Aleo - a platform for developing decentralized applications

dApps are decentralized applications. They are similar to regular apps and offer similar features, but the key difference is that they run on a peer-to-peer network such as a blockchain using smart contracts.

The first decentralized applications appeared on the Ethereum network and some of them showed its weaknesses - low scalability and high gas (transaction) prices. Then other blockchains appeared, where these problems were already solved, the price of transactions became cheaper, and the speed was higher. All this has contributed to the growth of sectors such as DeFi and GameFi. Blockchains have built huge ecosystems around themselves from various services based on them.

What is Dapp on a specific example. It can be a game, a decentralized exchange, a cryptocurrency wallet, or a lending and borrowing service. The peculiarity of such an application is that it does not run on one server, but is decentralized on many servers of a certain blockchain. Decentralized applications have both their pros and cons. The advantages include:

Resistance to censorship. In the absence of a single point of rejection, it is very difficult for governments or powerful individuals to control the network.
No downtime. Using a peer-to-peer system ensures that decentralized applications continue to run even if individual computers or parts of the network go down.
Cryptocurrency payments are easily integrated into Dapp thanks to smart contracts
Open source - this encourages the broad development of the decentralized application ecosystem, allowing developers to create better decentralized applications with more useful or interesting features

The disadvantages should include:

Hacker attacks. Dapps run on open-source smart contracts, giving hackers the ability to probe networks for weaknesses. This has led to a wave of hacks of popular decentralized apps.
Inconvenience of use. Often Dapps have not very user-friendly interfaces. Also, many users face such difficulties as the need to additionally install a cryptocurrency wallet in order to use Dapp or have a certain cryptocurrency and this is already a barrier for many.
Cost of use. Decentralized applications are more expensive to use, performing smart contracts requires payment in cryptocurrency. This is the cost of decentralization.
Speed. Very often Dapps are slower than their centralized counterparts. This is also the cost of decentralization.

But despite these shortcomings, this trend is developing and gaining momentum.

Besides the above mentioned disadvantages of decentralized applications, I would like to highlight confidentiality and anonymity separately. Decentralization allows us to do without intermediary (third party) in building different WEB-3 services, but all data related to our transactions remain open for everyone in the blockchain we use. That is, anyone, knowing your address, can track all your actions and sometimes this can pose a threat to you.

Let's imagine how a decentralized exchange works. All the actions of the exchange and users are transparent. This may seem like a plus. But only if all sides plan to behave honestly. For example, if someone starts to analyze the actions of other users in the blockchain, he can get a competitive advantage and use it to generate income. After that, the openness of the data is already a disadvantage.

But if there are solutions to such problems? It's hard to say yet, but a number of projects are taking steps in this direction. For example, the project Aleo creates a full-featured platform for developing private applications (with zero-knowledge). The platform will be characterized by speed, integrity, and scalability. Aleo achieves this by using decentralized systems and zero-knowledge cryptography to protect user data online.

Zero-knowledge proofs are cryptographic techniques that allow one party (the prover) to prove to another party (the verifier) that a statement about some hidden information is true without revealing anything about that information other than the truth of the statement itself.

The project Aleo took this method as a basis for building its platform. Users using applications built on Aleo will be able to maintain a certain amount of privacy, which will allow developers to build completely different web services than the existing ones. Now users are not required to give up control over their data, and web services can offer users privacy technologies to protect them.

Therefore, a decentralized exchange built on Aleo will not have the problems described above. User data will be protected and cannot be used by intruders or hackers. It should also be noted that a number of applications cannot be built on other blockchains, where all user actions are open. For example, a poker game cannot be implemented in a fully open blockchain, while Aleo is perfect for it.

Aleo technology will create a lot of applications where anonymity and privacy are important - DEX, anonymous voting, anonymous donation platform, various games, where it is important, identity platforms, social networks, and so on.

To create an application on Aleo, the Leo programming language was developed. It makes it intuitive and easy for developers to write zero-knowledge applications and ensures that user data is private by default and surfs the web seamlessly.

Conclusions

Conclusions
Aleo defines a new standard for the Internet. The project takes a radical new approach to security, privacy, and data ownership. Users no longer need to share information that is important to them, and web services no longer need to risk losing their users' data.

The article written by — Aleksander#8393

More information, as always, on the project discord and Twitter.