Blockchain has applications in a wide variety of industries, including healthcare, supply chain, logistics, law and more.
When organizations started experimenting with the potential of blockchain by developing blockchain applications, the demand for blockchain platforms made no sense. One survey revealed that the size of the global blockchain market is expected to grow from USD 3.0 billion in 2020 to USD 39.7 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of 67.3% over 2020–2025. Therefore, the need for a blockchain platform continues to grow to build an ecosystem that supports blockchain safely and quickly.
So, we’ve listed some of the best blockchain platforms you can explore in 2021 to help organizations bring more transparency and efficiency into their business ecosystem.
First of all, let’s explain how our current list for 2021 differs from the previous one.
We have prepared a list of the top blockchain platforms to explore in 2021 with our hands-on experience on these platforms. Our blockchain development team has worked on all the platforms below. We have built projects and created PoCs on different platforms and identified them based on their efficiency, scalability and security.
Here is a list of the top blockchain platforms to explore in 2021
- Tezos
- Stellar
- Hyperledger Fabric
- Hyperledger Sawtooth
- EOS
- Open chain
- Corda
- Tron
- Hedera Hashpraph
- Ethereum
1. Tezos
Tezos is a decentralized, open source blockchain network that can perform peer-to-peer transactions and enforce smart contracts.
Founded by Arthur Breitman and Kathleen Breitman, Tezos is designed to offer the code security and precision needed for high-value digital assets and use cases. It is a self-regulating decentralized blockchain platform.
Tezos is a smart contract and dApp platform, just like Ethereum, Waves, Neo, but its self-changing cryptographic mechanism makes it different from other platforms.
Here are some of the features of the Tezos platform that set it apart from other platforms:
Self Change Protocol
Delegated Stake Proof Mechanism
On-Chain Governance
Smart Contract and Formal Verification
2. Stellar
Stellar is an open blockchain network that allows the storage and transfer of money. It facilitates you to create, trade and send digital representations of all forms of money, for example, dollars, bitcoins, pesos and many more.
Over 69% of banks are currently experimenting with blockchain technology to make their services transparent, seamless and secure.
It is an open source network for payments and currency. It has no owner; if it has something, it belongs to the public. It can handle millions of transactions every day. Like Ethereum and Bitcoin, Stellar relies on blockchain to keep the network in sync.
The star blockchain platform can be used to issue your own assets, trade tokens peer-to-peer, and change currencies when sending.
Below are the important features of the Stellar Blockchain Network:
It has a decentralized and open database.
This allows thousands of transactions in one second.
It takes only 3–5 seconds of confirmation.
Network allows multiple signatures and smart contracts.
It has fixed annual inflation of 1%.
3. Hyperledger Fabric
Hyperledger Fabric is proposed as a foundation for building applications or solutions with a modular architecture. This allows components, including membership and consensus services, to be plug-and-play. It has a wide range of modular and versatile designs that meet a wide variety of industrial use cases.
One of the important features of the Hyperledger Fabric is networking. Fabric network members work together, but because businesses want to keep some of their data private, they usually maintain separate relationships within their network.
For example, buyers can interact with different sellers, selling the same product. The transactional relationship between buyers and sellers must be personal and invisible to all sellers. This can be made possible via the “channels” feature in Hyperledger Fabric.
Following are some of the Hyperledger Fabric features that make it different from other platforms:
Very modular
Low finality latency
Support for Solidity and EVM
Multi-language smart contract support
Plugin Consensus
Requestable Data
Multi-language smart contract support
4. Hyperledger Sawtooth
Hyperledger Sawtooth provides a modular and flexible architecture that separates the core system from the application domain. Therefore, smart contracts can imply business rules for applications without understanding the basic design of the core system. It supports different consensus algorithms, including Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET) and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT).
It is an enterprise blockchain platform used for developing distributed ledger networks and applications. It aims to keep distributed ledgers and smart contracts safe, particularly for companies. It streamlines blockchain application development as developers can define business rules for their applications using the language of their choice.
Here are some of its features that differentiate it from other blockchain platforms:
A private network with a sawtooth licensing feature
Parallel transaction execution
Ethereum contract compatibility with Seth
Plug-in consensus algorithm
Separation between core system and application level
5. EOS
EOS is a blockchain platform designed to develop scalable and secure dApps.
The EOS platform eliminates all user fees and reaches consensus by leveraging multithreading and delegated proof-of-stake algorithms. They have a special community called the “EOS forum”, where developers and investors can discuss the platform.
