Table of Contents
Before discussing top blockchain platforms let's see the things to consider before choosing between different blockchain platforms.
What factors should be considered before deciding on a blockchain platform?
Everyone wants to choose a top blockchain that performs best for their business. These are the factors to consider while selecting a blockchain platform:
- Centralized vs. Decentralized: Decentralized systems provide redundancy, data integrity, and trustless transactions, whereas centralized systems focus on higher performance, lower costs, and ease of use. Decentralized blockchain platform is accessible to everyone so it can be good for small business.
- The consensus algorithm: The algorithm used to validate blocks effects on performance, security, and compatibility. There are many blockchains with faster, secure and efficient consensus algorithms. Bitcoin and Ethereum uses Proof-of-Work.
- Ledger Technology: It is critical to understand how a blockchain system records or maintains transactions. An account model and UTXO are two popular techniques. The account model keeps track of the balance, but the UTXO approach is akin to currency in your wallet with serial numbers. The account concept is employed by Ethereum, Stellar, Tron, and EOSIO, among other blockchain systems. UTXO is used by IBM Blockchain, Hyperledger Fabric, and Hyperledger Sawtooth.
- Cost: The cost of installing commercial and free products varies.
- Development tools: The availability of required resources influences the feasibility of developing enterprise applications.
- Maturity: Mature platforms have robust interoperability and development communities, as well as solid support.
- Smart Contracts: Smart contracts that can be programmed and automated bring value.
Some of the top blockchain platforms
In previous articles we have discussed Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchain. Now let’s see other popular blockchain platforms with various features and limitless possibilities.
Hyperledger Fabric
Hyperledger is one of the top blockchain besides Bitcoin and Ethereum. With its flexible and extensible architecture, Hyperledger Fabric is an open-source permissioned distributed ledger suited for developing applications. It was founded in 2016 by the Linux Foundation to improve cross-industry blockchain technology through collaborative efforts. It's one of the top blockchain platforms to think about when deciding which one to use for your company.
- It focuses on enterprise-grade apps and provides a one-of-a-kind consensus technique that delivers performance without sacrificing privacy.
- One of its primary functionalities is a membership identity service, which is used to verify and validate the identities of new members. The chaincode function follows, which is helpful for a certain sort of transaction.
- It also provides efficient processing. It assures that the transaction's execution is transaction assurance and independent of the order.
- By ensuring that transactions are confidential and limited to the network authorized, Fabric safeguards corporate interests.
The following are Hyperledger' objectives:
- Use enterprise-ready, open source DLT code bases and frameworks to support commercial transactions.
- To provide a means for the technical community to create blockchains.
- Educating the general population on the business potential of blockchain technology
- To encourage communities, provide a toolkit approach based on frameworks and platforms.
- To offer an open, community-driven, and neutral infrastructure through business and technical governance.
Hyperledger Sawtooth
It's yet another top blockchain project which is open source created by Hyperledger and the Linux Foundation. It's one of the top blockchain platforms to consider when determining which one to utilize for your business.
- It provides a flexible and modular architecture that isolates the core system from the application domain, allowing smart contracts to express business rules for applications without having to understand the core system's underlying design.
- It employs a unique consensus technique known as Proof of Elapsed Time, which may work in conjunction with hardware-based security solutions to enable "trusted execution environments" of program code to operate in secure enclaves, which are safe sections of computer memory.
Corda
- Corda is an open source and financial source distributed ledger that runs on an open and global network in complete anonymity. It's aimed at big banks, and it's made to manage complicated transactions while keeping transaction data private.
- It is not a blockchain, despite the fact that it looks like one. Corda is not a complete blockchain, but rather a distributed ledger technology that mixes blockchain with distributed ledger technology (DLT)
IBM Blockchain
IBM unveiled a new secure blockchain management scheme and related services on the IBM Cloud in May 2016, both of which were meant to fulfill existing regulatory standards. IBM launched a Blockchain as a Service concept for business clients in March 2017. It's one of the top blockchain platform to consider while choosing for your business.
- The new solution will allow businesses to build cloud-based apps utilizing the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain technology, which was built by the Linux Foundation.
- With IBM Cloud, businesses can create secure, tamper-resistant networks with tens of thousands of users. The cloud platform, which includes a dashboard, analytics, and support, will allow you to develop and deploy blockchain in minutes using registered, certified, and validated Docker images.
