TOP 7 Blockchain Platforms to Consider in 2022

Today, blockchain technology has witnessed immense popularity in not only the financial sector but also in other industries. A lot of businesses are willing to unleash the efficiency of blockchain by creating Blockchain applications. It has increased the demand for such applications and organizations are investing in Blockchain app development.

The global blockchain technology market size is expected to reach USD 394.60 billion by 2028. It is projected to expand at a CAGR of 82.4% from 2021 to 2028. Along with a growing interest in blockchain technology, the number of blockchain development platforms is growing too, and sometimes it is really difficult to choose the right framework to meet all of your business needs. In this article, we will provide a quick overview of TOP BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS for 2022 to let you decide what suits your business best.

What is a Blockchain Platform?

Blockchain platform helps blockchain app development. For example, if you want to build a cryptocurrency trading app, you will come across a range of legal limitations, backend complexities that can slow down the app development process. This complexity can be eradicated by making use of efficient blockchain platforms. These platforms help you reduce the efforts required to build the app from scratch which saves a lot of time as well.

TOP 7 Blockchain Platforms to consider in 2022

1. Ethereum

Materialized in 2013, Ethereum represents a platform that is one of the longest-standing, well-established, and deservedly recognized as the best blockchain development platform. It is nowadays one of the fastest-growing in-demand networks among developers.

Ethereum works on a Proof-of-work basis and appears to be open source. Since Etherum is a permissionless blockchain, it can be used by anyone, anywhere. The strength of Ethereum is that it allows any developer to write and distribute next-generation non-centralized applications using the Ethereum virtual machine environment.

Decentralized application developers who deploy smart contracts on Ethereum benefit from the rich ecosystem of developer tooling and established best practices that have come with the maturity of the protocol. This maturity also extends into the quality of user experience for the average user of Ethereum applications, with wallets like MetaMask, Argent, Rainbow, and more offering simple interfaces through which to interact with the Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts deployed there. Ethereum’s large user base encourages developers to deploy their applications on the network, which further reinforces Ethereum as the primary home for decentralized applications like DeFi and NFTs. In the future, the backwards-compatible Ethereum 2.0 protocol, currently under development, will provide a more scalable network on which to build decentralization:

Pros:

• Reliable degree of protection utilizing decentralization;
• Extremely low idle time;
• Multifunctionality;
• Vast community.

Cons:

• Slow turnaround speed;
• Increased transactional expenditures are relative to competing platforms;
• Challenges with scalability.ized applications that require higher transaction throughput.

2. Hyperledger Fabric

The Hyperledger consortium was launched in 2016 with 30 members including IBM, Accenture, BNY Mellon, Intel, and Digital Asset Holdings among others. Hyperledger Fabric was one of the consortium’s first projects and incorporated aspects of code already developed by Digital Asset, IBM, and Blockstream.

Hyperledger Fabric is an open-source, permissioned distributed ledger developed by the Linux Foundation-hosted Hyperledger consortium. It is intended to provide businesses with a customizable technological framework for a variety of use cases. Hyperledger Fabric supports private transactions and confidential contracts, making it ideal for privacy and security-focused financial companies. The platform is also suitable for other businesses wishing to create a private blockchain network, including healthcare, government, and supply chain companies. This platform is already used by HP, Amazon, Visa, Walmart, and others.

Hyperledger Fabric does not have a native asset, a feature that its creators claim lowers operational costs and the risk of attacks on the network. Likewise, unlike public blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, only ‘known’ parties can run nodes, participate in governance and carry out actions on the ledger.

Pros:

• Advanced protection;
• Solid capacity and high scalability;
• Fits organizations not associated with crypto projects.

Cons:

• Missing Transparency;
• Comparatively fewer use cases for this platform, because the majority of the market is oriented toward publicly available blockchains.

3. EOS

EOS launched In June 2018 after an initial coin offering that raised $4.1 billion in crypto for Block.one, the company that developed the open-source software called EOS.IO that is used on the platform.

