Blockchain emerged as a revolutionary technology that initially made a mark over the financial industry, but with the passage of time, it made its way over to other industries. This opened the door to a plethora of opportunities and bringing the need for the development of Blockchain-based applications. As a right Blockchain platforms allows businesses to leverage the full potential of the technology in the most convenient manner.
A varied range of Blockchain platforms were developed over a course of time, offering a wide range of benefits in achieving scalability and many of them are nearly indistinguishable in some cases from core Blockchain technology. Blockchain now covers a vast range of industries and its uses too are of varied nature.
Due to this, wherever the development of dApps or others, there is considerable emphasis upon which Blockchain platform is to be chosen? As it all depends upon the platform which you chose for the development will pave your way towards leveraging the great potential of an emerging technology called Blockchain!
What is a Blockchain Platform?
What is a Blockchain platform? Well, the development of Blockchain-based applications happens over the Blockchain platforms which can be either permissioned or permissionless. Ethereum, R3, Ripple, EOS, and Hyperledger are some of the well-known Blockchain platforms at the present time that allow people to develop and host applications over them.
But one major question ponders in the mind is that, how to choose a particular Blockchain platform for business, that would suit best to your requirements?
Here we will be discussing some of the top Blockchain platforms and for that, we have selected various Blockchain platforms upon the subject evaluation of their ease of use and worth of usability after an in-depth analysis of all platforms mentioned below.
How are Blockchain platforms categorized?
There are few parameters which are needed to be taken into consideration for evaluating Blockchain platforms, as keeping them in mind will further prevent you from facing any challenges while you decide to adopt a platform.
Some of those parameters which you must keep in mind while choosing a Blockchain platform are –
- Development status of the Platform
- What type of Blockchain is required?
- What languages are supported by Platform
- Popularity of the Platform
- To achieve consensus what Blockchain Consensus Protocol is being used?
- Is Smart Contract Functionality supported by the Platform?
- What kind of Scalability solution is needed?
In this article, we will be covering up the top Blockchain platforms which will be open-source as well as paid ones, and industry-wise their primary area of focus too. Which will certainly help you in choosing the best Blockchain platform for your project, no matter even if you are a novice in the arena of this emerging technology.
Top Trending Blockchain Platforms of 2021, which are widely used for development of dApps
The development of dApps matters a lot when you are going ahead with Blockchain adoption, as a great dApp will ensure scalability and reliability. Also, there are varied types of dApps to cater the requirements of businesses, and building such a particular type dApp would require you to go for a particular type of platform. So, here are some of those top trending nad popular Blockchain platforms.
Ethereum
- Ledger Type – Permissionless
- Smart Contract Functionality – Yes
- Focus over Industry – Cross-Industry
- Consensus Algorithm – Proof of Work
- Governance – Ethereum developers
Ethereum is an open-source blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system having smart contracts functionality. Ethereum owes its existence to Vitalik Buterin, who is a cryptocurrency researcher and programmer, who proposed Ethereum in late 2013. Later on, 30th July 2015 when its system went live, it had grown manifold. Unlike other Blockchain, in Ethereum you can do programming, and when we talk about developers, they can use it to develop many new kinds of applications.
Ethereum is a global, open-source platform for decentralized applications and it was the first Blockchain to include a programming language.
Ethereum has its cryptocurrency named Ether, which is much similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum allows one to send and receive coins between wallets. Ethereum based dApps now ensure permanency, transparency & complete security to all electronic business transactions, due to recent advancements over time. In case your business is scalable, Ethereum based dApps allow you to leverage numerous advantages from Ethereum blockchain development to help achieve increase your reach exponentially.
The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance now consists of more than 250 members, which consists of leading corporates like J.P. Morgan Chase, Microsoft, and Intel. Also, it connects nearly 500 Fortune enterprises, academics, start-ups, and various technology vendors at present.
Tezos
- Ledger Type – Permissionless
- Smart Contract Functionality – Yes
- Focus over Industry – Cross-Industry
- Consensus Algorithm – Delegated Proof of Stake
- Governance – Dynamic Ledger Solutions
Tezos as a Platform was co-founded by Kathleen Breitman and Arthur Breitman, which they had been building since 2014 with a team of developers. In 2016 Breitman conducted an ICQ and received around $612,000 within 6 months. Tezos is a self-governed, decentralized blockchain platform that establishes a true digital commonwealth.
As a Blockchain platform, it has a digital token, called a Tezzie or Tez, where token holders get rewarded for participating in the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, a platform is not based on the mining of Tez. Just like Ethereum, Tezos is a smart contract and dApp platform, but what makes it unique from other platforms is its self-amending cryptographic mechanism.
