Top 8 Blockchain Platforms You Should Check Out Now

Last updated on February 14th, 2018 at 01:14 pm

In 2008 Blockchain technology was introduced in a paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” by Satoshi Nakamoto. When it comes to talking about this high-end technology, it is a creative invention that interests various people. Since then, this technology has grown into something greater.

But…

One of the major questions every single person has in his/her mind is: What exactly is Blockchain Technology?

A Blockchain is the data structure that is used by Bitcoin cryptocurrency for its public ledger, where transactions can be recorded. Unfortunately, the word “Blockchain” does not appear in the real description of the Bitcoin protocol. It was referred to as the “chains of blocks” in a comment in the source code for its operation.

Equipped with enormous features, Blockchain is a perfect for decentralized and secure processing of events and transactions. Decentralization of a business process leads to quicker processing and less overhead.

Moreover, secured processing makes sure that the managing parties can’t hack the system and any attempt to do so can be easily noticed. Some of the major use cases of Blockchain technology are organized supply chain, tracking of calculable or tangible assets, multiparty financial transaction, etc.

These top 8 Blockchain platforms can help you to prototype your next big idea:

Ethereum

Ethereum is well-known for running smart contracts, applications that run the same as programmed without downtime, third-party interference and censorship.

It allows developers to create stored registries of debts, markets, move funds according to instructions that given back in the past.

Features:

Ethereum Wallet that allows holding crypto-assets, and writing, deploying and using smart contracts.
Making crypto-currencies.
Command line tools that built in C++, Go, Java, Python, etc.
Making of democratic autonomous organizations.

Hyperledger

Hyperledger is an open source collective effort that mainly developed to advance cross-industry Blockchain technologies. Hyperledger is hosted by The Linux Foundation, comprised of leaders in finance, supply chain, backing, IoT, manufacturing and technology.

The platform has various projects under its belt, as submitted by the member companies. You can check out their projects page to get more information about it. Currently, Sawtooth Lake is the biggest project on Hyperledger, submitted by Intel and supports a modular Blockchain suite.

Features:

It is actively updated in GitHub.
Open source platform that supports Python (Sawtooth Lake).
A highly confidential channel for sharing private information.
Endorsement policies for transactions.

Openchain

An open source distributed ledger technology perfect for all those organizations that are looking forward to issuing and managing digital assets in a highly secure and scalable way. The platform takes a different approach from the standard Blockchain.

Thus, it follows a divided consensus system in which every new Openchain example has one authority for authenticating transactions, depending on the assets being exchanged. In turn, it leads to a client-server architecture that they are claiming to be more effective and reliable than peer-to-peer architecture.

Features:

The platform allows anyone to spin up a new Openchain instance within seconds.
End-users can exchange value on the ledger as per those rules.
The administrator of an Openchain instance defines the rules of the ledger.
Every single transaction on the ledger is digitally signed like with Bitcoin.

Chain

Chain Core is a well-known enterprise-grade Blockchain infrastructure that allows organizations to build better financial services from scratch. This is an enterprise software product that implements the chain protocol. An open source developer edition is also obtainable free of cost, whereas the Chain Core Enterprise Edition is a commercial product.

The formation, control and transfer of assets are decentralized among participants on Chain’s Blockchain networks. The network’s operation is governed by a federation, a designated set of entities. Some of the assets on Chain networks comprise securities, derivatives, gift cards, currencies and loyalty points.

Features:

Role-based permissions for operating, participating and accessing in a network.
Support for smart contracts.
Native digital assets like securities, currencies, etc.
Support for smart contracts.
Transaction Privacy
Federated Consensus.

BigChainDB

BigChainDB is an open source system, which starts with a big data distributed database and then adds Blockchain characteristics including decentralized control, and the transfer of digital assets.

Using this platform, developers and enterprises can deploy Blockchain proof-of-concepts, platforms and applications with a highly scalable Blockchain database, giving complete support to a lot of industries and use cases.

Features:

Support for custom assets, transactions, permissions and transparency.
Allows permissions setting at transaction level.
Federation Consensus Model.
Supports both public and private networks.

HydraChain

A joint development effort of brainbot technologies and the Ethereum project HydraChain is the most useful extension of the Ethereum platform that supports the creation of scalable Blockchain based apps, which comply with organizational and regulatory requirements.

Equipped with enormous features, this platform is 100% compatible on an API and contract level. The existing tool chains of the platform help to develop and deploy Smart Contracts and Apps easily.

Features:

Fully compatible with the Ethereum Protocol.
Support for sub-second block times.
Accountable Validators.
Open Source.
Infrastructure for developing smart contracts in Python.

IOTA

In this list of platforms, IOTA is the new teen that is yet another implementation of Blockchain. The platform proceeds from the standard Blockchain and is based on a concept of a blockless distributed ledger called Tangle.

This platform claims a major enabler for machine economy and it also supports infinitesimally small nano-payments without charging any extra fees.

Features:

Allows companies to explore new business-to-business models, making every technological resource a potential service to be traded on an open market in real-time without fees.
Based on concept of blockless, it promises users to be a key enabler for machine economy.
Supports infinitesimally small non-payments without any fees.

Lisk

Lisk is another feature-rich decentralized Blockchain application platform that allows the development of apps from the ground-up in pure JavaScript. Users have the benefits of its advanced APIs. Moreover, every single app runs on its own sidechain to make sure that the platform stays safe and scalable.

However, various advanced features of the platform are in under construction, but it claims that it will be obtainable by end of this year.

Features:

Decentralised applications can be built on top of your own Blockchain.
The platform is striving hard to make Blockchain technology obtainable for everyone, who is looking to develop Blockchain application.
Offers enormous possibilities like developing platform independent social networks, messengers, games, etc.

These are the top eight platforms that can be used to develop Blockchain applications. The above-mentioned list might you choose a Blockchain platform for your next project.

If you are facing any confusion related to Blockchain platforms for your next app development project, you can get help from a professional Blockchain development company.

Feature image credit: Jennifer Evans