  A decentralized application (dapp for short) refers to an application that is
executed by multiple users over a decentralized network. In recent years, the
number of dapp keeps fast growing, mainly due to the popularity of blockchain
technology. Despite the increasing importance of dapps as a typical application
type that is assumed to promote the adoption of blockchain, little is known on
what, how, and how well dapps are used in practice. In addition, the insightful
knowledge of whether and how a traditional application can be transformed to a
dapp is yet missing. To bridge the knowledge gap, this paper presents a
comprehensive empirical study on an extensive dataset of 734 dapps that are
collected from three popular open dapp marketplaces, i.e., ethereum, state of
the dapp, and DAppRadar. We analyze the popularity of dapps, and summarize the
patterns of how smart contracts are organized in a dapp. Based on the findings,
we draw some implications to help dapp developers and users better understand
and deploy dapps.
