Ethereum Blockchain dApp Development

Note: I am trying to stay out of the rabbit hole of technical jargon for this blog so I can stick to the practical application of dApps themselves and not the currently more hyped cryptocurrency side of dApps. While there other types of platforms for creating dApps or smart contracts, for the purposes of this blog I am going to keep things simplified and I will stick with the current leading platform Ethereum (Hyperledger, IOTA, EOS Also notable) as my example. The Ethereum platform added a better layer of functionality to the blockchain (The bitcoin source code does allow for simple smart contracts). This extra layer of functionality has created a virtual machine across a blockchain’s distributed peer to peer network. Without going into the dirty details of blockchains and Ethereum and how it work, in simple terms the Ethereum platform basically allows a dApp developer to make an application (Smart Contract), similar to how a software developer would on a traditional server, but it will work autonomously and utilise the Ethereum blockchain and all the security and consistency benefits. As a bonus, the blockchain/cryptocurrency base can be used as a built-in means of funding or monetize your dApp project. A typical dApp will have a basic structure similar to this diagram.