Blockchains are a pretty complex topic. There’s a lot to learn before you can say you know anything at all about them, and even more to learn before you can say you’re an expert on them. Thankfully, though, they are also quite interesting, and there are many resources out there that can help you understand the basics of what they are and how they work.
Blockchain is one of the most revolutionary technologies that has emerged in recent years. Everyone from governments, to banks, to startups are exploring how this technology can be used to improve efficiency and security. While the full impact of blockchain is still being explored, there are a number of blockchains which have emerged as frontrunners in the space.
Blockchains are distributed ledgers which record transactions in a publicly distributed ledger. The first and most famous blockchain is the Bitcoin blockchain, but there are many others that have been implemented as well.
What is a Blockchain?
The Blockchain was created to track cryptocurrency transactions. It is a peer-to-peer network of nodes that processes and confirms transactions. There is no central authority or government regulation. It’s all done through a network of miners (people who run high-performance computers) who compete against each other to solve complex mathematical problems using the nodes on their systems. When a problem is solved, a block of cryptocurrency is given out as an incentive to the miner who solved the problem.
To understand which blockchains are the most popular and widely used, you must understand what makes one blockchain more desirable than another. In order to do this, you must first understand how blockchains operate.
However, not all blockchains are cryptocurrencies, and not all cryptocurrency blockchains have tokens that can be exchanged for goods and services (like Bitcoin or Ethereum). XRP USDT is one of the unique ones on this list because it’s based on an existing blockchain (Ripple), yet has no use case that’s explicitly tied to an existing product or service.
Rather, Ripple’s goal is to act as a bridge between any other existing blockchain and its own technology in order to allow for transactions between them.
Top Blockchains in 2023
Let’s take a look at some of the more popular blockchains that you may hear about in the near future.
Ethereum
Ethereum is a blockchain with a built-in Turing-complete programming language. This means that it can run applications and code, making it the first decentralized computer. In addition to being able to run applications, Ethereum also provides a cryptocurrency token called ether.
By having this built-in programming language and cryptocurrency, Ethereum is very flexible and capable of many different use cases. In fact, the technology behind Ethereum has been able to spawn hundreds of other cryptocurrencies and platforms that can do everything from providing games to serving as an ICO platform.
IBM Blockchain
IBM is a blockchain company that provides enterprise-level services for creating and managing blockchain networks. IBM is currently working on a variety of different blockchain solutions for various enterprises—the full list can be found here . The list includes a significant number of large corporations, which means IBM is creating some truly innovative and promising products that could be implemented in many industries.
IBM Blockchain Platform delivers a complete solution offering for permissioned blockchain networks with tools for developers, system administrators, operations management, monitoring, compliance, performance tuning and analytics.
Hyperledger Fabric
Hyperledger Fabric extends blockchain technology beyond cryptocurrency and payments by offering new features that allow users to customize their deployment based on their specific business or organizational needs.
Hyperledger Fabric is one of the most popular blockchain frameworks for enterprise use, with a combination of performance, modularity, and confidentiality that make it stand out from other similar projects. Its modular architecture allows organizations to extend it with plug-ins to suit their needs and allows them to easily build applications on top of it. While it was designed for enterprises, it can also be used to develop smart contracts, oracles and other blockchain applications.
Hyperledger Sawtooth
Hyperledger Sawtooth is an enterprise blockchain platform for building, deploying, and running distributed ledgers. It comes with a REST API, command line tools and a modular architecture that enables pluggable consensus and privacy systems. The platform is designed to handle high transaction volume as well as accommodate complex smart contracts.
Hyperledger Sawtooth was mainly developed by Intel in collaboration with the Hyperledger project community. Released in 2018, it is available under the Apache 2.0 open source license.
R3 Corda
R3 Corda is a blockchain that allows companies to create their own blockchain networks by using a distributed ledger. This blockchain is designed with business in mind, being able to connect to other blockchain technologies and allowing companies to use it as a platform to build apps on top of it.
Being able to connect to other blockchains makes it a good choice for companies who want to participate in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum and trading pairs like ETH/BTC and XRP/USDT but also want to keep their data separated from the other blockchain.
Tezos
Tezos is a network that contains rules, or protocols, for how to govern itself. It was built by the nonprofit Tezos Foundation and released in September 2017. The new rules are written as smart contracts on the network, as opposed to being enforced by miners or human governance. This makes it decentralized and censorship-resistant.
In addition to its main use cases of securing transactions and data, the technology is also being used to create decentralized applications (DApps) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) platforms.
EOSIO
EOSIO is a free, open-source software that provides a blockchain architecture designed to enable vertical and horizontal scaling of decentralized applications. This platform is designed for businesses to build blockchain applications in a way similar to web-based enterprises. EOSIO has been adopted by some high profile companies such as BitFinex and many others.
It’s based on the Ethereum platform, so it has a lot of its functionality built in already, including smart contracts, but it’s also highly customizable, which makes it easy to create apps with specific needs or applications with their own custom rules.
