Blockchain-Based Decentralized Application: A Survey

Blockchain-based decentralized applications (DApp) draw more attention with the increasing development and wide application of blockchain technologies. A wealth of funds are invested into the crowd-funding of various types of DApp. As reported in August 2022, there are more than 5,000 DApps with more than 1.67 million daily Unique Active Wallets (users). However, the definition, architectures, and classifications of the DApps are still not cleared up till now. This survey aims to provide a comprehensive overview of DApps for further research. First, the definitions and typical architectures of DApps are presented. Then we collect 3,118 popular DApps and categorize them into different types, and summarize their typical advantages and challenges. Finally, we provide an overview of the recent research problems of DApps from the perspectives of economics, security, and performance and then figure out promising research opportunities in the future.