Bitcoin’s primary focus was peer-to-peer digital currency, nothing else. After Bitcoin, numerous other blockchains have entered the scene, expanding the possibilities of this revolutionary technology. Today, there are over 1000 active blockchains. They differ in design, mechanisms, level of decentralization, privacy features, and governance models. Let us take a closer look at several open-source blockchains with smart contract capabilities.
Ethereum
Ethereum is the first blockchain that introduced the concept of smart contracts and enabled everyone to build decentralized applications. Currently, it has the largest ecosystem with a wide range of dApps, protocols, and tokens. It is very flexible, secure, and transparent, which is why it quickly gained popularity among users and investors around the world.
Its key weaknesses are slow processing times and higher transaction costs than some alternatives. Gas fees on Ethereum can be very high. It can reach several hundred dollars per transaction during peak usage periods. Still, the Ethereum network houses a substantial number of the leading 100 tokens based on market cap.
BNB Blockchain
Binance blockchain is a hard fork of the Go Ethereum, therefore it is very similar to Ethereum blockchain. One of the features of the BNB Blockchain is its compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This compatibility allows developers to easily port their existing Ethereum-based dApps to the BNB Blockchain with minimal changes.
Low fees and on-chain operations are definitely the main factors that drive developers and users to launch or migrate to this blockchain. In addition, gas prices on BSC are relatively constant and transactions are fast.
Solana
Solana is the fastest-growing blockchain in the crypto industry. Solana has a unique approach to consensus mechanisms. It has one of the fastest transaction speeds, therefore the mechanism offers efficient operation. It uses a range of computations to determine the ideal verification method of the time gap between two events. It can be called a Hybrid form of consensus with the best features of PoW (Proof of Work), PoS (Proof of Stake), and PoH (Proof of History). It allows for more flexibility in sorting transactions. It is why Solana can process up to 65,000 transactions in a second.
The focus of Solana is on scalability and user-friendly application. That makes it one of the best choices for developers.
Polygon
Polygon (formerly Matic Network) is a scaling solution that enables fast, low-cost transactions and allows developers to build decentralized applications on top of it. It is way ahead in terms of transaction speeds with 65,000 transactions a second. Polygon has partnered with leading Blockchain projects, such as Aave and SushiSwap, to build an ecosystem of growing dApps on its platform.
Polygon has all the good features of Ethereum and Solana.