Which Blockchain is the Best? Top 6 Blockchain Platforms to Know in 2021

Blockchain applications in supply chains management and tracking, trade finance, digital assets, and identity management are moving beyond the early stage.

The evolution of blockchain platforms to date has fostered a greater awareness of decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital assets, and digital currencies, to drive new business models that could pose significant threats to traditional economies, banking, and financial services. But these blockchain systems can also potentially help in supply chain management.

Get in this article, detailed information on the key features and tools, strengths and weaknesses, and differentiators of the top blockchain platforms, getting the most information in a summarized form – and real-world deployments.

What are the top 6 blockchain companies?

• Ethereum

Introduced in 2013 by Vitalk Buterin, The Ethereum blockchain is one of the oldest and most established blockchain platforms. The Ethereum platform provides a decentralized blockchain that is comparable to the Bitcoin blockchain network.

The Ethereum network is being widely adopted by various blockchain developers for creating decentralized applications (dApps), decentralized finance (DeFi), and smart contracts using the development environment that runs on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This blockchain network also supports various platforms and exchanges for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – a type of digital asset that represents tangible and intangible goods.

The main weaknesses of the Ethereum network include slow processing times, and higher transaction processing costs compared to other blockchains. Although it is a public blockchain that supports enterprise applications, it has its own cryptocurrency called Ether (ETH).

The Ethereum Enterprise Alliance (EEA), is a non-profit organization owned by the Ethereum Foundation, which has developed a large online support community that has over 250 members and connects Fortune 500 companies, startups, technology vendors, and academics.

Although Ethereum is a Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchain solution, which means it consumes a lot of energy, and is a bit slower in terms of processing transactions, with its transition process to the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, it will most likely be more environmentally friendly and better at high-speed, high-throughput processing for financial transactions.

One of the Ethereum blockchain projects is WePlay Collectibles, which is an NFTs project that aims to create a community and unite true eSports fans and talent, as well as artists and digital art enthusiasts.

WePlay Collectibles are for people who want to be part of eSports events and show that they like players and talent in a different way, beyond merchandising. Now, WePlay Collectibles has become part of a platform, where you can buy items with NFT technology – not only physical and digital eSports memorabilia items related to a specific tournament, but also works related to contemporary art.

Find more information about the platform and NFTs at https://weplaycollectibles.com

• Hyperledger

Hyperledger is an open-source project hosted by the Linux Foundation and launched in 2015. The goal of this blockchain project is to create a codebase and distributed ledger technology, blockchain frameworks, smart contract capabilities, and data privacy for enterprise solutions and membership services with its modular architecture.

Currently, this project has over 180 partner companies in the areas of the supply chain, manufacturing, technology, finance, banking, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Hyperledger Fabric is one of many Hyperledger projects in the development phase that was initially built with IBM and Digital Asset.

• Ripple

Ripple Labs is a company focused on providing blockchain solutions for the financial industry. Dating back to 2012, this blockchain system connects digital asset exchanges and financial assets, financial institutions, payment providers, global payment platforms, banks, financial services, and more through its RippleNet blockchain network.

Ripple Labs’ blockchain system enables global payments through its digital asset called “XRP,” which is among the best cryptocurrencies in terms of market values.  The XRP digital currency is used for various stages of commercial deployment including cross-border payments (xCurrent), minimizing liquidity costs (xRapid), and for sending payments over multiple networks (xVia) as well as for other financial instruments.

• IBM Blockchain

IBM Blockchain is a decentralized blockchain network, private blockchain network that has been widely used by enterprise clients. Many companies around the world are using blockchain platform of IBM to connect to the corporate cloud and legacy technologies in a more transparency than is possible on other blockchain networks. IBM blockchain solutions are leading the corporate world into a new digital age of collaboration and innovation.

• EOS blockchain

Launched in 2018, EOS.IO is a blockchain network that works as a smart contract for deploying and developing decentralized applications (dApps) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Although it is a new blockchain, EOS comes from a private equity firm called Block.one.

Another differentiator of this blockchain is that it is completely free, meaning that this blockchain removes any fees for users. You do not need to pay any fees to take full advantage of this blockchain service.

EOS.IO is based on the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus algorithms that provide better performance than older blockchain mechanisms and other platforms such as the Ethereum blockchain and Bitcoin blockchain. This blockchain service also includes support for governance features for voting and staking changes on the platform, including supply chain management, identity management, and online gaming.

• Stellar

Stellar is a decentralized, open-source protocol launched in 2014 that optimizes and facilitates sending, receiving, and transferring money in multiple currencies.

The Stellar Consensus Protocol speeds up the time required to process transactions on a public blockchain network. This protocol is robust in security mechanisms to prevent potential intrusions into a financial transaction. Stellar has been adopted by several organizations and companies for international trade and international money exchange.

Which Blockchain is the most secure?

Blockchain provides data security for storage due to state-of-the-art cryptography and miners who verify each block. A blockchain is a chain of blocks that records the transactions of digital currencies or cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. Its role is to make this record final and reliable.

To learn more about what blockchain is and how it works, we recommend reading this article.

Conclusion

The blockchain technology world is moving at an unprecedented pace of innovation with new blockchain services and emerging technologies, new additional features, and new releases, while ambitious companies and organizations are looking forward to its disruptive potential. However, Blockchain platforms, networks, and protocols will consolidate with increased corporate adoption.