Hyperledger Fabric
- Ledger Type – Permissioned
- Smart Contract Functionality – Yes
- Focus over Industry – Cross-Industry
- Consensus Algorithm – Pluggable Framework
- Governance – Linux Foundation
Hyperledger Fabric is a project of Hyperledger which is thought to be a base for developing solutions or applications with a modular architecture. What distinguishes Hyperledger Fabric is the modularity of the architecture which allows in the plug-in of their preferred components like consensus and subscription services.
Hyperledger Fabric with its modular and flexible design satisfies a wide selection of business use cases snd it gives an exceptional way of building consensus that permits functionality at scale while maintaining privacy. Therefore, many leading Blockchain companies prefer Hyperledger Fabric for building enterprise-grade applications.
Hyperledger Sawtooth
- Smart Contract Functionality – Yes
- Focus over Industry – Cross-Industry
- Consensus Algorithm – Pluggable Framework
- Governance – Linux Foundation
Hyperledger Sawtooth is an enterprise-grade and modular platform launched by Linux Foundation and contributed by IBM and Digital Asset.
Hyperledger Sawtooth offers a modular and flexible architecture that divides the core system in the application domain, and this enables smart contracts to define the business rules for software without having to know the underlying design of the core system. The consensus algorithms like Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance and Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET) are supported by Hyperledger Sawtooth.
Hyperledger Sawtooth is the second blockchain to be developed by Hyperledger to integrate with an enterprise-ready 1.0 version.
Ledger Type – Permissioned
Hedera Hashgraph
- Ledger Type – Permissioned
- Smart Contract Functionality – Yes
- Focus over Industry – Cross-Industry
- Consensus Algorithm – Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance
- Governance – Hedera Hashgraph Council
Hedera Hashgraph is based on DLT technology like blockchain that works on Graph like structure where all the nodes communicate their information to each other and their communication is reported by building a graph of connections. Where all such information or data is stored in events.
Hedera Hashgraph platform is being governed by The Hedera Hashgraph Council, which states it clear in its terms that Hedera’s governance ensures no single member can have control and no group can have extreme influence over the entire body.
Reasons why you must use Hedera Hashgraph platform
Performance
Having the capacity to handle hundreds of thousands of transactions per second and authenticate more than one million signatures per second, makes Hedera Hashgraph extremely fast.
Fairness
The Hedera Hashgraph platform never allows a single user to block the transactions flow into the community. Thereby ensuring the consensus order of transactions which represents the transaction order received by the community, which makes it fair.
Security
Hedera Hashgraph is an asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus algorithm capable of securing the platform against attacks. Therefore, this level of security makes it safe too.
Ripple
- Ledger Type – Permissioned
- Smart Contract Functionality – No
- Focus over Industry – Financial Services
- Consensus Algorithm – Probabilistic Voting
- Governance – Ripple Labs
Ripple is a non-profit technology platform discovered in 2012, which aims to connect payment providers, digital asset exchanges, corporates, and banks through a Blockchain network named RippleNet minus any chargeback. Validating servers secure Ripple with an internal ledger that guarantees transactions based on consensus.
Ripple currently has more than 100 customers and almost 75 clients which are over in different stages of commercial deployment such as minimizing costs in liquidity (xRapid), sending payments across multiple networks (xVia), and cross-border payments services (xCurrent).
Quorum
- Ledger Type – Permissioned
- Smart Contract Functionality – No
- Focus over Industry – Cross-Industry
- Consensus Algorithm – Majority Voting
- Governance – Ethereum Developers and JP Morgan Chase
Quorum is an enterprise-focused version of Ethereum founded by J.P. Morgan. It is an open-source blockchain platform forever free to use. Designed to be permissioned, uses vote-based and different algorithms for processing per second hundreds of transactions. Quorum can handle applications that require high throughput processing and speed for private transactions.
The issue of the confidentiality of records that Ethereum and other Blockchains failed to handle was resolved by Quorum by introducing private and public on-chain.
Hyperledger Iroha
- Ledger Type – Permissioned
- Smart Contract Functionality – Yes
- Focus over Industry – Cross-Industry
- Consensus Algorithm – Chain-based Byzantine Fault Tolerant
- Governance – Linux Foundation
Hyperledger Iroha is a blockchain platform, hosted by the Linux Foundation for building secure, trusted, and fast decentralized apps.
Hyperledger Iroha is an easy and modularized distributed ledger system based on an extremely secure and speedy consensus algorithm known as Another Consensus, protecting Iroha networks out of adversary failures or nodes. The system is extremely suitable for distribution chain and IoT usage cases, as Hyperledger Iroha is highly portable and it supports macOS.
Reasons why you must use the Hyperledger Iroha platform
Modular Architecture
To take advantage of the plug and play nature of Hyperledger developers are encouraged to build such components.
Transparent Process
The core teams of Hyperledger have worked hard so that there is always a balance between transparency in the development process and attaining important milestones. Therefore, the transactions on Fabric may be obfuscated, but not the development process.