EOS is a well-known blockchain platform. It is used to design and develop scalable and secure applications. It provides the user dApps’ hosting and smart contracts capability. EOS supports core functionality that allows businesses and individuals to create blockchain-based applications in a way that is similar to web-based applications. EOS provides secure access and authentication, permissions, data hosting, usage management, and communication between dApps and the Internet.

Pros:

• High-speed and powerful;
• The very high extent of customizability;
• Excellent reliability;
• Great interoperability;
• Superior developer friendliness

Cons:

• The capacity to renew smart contracts is confined to a custodian model;
• Slightly centralized in a decentralized call;
• In terms of price fluctuations, attached to Bitcoin.

4. Corda

Established in 2015 by the R3, Corda stands as one of the popular blockchains operating open-source code, on which developers are able to construct permissions defined dispersed decisions. The platform was originally created for monetary services establishments, although over time it was extended to cover further sectors, including digital support, assurance, public health, agriculture, and banking. Its alliance has swelled to more than 60 firms. Smart contracts allow businesses to seamlessly deal using Corda while retaining stringent privacy. A distinctive feature is that all company procedures are optimized, therefore significantly reducing transaction expenses and document management. It’s even characterized as “both a blockchain and not a blockchain” due to the authorized Corda website. Smart contracts within Corda may be developed in Kotlin or Java. One of the multiple noteworthy advantages of this approach is that all transactions are handled in real-time, which might enhance performance in comparison to other blockchains. The extremely scalable, decentralized Apps produced by Corda are known as CorDapps. Since this platform lacks a mining capability, many nodes never see a portion of the dealings. To put it another way, Corda operations aren’t available to all nodes. Corda doesn’t have any cryptocurrencies as well as tokens.

Corda contains a pluggable consensus, meaning it may prefer a variety of consensus methods. The consensus of Corda embraces both validity and uniqueness.

Pros:

• It offers better reliability;
• It is adaptable and responsive as a platform;
• Using an open-source blockchain outlet, you get to discover your engineering and design processes.

Cons:

• It is not GDPR-compliant;
• Doesn’t really enable credentials to be stored on the client-side;
• None cryptocurrency.

5. Tron

Tron is a decentralized blockchain platform that aims to develop a decentralized web. Like Ethereum, Tron allows dApp developers to create and leverage complete protocols via smart contracts on the blockchain.

The Tron platform can handle 2000 transactions per second, which puts it on par as compared to major payment processors like Paypal. It has zero transaction fees.

Tron depends on the Delegated-Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism to secure the blockchain. A DPoS is similar to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism that allows users to earn passive income whenever they stake their holdings in a network wallet.

Pros:

• TRON aims at the development of the market of entertainment content, which has very high prospects in the future. It covers several areas at once and includes video hosting, social network, streaming platform, gaming portal, online casino, payment platform, and online edition.
• The main idea of TRON is to create a decentralized entertainment platform on which users could create and monetize content without intermediaries.
• The currency is created by a strong team of developers. Some TRON developers have experience in large well-known companies, including those related to cryptocurrency. The development of TRON involved Ripple Labs specialists.
• TRON can support a large number of running applications. At the moment, the network is capable of processing 2000 transactions per second.

Cons:

• The TRON platform is often accused of being too centralized. About 50% of the TRX tokens on the market are stored in ten addresses. Consequently, the owners of these addresses can influence the price of this cryptocurrency. The fact that none of the users is aware of who owns these tokens rocks the boat.
• Only 15% of the issued coins are available for private investment. A limited number of developers and large investors own the rest. No matter how the opposite is stated, there is always the temptation to move the TRON cryptocurrency rate in the right direction.
• At the moment, only the first part of the TRON project roadmap has been implemented, which involves launching its blockchain. The remaining plans that should turn the TRON blockchain into a decentralized Internet are written down several years in advance. That is why, despite the presence of its own network, the platform is still at the initial stage of development.

6. Solana

Solana is considered one of the most high-performance permissionless blockchains on the market, with a network of 200 distinct nodes that generate a throughput of 50,000 TPS when running with GPUs. The network achieves this due to its unique consensus architecture.

