dApp

A dApp (decentralized application) is an application whose core logic runs as smart contracts on a blockchain rather than on a company's servers. Users interact with it through a normal web or mobile interface, but the actions that matter — trading, lending, minting, voting — are executed by on-chain code that no single operator can alter or shut down unilaterally.

A typical dApp has two layers: smart contracts deployed on a chain like Ethereum, and a front-end website that connects to the user's wallet. For example, Uniswap is a dApp — its swap logic lives in contracts on Ethereum, and when a user approves a trade in their wallet, the contract executes it directly, with no company taking custody of the funds. Even if the official website went offline, the contracts would keep working and other interfaces could connect to them.

A common misconception is that everything about a dApp is decentralized; the front end is usually ordinary hosted software, and teams can change it, block regions from it, or take it down — decentralization applies to the contracts, not necessarily the interface. Compared with conventional apps, dApps trade convenience (no password resets, no customer support that can reverse mistakes) for user control and permissionless access.