Smart Contracts
Like Ethereum, Hyperledger too uses chain code.
Corda
- Ledger Type – Permissioned
- Smart Contract Functionality – Yes
- Focus over Industry – Cross-Industry
- Consensus Algorithm – Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance
Governance – Hedera Hashgraph Council
Consortium-based Corda is the first of its kind of open-source blockchain-inspired DLT platform built exclusively for businesses. By embracing Corda, you can join numerous developers building applications over Corda, which is known as CorDapps.
Over 60 companies from various industries had been working with enterprise software firms to R3 to develop distributed ledger technology (DLT) based on various applications on the Corda platform. Which aims to remove costly friction in business transactions along with interoperability and a unique approach to secure data privacy. Corda is a permissioned blockchain platform that only allows the authorized participants to access the data, also it does not have any inbuilt token mechanism nor does it have any cryptocurrency.
Owing to its fine-tuned access control to digital records Corda was initially designed for the financial industry but now it is being widely in use over sectors such as supply chain, healthcare and government authorities.
Several firms such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC, Intel along with others have invested a large sum into R3 Corda.
EOS
- Ledger Type – Permissioned
- Smart Contract Functionality – Yes
- Focus over Industry – Cross-Industry
- Consensus Algorithm – Delegated Proof of Stake
Governance – EOSIO Core Arbitration Forum (ECAF)
EOS is a blockchain platform founded by a private entity named Block.one, as an open-source software in June 2018. To offer decentralized application’s hosting, decentralized storage of enterprise solutions and smart contract capability, solving the scalability issues of Ethereum and Bitcoin, is the aim of EOS platform.
Any user which uses dApp based on EOS needs not to pay any fee. By using multi-threading as well as a delegated proof-of-stake algorithm EOS accomplishes consensus. EOS Forum is their own community forum where investors discuss about the platform.
Reasons why to choose EOS platform for app development
Free for use
None of the end user needs to pay through micropayments to send messages or do various tasks over EOS platform.
Good Features
The most important feature is which provides the producers with a governance system which can be used to validate transactions or edits made over the source code and confirming the same about the application performance.
Authenticity
EOS offers a fully-featured authentication platform to the users, where each account will be assigned with different level of permission to save data in a secure manner.
Dragonchain
- Ledger Type – Permissioned
- Smart Contract Functionality – Yes
- Focus over Industry – Cross-Industry
- Consensus Algorithm – Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance
Governance – Hedera Hashgraph Council
Dragonchain’s Blockchain as a Service Platform is a public/private hybrid blockchain platform that was developed at the Walt Disney Company. Later during 2016 was open-sourced which is designed to provide developers and enterprises the useful resources for developing a blockchain application in minutes.
Dragonchain by allowing utilize Interchain offers flexibility to businesses. The need for patch implementation, updates, and server setup are also eliminated with their cloud-based model. Their platform has a wide range of programming languages such as Node.JS, Python, C#, Go, and Java. Dragonchain gives a wide spectrum of trust with five levels of consensus.
NEO
- Ledger Type – Permissioned
- Smart Contract Functionality – Yes
- Focus over Industry – Smart Economy
- Consensus Algorithm – Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance
Governance – On-chain governance through votes of NEO holders and Off-chain governance through NEO Foundation support.
NEO was designed to develop scalable decentralized applications and its main asset is the NEO token. The founders of the NEO are the duo named Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang, who set up blockchain companies named OnChain, which is based in Shanghai. Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance is what NEO uses as its consensus algorithm and the use of NEO token is to generate GAS tokens which can be used as pay transactions fees to run applications on the network.
The main three components of NEO Smart Economy
Digital Assets
Creation of digital assets as electronic data. On the NEO platform, users can register, trade, and transfer various types of digital assets. Digital assets can be trustful, traceable, transparent, decentralized, and free from any intermediaries by using Blockchain.
Digital Identity
NEO maintains digital identity standards to support the web of trust point-to-point certificate issuance model, where identity information is kept which is called digital identity.
Smart contract
By using NEO smart contract developers need not learn a new programming language, instead, they may use C#, Java, or other languages for smart contracts.
Conclusion
Technology is mercurial so does Blockchain technology which is constantly innovating itself with newly added features in the platforms. Nevertheless, there is the emergence of new platforms too, which makes plenty of blockchain platforms for an entrepreneur to choose from. The proper understanding of blockchain platforms holds the key to build highly scalable applications, which will not just transform the business but will even serve other factors like costing and sustainability.
Here we have discussed some well-known platforms which are used by top Blockchain companies which include Microsoft, IBM, and others. We hope the article gave you a quick insight into the emerging Blockchain platforms and helps you in choosing the right blockchain platform and solution to suit your business needs.