- Cloud services have been tailored for cloud-based blockchain networks with an auditable operating environment that fulfills technical skill and regulatory criteria. The ability to identify and react to illegal physical access attempts is enabled by the theft-resistant storage of cipher keys and the total security of the cryptographic module.
- Furthermore, IBM Cloud services allow blockchain partners to work in a secure environment free of data breaches from shared storage and hardware.
Tezos
We can't ignore Tezos while discussing top blockchain platforms. Tezos is blockchain, a decentralized platform that uses an on-chain governance architecture to amend its own rule set with minimum network disturbance. The XTZ digital token is tied to the Tezos blockchain. Tezos, unlike Bitcoin, does not require mining and instead relies on a Proof-of-Stake consensus architecture. It's one of the top blockchain platforms to think about when deciding which one to use for your business.
- The Tezos blockchain is devoted to self-improvement and makes development decisions in collaboration with its investors. Improvements that are accepted as a consequence of investor votes on development ideas are automatically implemented. As a result, it is regarded as one of the top blockchain platforms.
- It is used to pay transaction fees on the Tezos network by Tezos Coin. Tezos Coin holders also have the ability to vote on the network, as we indicated earlier. Tezos Coin uses its own blockchain, the Tezos blockchain, to conduct encryption and security activities.
EOSIO
EOSIO always makes the list of top blockchain platforms. The open source code that powers the EOS blockchain is known as Eosio. Although Eosio is used by other blockchains, EOS was the first to do so and has the largest community. It's one of the top blockchain platforms to think about when deciding which one to use for your business.
- With the sign $EOS, EOS is both a blockchain and a cryptocurrency. Like Bitcoin, EOS does not have a mining system. Token holders, on the other hand, designate block producers to execute transactions for the network. It enables the EOS blockchain to be less than 1 second fast with very cheap fees and a large throughput capacity (10k + trx/s) by employing selects instead of competitive mining. This is known as the delegated proof of stake electoral system (DPOS).
- Because of its technology and community, EOS is appealing. It let developers construct decentralized applications that were not possible on other platforms. Technology superiority may be sensed through the user experience of transmitting transactions on the EOS blockchain after setting up an EOS wallet.
Stellar
Stellar is often ranked among the top blockchain platforms. The Stellar network is a blockchain-based distributed ledger and database that allows for value transfers between assets, including payments. Lumen(XLM) is Stellar's original digital asset. Stellar's blockchain, on the other hand, may handle other tokenized assets. It's one of the top blockchain platforms to consider when determining which one to utilize for your company.
- In other words, Stellar is a cryptocurrency and Lumens (XLM) is a payment network. Stellar.org, a non-profit organization, is in charge of both.
- The Stellar network is a community-owned, open-source, decentralized network for allowing value transfers among assets..
- Apart from Lumens, other currencies can be issued on the Stellar network. The Stellar blockchain, like Ethereum, may contain different sorts of tokens, such as tokenized versions of fiat currency, to assist in enabling value transfers across assets. The Stellar Consensus Protocol protects the Stellar network by ensuring network security through a decentralized network.
Cardano
Cardano is frequently regarded as one of the top blockchain platforms. It is emerging to be one of the top blockchain platforms in current scenario. Cardano is a cryptocurrency named after the mathematician Gerolamo Cardano. The project's key feature is the interoperability of several blockchains. It's one of the top blockchain platforms to consider when determining which one to utilize for your company. It's one of the top blockchain platforms to think about when deciding which one to use for your business.
- The Cardano principle, in theory, may accept any blockchain, including Bitcoin. Such a system would allow transactions to be made from one BTC blockchain to another, as well as the usage of smart contracts to interact with bitcoin.
- Ada Lovelace is the inspiration for Cardano's coin, which is called ADA. One million lovelaces equals one ADA. Surprisingly, Cardano's answers are subjected to scientific peer evaluation. The International Association for Cryptologic Research, for example, has certified the Ouroboros protocol, which is the network's foundation.
- Another Cardano concept is information transparency. All of the system's ideas may be discovered in scientific publications in the public domain, and the source code and blockchain are completely open. As a result, it is recognized as one of the top blockchain platforms.
There are many other blockchain platforms which are not covered here. Above are some of the top blockchain platforms that may be useful for your business.
Summary
We discussed about various top blockchain platforms in brief. To summarize this post it gave good insight on top blockchain platforms other than bitcoin and ethereum.
Further Reading
Blockchain
Proof of Work
Ethereum
Hyperledger