Blockchain platforms

Ethereum

Ethereum is a platform and the cryptocurrency of the same name used for developing smart contracts and decentralized applications. Ehtereum changes the view on the blockchain and allows all those who wish to develop full value decentralized applications on its basis (and therefore it solves the problems of security and scalability) and to use the global network for transactions of different levels of logic complexity. Imagine that you do not need to build the infrastructure for your business from the ground up – the transparent and reliable smart contract will manage to describe the transaction process of any complexity (with many participants and complex logic) and the numerous Ethereum network users will do the calculations with sufficient accuracy without requiring your investments in hardware and the development of your own software to accomplish the inner tasks of your company.

The Ethereum blockchain has the buit-in Turing programming language called Solidity, which may be applied for writing smart contracts with any rules of transactions possession, transaction forms and any functions of state changing.

Hyperledger Fabric

Hyperledger Fabric is a forward-looking public corporate blockchain for universal use. The platform has a great range of functionalities for developing of commercial applications. The Fabric 1.0 platform allows developers to configure the blockchain network in a more profound and multi-layered way than the global blockchain networks. It allows to avoid mining and to increase developers range of possibilities. The improved private transaction channels have appeared in the Fabric 1.0 version with such distinguishing features as higher safety and the capacity level. Hyperledger Fabric does not have its inner cryptocurrency.

The project Hyperledger has been started in 2016 with the support of the biggest world companies including IBM and JP Morgan

EOS

In the summer of 2018 Block.one made its EOS blockchain platform publicly accessible for developers under the MIT license. The distinguishing feature of EOS is that it provides developers with computing resources and the opportunity to work on the basis of Web Assembly: Binaryen and WAVM. Smart contracts on the Eos blockchain can assign quotes of computing resources through token stakes, marketing commissions or voting for tokens. At the current moment there are quite a number of developers and blockchain enthusiasts all around the world to provide the work of the network, however, the current situation can still be called early access

Cardano

Cardano is still an actively developed but already existing blockchain platform of the third generation. Cardano’s main task is to provide the wide scale comprehensive program of cost transferring. The Cardano blockcahin is written in the highly-protected programming language called Haskell. Cardano is different from other platforms because the division of calculation layers took place in its platform. The platform consists of the basic layer intended for ADA cryptocurrency use, and a separate second layer for the smart contracts work. Another distinguishing feature of Cardano is DPoS consensus algorithm. One of the first developers of the Ethereum project is heading the Cardano blockchain development.

Waves

Waves is a blockchain platform of Russian origin which was founded in 2016. Its distinguishing feature is LPoS consensus algorithm, which stands for Leased Proof of Stake. Waves holders can lease Waves tokens to nodes and receive the reward for it for their work when the new blocks of the blockchain are produced. In May 2018 the Waves blockchain platform launched the support of smart contracts on the Waves testnet where with the help of smart contracts it became possible to execute classical user scripts: token creation, token freeze, scheduled payments, two-factor authentication, multisignature wallets, smart accounts, smart assets, atomic swaps, the work with external data Oracle data source. In the future Waves plans to launch full Turing-complete smart contracts.

Stellar

The history of the Stellar blockchain dates back to the year of 2012 when Ripple was founded. Hard fork in Ripple protocol in 2014 resulted in Stellar and the launching of Stellar’s own network mainly for currency transactions. Stellar nodes keep the history records of all accounts in the network and synchronize with each other, creating the worldwide general ledger. Consensus algorithm of the network allows to reach consensus between all the participants in 3-4 seconds on average, that time is the transaction speed in the network. Also the distinguishing feature of Stellar is convenience in using microtransactions, low commission costs, higher compatibility with financial market. Stellar supports the work of smart contracts and despite the presence of certain limits and inability of complex functionality on its basis; however, multisignatures, atomic swaps, transaction sequence and time limits are available. At present Stellar is actively developing and collaborates with such companies as IBM, Deloitte.

Aeternity

The Aeternity blockchain is being developed since February 2017 and it was designed for work of smart contracts interacting actively with the real world. In the project whitepaper there is a description of scalable model of the blockchain with turing-complete smart-contracts in state channels. State channels are able to allow millions of transactions per second on the network, but a smart contract on Aeternity is implemented outside the blockchain. Thus Aeternity applies an alternative approach and smart contracts work outside the network when the blockchain acts as a public arbiter. The Aeternity blockchain is written in the language called Erlang, which was created especially for writing of distributed systems with high productivity. Aeternity devoted special attention to oracle development in order to interact with real data from the outside world.