What Is a Dapp?
A dapp, decentralized application, is usually a website plus one or more smart contracts. The site is ordinary hosting. The contract is on-chain. You connect a wallet, sign something, and the contract does the thing. Uniswap, Aave, and Revoke.cash are dapps. So is a mint page that drains you.
How It Actually Works
- The front end builds a transaction. Your wallet shows a prompt. You sign. An RPC broadcasts it. The contract executes.
- The "decentralized" part, when it is real, is the contract layer: nobody can easily turn off the pool. The website can vanish, get seized, or get replaced by a fake. Bookmarks matter more here than in any other corner of the internet.
- Some dapps have no official site and are used through explorers or local UIs. That is closer to the original idea and farther from how normal people actually click.
Risks and Common Mistakes
- Fake front ends are the standard phish. Ads, search results, and Discord "support" all run clones. Type the URL. Prefer links from my reviews or the Resource Library you already trust.
- Connecting a vault wallet to a new dapp. Spending wallet only. Approvals get cleaned with Revoke.cash.
- Assuming an audit of the contract covers the website. Different machines, different attackers.
When It Matters
Any time you click Connect. The contract may be honest and the site may not, or the reverse. My Security page is the pre-click checklist.
Related Terms
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