A Comprehensive Guide to Blockchain Platforms in 2019

Since its inception in 2009, Blockchain has significantly impacted industries, such as supply chain management, healthcare, finance, and IoT applications. Many businesses, SMEs, and enterprises have been integrating blockchain in their existing business model and have seen a potential rise in their revenue model as a result.

For business owners, integrating blockchain into their current infrastructure will require continuous effort as building a blockchain-based app from scratch can be quite complicated. In this article, I'll show you some of the most popular blockchain platforms that you can use to build a blockchain application with ease.

You may also like: Three Industries That Blockchain Will Impact the Most.

Curious? Let’s begin!

Here are some of the popular examples for blockchain platforms that your Blockchain and Ethereum Developers can use in 2019:

As a business owner, to make any decision requires a confident choice that is based on the ones that meet your requirements.

Based on my experience in the blockchain industry, I have done a qualitative analysis of blockchain platforms based on the following factors which will help you in taking your next business decision:

1. Activity: How active is your blockchain platform for your next blockchain project?

2. Type of network: Public, Permissioned or Private network.

3. Supported Languages: Programming Languages supported by the Blockchain Platform’s SDK

4. Popularity: How popular is your blockchain platform based on its contribution to GitHub and user’s ratings?

5. GitHub Repo: Names of the GitHub Repo for blockchain platform’s SDKs.

6. Costing: If the platform is available at free of cost or if it is paid?

7. Technical Support: If the blockchain platform is backed by a team of technical support specialists or not.

Without wasting further time, let’s get started and look through the top blockchain platforms that you can use for your business in 2019:

Ethereum

After Blockchain, the most popular buzz word in the tech world is Ethereum. Developed by Vitalik Buterin in 2014, it has been one of the most active, open source blockchain platforms used to develop decentralized blockchain applications. The Ethereum Virtual Machine allows users to run Smart Contracts in a run-time environment.

Popular Use-Cases

The implication of Ethereum Smart Contracts could be seen in Banking and Financial Services, ICO’s, and Digital Identity Management.

Features

• Industry Type: Cross-Industry.

• Consensus Algorithm: Proof of Work.

• Governance: Ethereum Developers.

• Smart Contract Functionality: Yes.

• Ledger Type: Permissionless.

• Resources: 

  • https://ethereum.org/ .

  • https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper.

Hyperledger Fabric

Hyperledger Fabric is a platform designed for building a blockchain application using a modular approach. It is an open source blockchain platform most commonly used for building blockchain applications developed by the Linux Foundation.

Popular Use-Cases

Hyperledger is used to create B2B Contracts, better organize manufacturing and supply chains, and manage depository assets. 

Features

• Industry Type: Cross-Industry.

• Consensus Algorithm: Pluggable Framework.

• Governance: Linux Foundation.

• Smart Contract Functionality: Yes.

• Ledger Type: Permissioned.

• Resources:

  • https://www.hyperledger.org/projects/fabric.

  • https://github.com/hyperledger/fabric.

Hyperledger Iroha

Founded by Linux Foundation, Hyperledger Iroha has been made to develop trusted, fast, and secure decentralized blockchain applications. It’s simple and modularised distributed architecture makes it compatible with Linux and macOS environments to build supply chain and IoT solutions.

Popular Use-Cases 

Hyperledger Iroha has been used to manage education and health-care certifications, cross-border asset transfers, and financial applications

Features 

• Industry Type: Cross-Industry.

• Consensus Algorithm: Chain-based Byzantine Fault Tolerant.

• Governance: Linux Foundation.

• Smart Contract Functionality: Yes.

• Ledger Type: Permissioned.

• Resources:

  • https://www.hyperledger.org/projects/iroha.

  • https://iroha.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.

Hyperledger Sawtooth

Backed by Intel and founded by Linux, Hyperledger Sawtooth is the most widely used blockchain platform for creating, executing, and deploying distributed ledgers. It is a modular and enterprise-grade platform that enables digital records to be maintained without the need for oversight from a central authority.

Popular Use-Cases

Hyperledger Sawtooth has commonly been used for E-Commerce and supply chain solutions and managing medical records. 

Features

• Industry Type: Cross-Industry.

• Consensus Algorithm: Pluggable Framework.

• Governance: Linux Foundation.

• Smart Contract Functionality: Yes.

• Ledger Type: Permissionless.

• Resources:

  • https://www.hyperledger.org/projects/sawtooth.

  • https://sawtooth.hyperledger.org/docs/core/releases/latest/.

  • https://sawtooth.hyperledger.org/examples/.

