Best Blockchain Platforms for Your Business

The blockchain technology has been around for a decade and it is still growing and developing. With every year, this technology is gaining more and more popularity, and, consequently, more and more blockchain development platforms appear.

How to Choose the Right Platform

In order to choose the blockchain development platform that will be perfect for your business, you must consider some very important factors that will influence how well it fits your needs. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Activity: The platform you choose must be active in terms of blockchain development projects. Otherwise, what’s the use of an inactive platform? Read some user testimonials about how active your platform is before choosing it.
• Type of Network: There are three types of the network a blockchain platform can have. These are public, permissioned, or private networks. Depending on your goals and needs, you will need a certain type of network, so make sure to find out what your platform’s network type is before opting for this particular platform.
• Supported Languages: These do not refer to the languages people speak but rather the programming languages supported by the blockchain platform’s SDK. If you have any preferences about this feature, do some research and find out about it.
• Popularity: This refers to the popularity of the platform based on its contribution to GitHub and ratings.
• GitHub Repo: Find out the names of the GitHub Repo for the platform’s SDK.
• Cost: This one is especially important if you are on a budget. Some blockchain development platforms are free while others aren’t, so make sure to check the monthly or yearly subscription cost before you decide to register.
• Technical Support: If a platform is backed by a team of technical support specialists, it probably means that this platform is more serious or popular than others. You will be able to get support at any moment which is always an advantage.

Popular Blockchain Platforms

Now that you know how to choose a good blockchain platform, let’s talk about popular examples of these such as Hyperledger Iroha, OpenChain, Stellar, NEO, EOS, Credits, Hedera Hashgraph, R3 Corda, Quorum, MultiChain, Ripple, and Elements. But we will discuss only the top three blockchain platforms: Ethereum, Hyperledger Sawtooth, and Hyperledger Fabric.

Ethereum

Ethereum can be used to codify, decentralize, secure, and trade almost anything. The platform was created in late 2013 by a group of developers that was made up of Jeffrey Wilcke, Vitalik Buterin, and Gavin Wood. They wanted to create an open-source and blockchain-based distributed computing platform which would be a fully trustless smart contract platform.

Ethereum allows anyone to develop and run decentralized applications using blockchain technology. Ethereum cannot be owned or controlled by anyone, just like Bitcoin. The Ethereum platform is based on Ethereum Virtual Machine (aka EVM). All the nodes on Ethereum run on the EVM which offers the run-time environment to smart contracts built on this platform.

Ethereum has its own cryptocurrency called Ether which is used to sustain its ecosystem. Moreover, Ethereum is built for restricted access versus mass consumption. The platform is cross-industry focused with a permissionless ledger type.

Hyperledger Fabric

Hyperledger Fabric was contributed by IBM and Digital Asset and founded by Linux Foundation. This platform is one of the most used Hyperledger Projects that was designed to create, execute, and deploy distributed ledgers.

Hyperledger Fabric is a modular and enterprise-grade platform. It enables digital records to be maintained without the need for a central authority managing it. Hyperledger Fabric uses Proof of Elapsed Time (aka PoET) consensus mechanism. The platform can integrate with hardware security solutions termed as “trusted execution environments”. Just like Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric is cross-industry focused. It has a permissioned ledger type.

Hyperledger Sawtooth

Along with the previous blockchain development platform, Hyperledger Sawtooth is one of the popular Hyperledger Projects. Hyperledger Sawtooth is designed to build blockchain apps using a modular approach. This kind of architecture enables designers to plug in the components they chose such as membership services and consensus mechanism. This unique modularity architecture sets apart Hyperledger Sawtooth from other blockchain development platforms.

Hyperledger Sawtooth is designed for permissioned networks which means that it only allows known identities to participate within the system. This adds a layer of security as only authorized participants can be involved in the transactions that take place on the Hyperledger Sawtooth platform.

Other Popular Blockchain Platforms

Here’s a quick rundown of the blockchain development platforms mentioned above:

• Hyperledger Iroha: One of the Hyperledger Projects, Hyperledger Iroha was created by Linux Foundation. It is cross-industry focused and has a permission ledger type. Its consensus algorithm is a chain-based Byzantine Fault Tolerant.
• OpenChain: Also designed by Linux Foundation, OpenChain is Digital Asset Management focused with a permissioned ledger type. It has a Partitioned Consensus algorithm.
• Stellar: Stellar was created by Stellar Development Foundation. It focuses on Financial Services and has both public and private ledger types. Its consensus algorithm is a Stellar Consensus Protocol.
• NEO: NEO has on-chain governance through votes of NEO holders and off-chain governance through NEO Foundation support. Having a permissioned ledger type, it focuses on Smart Economy. Its consensus algorithm is a Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance
• EOS: EOS was developed by EOSIO Core Arbitration Forum (ECAF). It has a permissioned ledger type and is cross-industry focused. It has a Delegated Proof of Stake consensus algorithm.
• Credits: The blockchain development platform known as Credits is cross-industry focused and has a permissioned ledger type. It has a Proof of Agreement consensus algorithm.
• Hedera Hashgraph: Created by Hedera Hashgraph Council, this platform is cross-industry focused and has a permissioned ledger type. Its consensus algorithm is an Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance.
• R3 Corda: Also a creation by Hedera Hashgraph Council, R3 Corda is cross-industry focused and has a permissioned ledger type. Just like the platform above, it has an Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus algorithm.
• Quorum: Quorum was created by the Ethereum Developers in collaboration with JPMorgan Chase. It is also cross-industry focused and has a permissioned ledger type. It has a Majority Voting consensus algorithm.
• MultiChain: In contrast to other blockchain development platforms, MultiChain refers to smart contract functionality as smart filters. It is cross-industry focused and has a permissioned ledger type. It has a Distributed Consensus algorithm.
• Ripple: Ripple was designed by Ripple Labs. It focuses on Financial Services and has a permissioned ledger type. It has a Probabilistic Voting consensus algorithm.
• Elements: Lastly, Elements is also cross-industry focused and has a permissioned ledger type. It has a Strong Federations consensus algorithm.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, blockchain technology is only at the start of its career and will be around for decades ahead. If you don’t want to miss out on the opportunities blockchain offers, make sure that you get with the trends and start using it as soon as possible. Use the tips in this article to find the right blockchain development platform for your business.

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