Blockchain is a collection of digital transactions. As the name specifies, individual records of the structure are known as blocks which are further linked together in a single list known as a chain. These blockchains are used for recording cryptocurrency transactions, like bitcoin, ethereum and many more. Blockchain also has several applications in various industries such as supply chain and logistics, health care units, also legal etc. These applications are designed to make a process simple, yet transparent and efficient. 

Cryptocurrency

Following is the list of the best blockchain platforms to look out for in 2021 –

  1. Ethereum
  2. Hyperledger Fabric
  3. Hedera Hashgraph
  4. R3 Corda
  5. Ripple
  6. Quorum
  7. Openchain

Let’s get familiar with these blockchain platforms –

  • Ethereum

It was founded by Vitalk Buterin when he was 22 years old. It is an open-source platform. Ethereum is a famous platform as it has created a lot of buzz in the market right from its release. It is well known for its robust smart contracting functionality. Its native currency is known as ETH or Ether. Ethereum aims to eliminate third-party internet people who can save and track financial data. The main features of ethereum are smart contract functionality, Rapid Deployment, Turing Completeness, Privacy, Permissioning and Tokenization.

Ethereum ETH has 12+ TPS (Transactions Per Second), Its Average fee is $19.55 USD^. It takes 10-20 seconds for transaction confirmation. The energy used per transaction is 102+ KWH^^.

  • Hyperledger Fabric

It is open-source and supports the Python language. This platform offers advanced technology applications for industries like banking, finance, manufacturing and supply chain, Internet Of Things and tech industry. Hyperledger Fabric provides decentralized hosting with a decentralized storage option for applications with smart contract capabilities. This platform has been designed for permissioned networks. Big tech companies like IBM have invested in Hyperledger Fabric for building smart enterprise applications using the blockchain platform. 

  • Hedera Hashgraph

Hedera Hashgraph Platform is a secure, fair and fast blockchain platform. It is a 3rd generation public ledger. It doesn’t need computing a heavy set of work algorithms. Developers are allowed to create new innovative and decentralized applications. HBAR is the cryptocurrency of Hedera and it powers the decentralized economy. 

The main features of the Hedera Hashgraph platform are; It is fast, fair and secure to use. It can connect Hyperledger Fabric network to Hedera Consensus Services. It also has implemented a public BFT Notary Service for Corda. 

Hedera HBAR has 10,000+ TPS* (Transactions Per Second), Its Average fee is USD 0.0001. It only takes 3-5 secs for transaction confirmation. The energy used per transaction is 0.00017 KWH^^.

  • R3 Corda

R3 Corda was launched in the year 2015. It is an open-source distributed ledger platform that directly allows transactions with smart contracts. It operates on a permissioned network by which only authorized users are allowed to perform the transactions. This increases the privacy level and its access control for all digital records. This blockchain platform does not support cryptocurrency and token-based payment methods. Use cases of this platform are Health-care, Supply chain, Government and Trade Finances. 

  • Ripple

In the year 2012 Ripple was founded and later on renamed by Opencoin in the year 2015. It is open-source and free. It has a permissioned type of network and supports python language. Ripple has consensus type probabilistic voting. It is popular among financial corporations such as banks, digital assets exchanges and payment providers. This platform is also suitable for cross-border transactions. By which it allows banks to perform transactions across national borders. It allows global payments too with “XRP or Ripple”. This is a popular digital asset for cryptocurrencies such as Ether or Bitcoin.

  • Quorum

The Quorum was developed by J.P. Morgan. It is an enterprise blockchain platform. Use-cases that require high resources and high throughput while processing transactions can be handled by Quorum. Therefore, the business and financial sectors prefer this platform. Transactions in this system are made private using cryptography. So many financial companies have added these to their system. The issue of privacy is handled very well by Quorum than any other blockchain platform.

  • Openchain

Openchain has a private network type of blockchain. It is open-source and free pricing. Supports language JavaScript. It is one of the most preferred platforms for blockchain. It is designed and developed by Coinprism. The organizations that wish to secure and manage their digital assets use this platform.

Features of this platform are a peer-to-peer network that only has one single point validation for all payment transactions, also the same for assets that are exchanged in an online environment. As it works on partitioned consensus which makes all transactions free. On this platform, every transaction is validated by its owner through a digital signature. 

How to choose a blockchain platform?

Answers to these questions will help you choose the best blockchain platform –

  1. Select the type of blockchain platform that you need by considering its features.
  2. Which languages does the blockchain platform support?
  3. What are the security measures of blockchain platform?
  4. Does it support smart contract functionality?
  5. Choose the right cryptocurrency wallet according to your requirement