Despite the fact that the definition of “blockchain” is today in the top 5 major IT definitions, understanding whether blockchain applications differ from ordinary web 2 applications is not obvious. If we make a comparison between the growth in popularity of the Internet in the 90s of the last century and the growth in popularity of crypto technologies at the present time, we can see that the trends in their distribution are almost identical. Almost all experts in the field of digitalization agree that blockchain is now experiencing exactly the same rise as the Internet 30 years ago.
Of course, blockchain is still at the beginning of its history. This means that there are currently quite a lot of blind spots in this technology, and, accordingly, not all of its tools are available for use. However, statistics show a steady increase in the number of companies that are seeking to adapt their projects to various blockchain solutions. Despite the fact that the goals of using blockchain technology for different projects may be different, in almost all projects the blockchain app development company plays a decisive role.
Comparing Web 2 and Web 3 applications
To evaluate the features of Web 3 applications, you should remember what Web 2 applications are. In simple terms, Web 2 applications include everything that an ordinary person encounters on the Internet. This includes registration on various websites and social networks, messaging through various instant messengers, and other routine online activities. All user requests, in this case, go to the servers, are processed and returned in the form of certain responses. This is the classic way Web 2 applications work. Any Web 2 application has a backend that runs on the server and interacts with the frontend that runs in the user’s browser. All data is stored on servers, all algorithms are executed on servers, that is, Web 2 applications use a client-server architecture.
The first fundamental feature of Web 3 applications is the absence of a backend as such, which means that there is no single server to which you can contact with any request. In other words, web 3 applications run simultaneously on all nodes connected to the blockchain network. Operating in such well-known categories as “thin client” and “thick client”, we can state that the classic Web 3 application is a very thick frontend client on which almost all the logic of working with programs takes place. Interaction with smart contracts occurs only when it is necessary to save some data, perform some operation, etc. The interaction of a thick client with a blockchain is usually carried out through various wallets. The wallet is a kind of entry point into the blockchain network; through this point, the user can both request information from the blockchain and send his information there through transactions.
New in information traffic
Speaking about ways to exchange information, let’s remember that in Web 2 applications, receiving data begins with requests. At the same time, there are several options for HTTP requests: get option, which assumes the presence of immutable data and post and put options that change the data. Applying these terms to Web 3 applications, we get the following picture. An analogue of a get request in Web 3 will be an option in which the user simply accesses the blockchain node and reads some information from it. In cases where the user wants to change or save something, it is necessary to use smart contracts and transactions, since simply sending a request is impossible due to the lack of a central server. Users carry out actions using transactions, which, in turn, are processed by smart contracts.
About smart contracts and more
At their core, smart contracts are programs (applications) that run not on just one computer, but on all computers in the blockchain network simultaneously. Smart contracts have several specific properties that distinguish them from other applications. Firstly, smart contract code is immutable. This is a very important feature, since it speaks of the absolute predictability of the applications. That is, each participant in the blockchain network, interacting with a smart contract, can be 100% sure that exactly what is written in the smart contract code will happen. Smart contracts are written in various languages, of which the most commonly used language is Solidity. The languages Rust, Go, Move are also used.
Blockchain networks and the products that exist in them are developing, figuratively speaking, by leaps and bounds. The total capitalization of the crypto sector has almost reached $1 trillion, and the market for various DiFi has grown significantly too. However, the use of blockchain networks has also highlighted a number of problems with this technology, one of which is the problem of communication between participants in the blockchain network. Of course, today blockchains offer some of their own small local solutions related to communication, but a truly high-quality solution to this problem has not yet been proposed.
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