OpenChain

Developed by CoinPrism, Openchain is an open source blockchain platform best suited for industries who want to better manage their digital assets. It is a secure and scalable application powered by a partitioned consensus where you can have a single authority in validating transactions. It is one of the most efficient blockchain platforms, as the transaction process is free of cost.

Popular Use-Cases

OpenChain has been used to create lightweight financial systems, track provenances, keep interorganizational records, and allow for multiparty aggregation. 

Features

• Industry Type: Digital Asset Management.

• Consensus Algorithm: Partitioned Consensus.

• Governance: Linux Foundation.

• Smart Contract Functionality: Yes.

• Ledger Type: Permissioned.

• Links to Ponder: 

  • https://www.openchain.org/.

  • https://github.com/openchain.

Stellar

Stellar is a distributed ledger network built to facilitate cross-platform asset transfers. The blockchain platform allows the developer to build wallets, smart devices and much more. 

Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) makes it possible to maintain consensus without relying on a closed system to record financial transactions.

For instance, SureRemit leverages the application of Stellar to connect users abroad with merchants offering services in a different country.

Popular Use-Cases

IBM World Wire makes it easy and cheap for financial institutions to send any currency anywhere in the world. Satoshi Pay eliminates the need for ads and paywall by allowing consumers to micro-pay for online content.

Features

• Industry Type: Financial Services.

• Consensus Algorithm: Stellar Consensus Protocol.

• Governance: Stellar Development Foundation.

• Smart Contract Functionality: Yes.

• Ledger Type: Both public and private.

• Resources:

  • https://www.stellar.org/.

  • https://www.valuecoders.com/hire-developers/hire-stellar-developers.

  • https://www.stellar.org/papers/stellar-consensus-protocol.pdf.

NEO

NEO was designed by the members of Blockchain R&D Company and is used to build decentralized blockchain applications. NEO is powered by the Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance mechanism.

Its native cryptocurrency, NEO, can be used to pay transaction fees to run apps on the NEO network.

Popular Use-Cases 

NEO has been used to better manage digital identities and assets and create DApps. 

Features

• Industry Type: Smart Economy.

• Consensus Algorithm: Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance.

• Governance: On-chain governance through votes of NEO holders and Off-chain governance through NEO Foundation support.

• Smart Contract Functionality: Yes.

• Ledger Type: Permissioned.

• Resources:

  •  https://neo.org/.

  • https://docs.neo.org/en-us/whitepaper.html.

EOS

Launched as open source software in 2018 by Block, EOS, aims to provide decentralized application hosting, smart contract capability, decentralized storage of enterprise blockchain apps in order to solve scalability issues with Bitcoin and Ethereum.

EOS eradicates additional transaction costs while maintaining consensus using multi-threading and delegated proof of stake algorithm.

Popular Use-Cases 

EOS has been used for managing digital identity, tokenization, and interorganization data management. 

Features

• Industry Type: Cross-Industry.

• Consensus Algorithm: Delegated Proof of Stake.

• Governance: EOSIO Core Arbitration Forum (ECAF).

• Smart Contract Functionality: Yes.

• Ledger Type: Permissioned.

• Resources:

  • https://eos.io/.

  • https://developers.eos.io/.

Hedra Hashgraph

If you are looking to develop a decentralized enterprise-grade application, Hedra Hashgraph could be the choice for you. The blockchain platform is most trusted for blockchain developers to build apps for digital currencies and platforms for online payments.

With an asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance Algorithm, Hedera Hashgraph provides a high degree of security.

Popular Use-Cases

Hedera has been used to create Alto.io, a gaming developer platform to mint and exchange crypto items. It's also used in Cryptotask, a decentralized task marketplace for freelancers, built to disrupt today’s freelancing systems.

Features

• Industry Type: Cross-Industry.

• Consensus Algorithm: Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance.

• Governance: Hedera Hashgraph Council.

• Smart Contract Functionality: Yes.

• Ledger Type: Permissioned.

• Resources:

  • https://www.hedera.com/.

  • https://www.hedera.com/whitepaper.

R3 Corda

R3 Corda is an innovative blockchain platform launched in 2015 that allows institutions to make transactions directly from smart contracts, thereby reducing cost friction from business transactions. Initially developed for financial institutions, R3 Corda can now be used in applications like healthcare, supply chain, government authorities, and trade finance.

Popular Use-Cases

R3 Corda has been used to better manage digital assets and facilitate global trade.

Features

• Industry Type: Cross-Industry.

• Consensus Algorithm: Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance.

• Governance: Hedera Hashgraph Council.

• Smart Contract Functionality: Yes.

• Ledger Type: Permissioned.

• Resources:

  • https://www.r3.com/platform/.

  • https://www.r3.com/library/.

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