Solana is often referred to as the most scalable and first truly web-scale blockchain in the world, as it’s among the few protocols achieving over 1,000 TPS.

Moreover, Solana claims to support over 50,000 TPS, with over 200 nodes on the current testnet — making it by far the most performant blockchain network. In comparison, proof of work-based systems like Bitcoin support approximately 5 transactions per second, while Ethereum currently averages around 13 TPS. This makes Solana around 10,000 times faster than Bitcoin and 3,800 times faster than Ethereum.

Pros:

• Fast and cheap transactions processing
• Powered by less consuming PoS and PoH
• Can be programmed in typical coding languages

Cons:

• Much smaller network
• Requires expensive specialized hardware to mine
• Lacks support from institutions and “crypto experts”

7. Polkadot

Polkadot is a relatively new but promising blockchain platform created by Gavin Wood, one of the co-founders of Ethereum. Since August 2020, the Polkadot token has risen in price by 1238%, and the platform itself has become a noticeable player in the market.

Polkadot is primarily focused on crypto projects including DeFi and NFTs. In 2020, it partnered with the Chain Link project to attract DeFi app developers. The platform supports the creation of transaction chains, IoT chains, oracle chains, identification chains, data distribution chains, etc. Interest in the platform continues to grow, and we are confident that new promising projects in the Polkadot ecosystem are yet to come.

Pros:

• Parity Technologies’ Substrate modular framework offers developers the flexibility to select specific components that best suit their application-specific chain.
• Polkadot allows developers to launch chains and applications leveraging a shared security model, without having to worry about attracting enough miners or validators to secure their own chains.
• Polkadot’s para chains can use bridges to connect with external networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
• Polkadot has already raised nearly $200 million, become a top ten coin by market cap, and started to be integrated with other networks, like Chainlink.

Cons:

• Polkadot is competing with many other general-purpose, smart contracting, Proof of Stake blockchains
• Hackers have exploited code vulnerabilities twice, draining millions of dollars before being stopped.
• A limited number of parachains are available and slots are sold via auction, which may price out some smaller use cases.

How to choose a Blockchain Platform?

To choose a suitable Blockchain platform, here are some criteria that you need to check out:

• Confidentiality level: If your company has strict security and privacy requirements and you want to build an enterprise blockchain, you need to consider private platforms such as Hyperledger Fabric. If the goal of your business is to create an open project with a high level of transparency, choose among the public networks.
• Security: Security always matters. Different blockchains have different mechanisms to ensure the secure storage and transmission of data.
• Decentralization: More and more users and businesses are discovering the benefits of decentralized solutions. Decide what level of decentralization your project needs and what platform can provide this.
• Transaction speed and cost: These factors are decisive for many users when choosing blockchain applications. If you decide to work with a platform with a high gas fee, your development team will need to think about how to optimize it.
• Scalability: It all depends on your business plans and the expected load on the system. Make sure the platform you choose can handle a growing amount of work while delivering strong performance.
• Adoption rate: Last but not least, when choosing a blockchain development framework. The more popular a platform is, the more likely it is to attract more users with less effort. If this is your goal, study the popularity of different platforms in the market and how successful they are.

CONCLUSION

There are various blockchain platforms in the world, it depends on the functionality based on your business’ needs. We have selected 7 Blockchain Platforms that will grow significantly in 2022 to let you have an overview of how these work. If you are not sure about the right blockchain app development companies you should approach, contact Spirit Labs and we will give you free pieces of advice and consultation. Together we will make your imagination become a real thing!

REFERENCES:

Article: TOP Blockchain platforms you need to know by Analytics Insight

Article: Best Blockchain Development Platform in 2022 | TOP 5 Blockchains by Orest Hudziy

Article: Top 5 Blockchain Development Platforms for 2022 by Viktor Legetsky

Article: Top 10 Blockchain Platforms of 2022 by justinloop

Article: EOS by SHOBHIT SETH

Polkadot Core Report by CryptoEQ