Following are some of the features of the EOS blockchain that make it one of the reliable platforms:
Uses
Governance
Multiprocessing
Flexibility
Measurement
Can be upgraded
Permission Scheme
6. Openchain
It uses a different consensus from Bitcoin-based systems, namely, Partitioned Consensus.
Rather than one central ledger, each organization controls its own Opechain instances to connect to. Because it uses a client-server architecture, it is more reliable and efficient than a P2P architecture. Also, there are no miners involved in the Openchain blockchain network; therefore, asset administrators directly validate free and instant transactions.
Following are some of the features of the Open chain blockchain network:
Modular design
Free transaction
Very scalable
2 Way Pegs
Integrated API
Smart Contract Function
7. Corda
Corda is an open source blockchain platform that allows businesses to transact in person and in strict privacy with smart contracts. It reduces recording and transaction costs by streamlining business processes.
It is a flexible and agile platform that can scale to meet business needs. An app built on Corda, CorDapps is designed and developed to transform businesses across a wide range of sectors, including healthcare, energy, insurance, finance and more.
The Corda blockchain platform features which make it an ideal platform:
Personal
Open design
Interoperability
Agile and Flexible
Open Development
8. Tron
Tron is a decentralized blockchain platform that aims to develop a decentralized web. Like Ethereum, Tron allows dApp developers to create and take advantage of complete protocols via smart contracts on the blockchain.
The Tron platform can handle 2000 transactions per second, which makes it on par in comparison to major payment processors such as Paypal. It has zero transaction fees.
Tron relies on a Delegated-Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism to secure the blockchain. DPoS is similar to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism that allows users to earn passive income whenever they stake their stake in a network wallet.
Tron Blockchain Network Features:
High Scalability
High Availability
High Throughput
EVM compatibility
Multi-language extension
Eliminate fake chains
9. Hedera Hashpraph
Hedera Hashgraph Platform is a secure, fair and lightning-fast platform that does not require computationally powerful working algorithms. This allows developers to develop new, innovative and scalable decentralized applications.
Smart contracts on the Hedera Hashgraph platform can be built dynamically like any other software component. Since the platform provides an optional mechanism that allows “binding arbitration”, applied smart contracts with a list of arbitrator public keys can be edited to correct errors or add new features.
Following are some of the features of the Hedera Hashgraph platform:
Fast
Fair
Secure
Implementation of public BFT Notary Services for Corda
Connect the Hyperledger Fabric network to the Hedera Consensus Service
10. Ethereum
Ethereum is one of the leading blockchain platforms which has a native cryptocurrency called ETH or Ether. Developers use Ethereum to build new applications related to financial applications, decentralized markets, games, cryptocurrency wallets, and more.
It aims to eliminate internet third parties that store data and track financial instruments.
Below are some of the features of the Ethereum platform:
Smart Contract Function
Turing completeness
Licensing
Personal
Fast Deployment
Tokenization
Since we have listed the top blockchain platforms that you would like to explore in 2021, by now, you will have a question on your mind, “how do I choose a blockchain platform.” You will always need the ideal platform for your business use case.
We are here to help you choose the right blockchain platform.
How to choose a Blockchain Platform?
Once you have decided on your business use case, the next step is to choose the right blockchain platform. Consider the following factors when choosing a blockchain platform:
The type of Blockchain you need
Before choosing a blockchain platform, you need to understand what type of blockchain is right for your use case. You need to use an authorized network if you want your participants to be authorized before participating in the network. Therefore, it is important to identify whether you need a licensed or unauthorized blockchain.
Languages supported by the platform
If you have an in-house development team, you will need to find a platform that your developers can work on. For example, you may have to look for a platform that supports certain programming languages like Python, Java, Javascript and others.
Below are some of the features of the Ethereum platform:
Blockchain scalability refers to blockchain platforms that achieve high TPS (transactions per second) rates. For example, Bitcoin can execute around seven transactions per second, Ethereum can handle 20 transactions, while Stellar can perform up to 1000 transactions per second.
If you are looking for a blockchain platform, you must look at the transaction capabilities and identify whether the requirements can be met or not.
Security
Security can be an important factor for many organizations, especially if your organization needs to manage sensitive information. To ensure that no security breach occurs, it is important to choose a platform that maintains security. Several popular platforms, including EOS and Hyperledger Fabric, have excellent handling of security records.
Smart Contract Function
Not all blockchain platforms support the concept of smart contracts which are useful for validating, enforcing, or triggering actions on the blockchain system.
Conclusion
Forrester predicts that 30% of projects will be produced globally by 2021. This figure reflects the maturity of blockchain technology and the demand for a stronger blockchain platform.
