicate directly without going through a centralized server or service provider. This makes them difficult to block or censor while increasing privacy and security. That's why they are called decentralized web and network. It also means that there is no single point of failure since if one computer dies, it doesn't take the rest of them with it. The existing web architecture relies on the client-server model in which a website is stored on a server, and everyone else connects to it through the Internet (Figure 2). When you search for information on Google or Bing, these websites send you back to their centralized servers, which provide the results and record your IP address in the process.
Figure 2. The client-server model of internet architecture. © CC0
Who invented the decentralized Web?
The idea of a decentralized web and network has been around since the 1990s, but it wasn't until 2008 that people seriously looked into it. That's when the "NameCoin" project was created by a programmer who intended to create a currency-based system that would use a blockchain database to protect people's identities when surfing the Internet. NameCoin had 25 million coins (NMC), and in April 2013, it was trading at about $4.50 per coin. Today, about 7.5 million Namecoins are in circulation with a market cap of about $4 million.
The first decentralized social networking platform, Diaspora*, was launched in 2010, but unfortunately, it didn't take off. In 2012, an anonymous developer created bitmessage, and in 2013-2014, a web torrent was developed. That's when Ethereum, the first successful and most popular decentralized web and network so far, came into the world in 2014.
How do decentralizing technologies work?
While many applications of blockchain technology are under development or being used on a smaller scale (see Use Cases), we will now explore those used by websites and decentralized applications (Web 3.0).
The architecture of the decentralized Web
Web 3.0 is a new internet protocol currently under development and will hopefully become mainstream in the next few years. While it does not have one single name and there is no certain agreed-upon definition, the three most common ones are:
decentralized web and network (or DWeb), proposed by Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web.
Figure 3. Bitcoin exchanges are centralized servers where users can transfer money to each other. © CC0
Decentralized applications do not use traditional Internet protocols and are known as "applications running in the browser" instead. They might use something like WebRTC (an API used in HTML5), IPFS or peer-to-peer communication protocols such as BitTorrent, Web torrent or Ethereum's swarm protocol. This means that users may not need to download an app on their computer to access an application anymore. Instead, they can open it in a browser,
Figure 4. A user can run decentralized applications by downloading the code locally and running it from there. © CC0
Decentralized social networks
Arguably, Facebook and Twitter do not allow free speech, as they regularly censor posts that deal with controversial political issues or question the official version of events. Recently, several projects have been started to create alternative social networks hosted on the Blockchain and are more resistant to censorship. One of the most prominent examples is Steemit, a blockchain-based social network that allows users to earn tokens for posting articles or comments that get upvoted by other users (Figure 5). Steemit has over 3,000 daily active users and is currently valued at $78 million.
Figure 5. Steemit is a blockchain-based social network where users can earn coins for posting popular articles or comments that get upvoted. © CC0.
Bitcloud is another example of a decentralized web and network, which allows users to connect via peer-to-peer technology and build their content delivery networks (Figure 6). Daniel Kraft proposed the idea of Bitcloud in 2014, but it wasn't until 2016 that it became more relevant as he joined forces with the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) team.
Decentralized forums
Facebook and Twitter can be criticized for their role in spreading hate, fake news, and polarizing arguments in some parts of the world. Some want to create alternative social networks where this will not be possible. A good example of this is Discourse*, which allows users to base their discussions on the Blockchain and has been under development since 2015
Figure 7. Discourse* is a decentralized forum built on the Blockchain that allows users to base their discussions on the Blockchain. © CC0.
One of the examples is the Ethereum smart contract (see Figure 7), which can be used to create decentralized internet autonomous organizations (DAOs) that run without any human interference or control. This can be used for voting portals, community apps, and transparent, reliable organizations and reduce fraud.
On Ethereum's platform, a DAO is created by a set of smart contracts called "code." The code runs on a Blockchain called Ethereum based on certain conditions specific to each transaction.
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