Is Ganache Decentralized

Question

I had a few Very Specific doubts, answers to which I looked for in various places but couldn't find. Hence I'd be thankful if someone who understands Blockchain Development can help me.

1. People say Cryptocurrency is an application of Blockchain, and blockchain is a seperate technology of its own. But every Dapp tutorial still requires Ethereum when communicating with a blockchain. Can blockchain be implemented without cryptocurrency?

2. Every tutorial uses Ganache. These tutorials never mention anything about Peer to Peer Nodes system. Does Ganache simulate a P2P Node system in the background? Are apps built on Ganache centralized or decentralized?

3. When Dapps are deployed, they are deployed in the Ethereum Main Network. Does every smart contract, Decentralized application, Ethereum Transaction, all of it live on One Giant Blockchain which is the Ethereum Main Network? How is that manageable. Just some guidance will be helpful? Where can I learn more about this? There are so many resources but I don't know where to start.

Answer 1

1. Can blockchain be implemented without cryptocurrency?

Yes. Blockchain is a way of storing data, where each block is chained to the previous one. For example:

Block 1:

{ data: 'foo', previousHash: '0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000' };

Block 2:

{ data: 'bar', previousHash: 'd807da8ba0473afd6cb13d465d21e2d1e0e14598d8555afe5fe3e88c7e114b05' };

where the previous hash in "Block 2" is the "Block 1" hash.

2. Are apps built on Ganache centralized or decentralized ?

Ganache is a local blockchain and Ethereum-like network emulator usually used for development and testing. Multiple instances of Ganache are not able to communicate with each other, so by this definition, it's a centralized system.

However, apps that are built and tested locally on Ganache, can be deployed to decentralized networks such as Ethereum Ropsten testnet, Ethereum Mainnet, BSC Mainnet, etc.

3. Does every smart contract, Decentralized application, Ethereum Transaction, all of it live on One Giant Blockchain, the Ethereum Main Network ?

Smart contracts and transactions - yes, they all are stored in the Ethereum network blockchain.

DApps - This consisted of smart contracts and off-chain apps (usually written in JavaScript and other web languages) that are usually hosted on a private server or a regular shared hosting.

How is that manageable

The Ethereum blockchain is currently between 0.5 TB and 1 TB, depending on what node software you're using, and it's growing over time (source).