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• The Smart Contracts page gives some toplevel information regarding smart contracts, which are essentially small, rule-based software components that are executed across a blockchain.

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• Decentralized applications (DApps) build on smart contracts by wrapping them into a full application, complete with a front end, bringing them to full-stack entities

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• Conceptually, DApps are roughly the equivalent of WebApps, except that the backend is executed across a blockchain instead of executing on a central server.

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• An example stack/ dev enviornment for DApps is as follows:

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• Truffle:  development and testing framework

• Remix: browser based IDE for building and compiling smart contracts

• Genache: part of the Truffle framework; in-memory, local blockchain

• Metamask: plugin providing interface from browser to blockchain

• Infura: connect to ETH blockchain without running a full node

• Web3: interact with local or remote ETH nodes

• Drizzle: front end libraries

• Ropsten:  public testnet

• Mainnet: the real Ethereum network

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• To date, DApps have experienced mixed success

• Some of the most successful DApps have been in the domain of gambling

• Two sites that give a nice view of current DApp usage are state-of-the-dapps and dapp-radar.

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Example Code

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(Coming Soon!)

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