Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash According to Cision, the blockchain market is expected to have a revenue worth $20B by 2024. Along with the growing interest in blockchain technology, there is a growing number of blockchain development platforms that offer various benefits for developers. With such a variety of offerings, it’s really difficult sometimes to choose the right platform to suit all your business needs. This is why I have compiled a list of the 5 most promising blockchain development platforms for 2022. Ethereum Of course, we can't help but start with Ethereum since this network is one of the fastest-growing and most popular among blockchain developers. Ethereum is a public open-source platform working on the principle of Proof of Work. It provides engineers with a wide range of tools to build blockchain-based solutions using the Ethereum Virtual Machine environment. According to the Ethereum Price, the market value of one ETH at the end of May 2021 was $2,236 which makes Ether the second most valuable cryptocurrency on the market after Bitcoin. Ethereum’s advantages include the following: High level of security due to decentralization. Very little downtime. Versatility. Popular DeFi and NFT support. Huge community. Weak points: Slow processing times. Higher transaction costs compared to other platforms. Scaling issues. However, Ethereum is currently undergoing an update known as Ethereum 2.0, which will operate on the Proof of Stake (PoS) principle to improve security and scalability and make gas calculations more efficient. Hyperledger Fabric Permissionless networks such as Ethereum have many advantages, but some organizations operate under strict confidentiality conditions that open blockchains cannot provide. This is where the need for private networks arises, and this direction has a lot to do with Hyperledger Fabric. Hyperledger Fabric is a cross-industry blockchain network enabling developers to create blockchain-based solutions using plug-and-play components. All thanks to the modular architecture. The platform was created for industrial enterprise use and it is permissioned, which means only authorized users have access to data. Advantages of Hyperledger Fabric: Improved security. Good performance and scalability. It’s suitable for organizations that are not related to crypto projects. Weak points: Lack of transparency. Relatively few use cases for this platform since the market is mainly focused on public blockchains. The platform is constantly improving. For example, Hyperledger Fabric 2.0 was released in January 2020. The update allowed for improved data privacy and ensured decentralized management of smart contracts. 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 designed to create a multi-blockchain network with fully decentralized information exchange. The technology solves the problems of scalability and blockchain interoperability. The structure of Polkadot includes so-called parachains, which allow you to take permission data from a private blockchain and use it in public chains. In this environment, developers can create new blockchains as well as plug them into existing ones. Advantages of Polkadot: Fast and secure processing and transmission of data between public and private blockchains. High scalability. Great performance. Simplifies blockchain development process. Weak points: Since Polkadot is a fairly new project, it has few use cases to fully appreciate the effectiveness of the technology. Some also criticize it for the lack of decentralization through a concentration on its own DOT currency. Solana Solana is one of the largest in DeFi in terms of the number of blocked funds. This is a first-level blockchain with no sidechains or parachains. The platform uses a new cryptic mechanism called Proof of History (PoH). It allows for greater scalability and faster transaction processing. According to representatives of the Solana Foundation, the current throughput of Solana is 60,000 transactions per second. Advantages of Solana: Great scalability. Faster and cheaper transactions. Good compatibility between projects. Provides good user experience. Weak points: Many functions work in test mode. Also, some developers criticize the blockchain for not being decentralized enough. Although Solana has been on the market for a while, a real boom of this technology was seen in 2021 with increased interest in NFTs. Minting NFTs on Solana is cheaper and faster than on Ethereum, so users who appreciate the platform and many projects related to non-fungible tokens chose it for further development. Cardano In 2021, Cardano ranked third in terms of market capitalization, behind only the market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum, so we can't ignore it. Cardano is an open-source proof of stake blockchain platform that works on the Proof-of-Stake principle. It provides smart contract functionalities. What's most exciting about Cardano is that it's highly decentralized. In 2021, the platform reached 100% decentralization, and currently, the network has more than 1500 validator pools. Advantages of Cardano: Good scalability. Faster and cheaper transactions (compared to the Ethereum network). Focus on security. The system is extremely stable thanks in large part to good decentralization. Weak Points: Slow development of the platform, because it’s known as an ‘academic blockchain’ because its development is based on a lot of research and tests. Currently, DEXs, NFT marketplaces, stablecoins, lending protocols, and others are being developed using Cardano. The Cardano team has a clear road map for improving the technology they use. In the near future, the platform is expected to receive a number of updates that can make it an even more attractive solution for the development of blockchain projects. Wrapping Up The blockchain market is evolving at an incredible rate. In addition to constantly updating existing solutions, new and more advanced ones are constantly appearing. As one of the most popular blockchain development platforms, Ethereum today has a ton of promising competitors offering better scalability, transaction speed, and lower gas fees. Previously published here.
