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What is a dapp?
A dapp (decentralized application) is an application whose core logic runs as a smart contract on a blockchain, paired with a website or app interface that people use to reach it. The contract runs as written on the network rather than on one company's server.
What it means for you
Using a dapp means signing transactions from your own wallet, and those contract interactions cannot be reversed. The website in front can be copied or changed while the contract stays the same, so check the site's address and the contract a wallet prompt names before approving.
How it works
A dapp has two halves. The back end is smart contracts running on a peer-to-peer network: deterministic, isolated in the EVM, and available as long as the chain runs. The front end is ordinary web code that can be written in any language and hosted anywhere, and it reaches the contracts through your wallet. ethereum.org lists the trade-offs: contracts are hard to change after deployment, throughput is bound by the chain, roughly 10 to 15 transactions per second on Ethereum, and fixes for speed or usability often reintroduce central control.
Source: ethereum.org: Introduction to dapps · checked 4 October 2026
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