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Although it does appear that Ethereum is still favored by most cryptocurrency investors — as it has the largest market cap of all cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin — its competitors are swiftly incurring more developers and decentralized applications dapps that may ultimately allow them to pass Ethereum.
As to why there has been a mass exodus away from Ethereum, Patrick Barile, the chief operating officer at DappRader explained that other protocols offer significantly faster transaction speeds, which leads to a better user experience. Only time will tell as to whether or not Ethereum will ultimately win over dapps and developers, but regardless, the increasing number of competitors will likely push Ethereum to improve its platform.
Cole is a cryptocurrency analyst based in Los Angeles. He studied at the University of California Irvine and has been interested in Bitcoin and the crypto markets since Here at NewsBTC, we are dedicated to enlightening everyone about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. We cover BTC news related to bitcoin exchanges, bitcoin mining and price forecasts for various cryptocurrencies. Crypto Prices from Nomics. All Rights Reserved. Advertise Submit a Press Release. Play Now!
Could you be next big winner? Tweet Share Share Send. The platform seeks to facilitate cross-chain interoperability. Polkadot scored a notable win earlier this year, after gaming NFT platform Enjin announced plans to switch from Ethereum to a Polkadot parachain. Another recently launched project protocol that already attracts significant development activity, Avalanche was born after conducting a successful initial coin offering in The platform supports the Ethereum Virtual Machine, which enables cross-chain operability for Ethereum assets.
Since its arrival on the crypto scene, Binance has been a force to be reckoned with. The platform quickly became the largest crypto exchange in the world and then used its leading position in the crypto space to make other significant moves, including launching a proprietary blockchain for decentralized trading, a crypto token called BNB, and a stablecoin. The BSC is a separate blockchain designed to run smart contracts.
Similar to Avalanche, the chain has support for the Ethereum Virtual Machine. It also supports all languages used for writing smart contracts on Ethereum. The BSC uses a proof-of-staked-authority consensus algorithm , which is a combination of delegated proof-of-stake and proof-of-authority. This model involves electing validators who take turns in confirming transactions on the network and producing blocks.
Under this consensus model, the BSC is able to achieve block times of around three seconds. Another promising Ethereum challenger, Solana uses a novel consensus algorithm to achieve high transaction throughput of 50, TPS. The algorithm, dubbed proof-of-history, uses a recursive verifiable delay function to hash incoming events and transactions.
Every event has a unique hash and count as a function of real-time. Each node is equipped with a cryptographic clock, which allows network participants to agree on the correct order of events. Unlike the EVM, where only one contract at a time modifies the blockchain state, Sealevel can process ten of thousands of contracts in parallel.
However, overtaking the second-largest blockchain network in the world is hardly an easy task. The Outlier Ventures report proves that the platform maintains a fairly sizable lead over the competition. At the same time, Ethereum seems to be on the offensive.
Boasting superior speeds and lower fees seems to be a common thread among Ethereum rivals. But Ethereum is currently in the middle of an ambitious transition to proof-of-stake that is expected to make the protocol cheaper and faster. This puts Ethereum in a position to erase the main advantage of its challengers while retaining its lead in terms of development activity and user base.
But who needs an Ethereum killer, anyway? The fact that many Ethereum competitors are already compatible with the EVM hints at a possible future where all these great smart contract platforms coexist peacefully and contribute to the dApp space in their own ways. And perhaps collectively they would inspire the next big wave of innovation across the industry. Skip to content Blog Ethereum alternatives on the rise: should we expect to see an Ethereum killer soon?
With smart contracts on Ethereum and similar blockchains, processes that involve some transaction of data can achieve autonomy while remaining irrefutable and transparent. Startups and mature firms alike have developed ways to use smart contracts to build low-overhead work flows, and creatives are using them in their innovations as well.
Despite the novelty of the idea, or perhaps because of it, the simple game exploded in popularity. The event slowed down Ethereum significantly and revealed some daunting problems facing its scaling efforts. Here's Why. The Ethereum blockchain keeps getting bigger, and exhibits an increasingly large footprint for the hardware of miners and users alike.
This is a problem for businesses who rely on Ethereum smart contracts and impacts its future applicability and price. Fortunately, there are other smart contract platforms built on blockchain that are working to evolve the concept further. Essentially this is an off-layer scaling solution akin to what bitcoin seeks in SegWit and the Lightning Network, combined with the ability to build and host smart contracts.
This has made QTUM a popular destination for developers, who appreciate the protective clauses installed in the platform that make it nigh impossible to commit the kinds of coding infractions that might one day become a multi-million-dollar problem. They also appreciate the presence of second-layer storage, despite its implications on decentralization, because stable business applications are their primary desire, as well they should be. After the hacker created a glitch that withdrew ETH from users instead of depositing it, the community voted to create a new chain that was backwards-compatible with the old one, so that mistakes like these could be reversed, and coins returned to their rightful owners.
Ethereum Classic is continually being upgraded in this manner, thanks to a vibrant and active community, and keeps on pace with other projects despite its age. First, the two are very similar, and bill themselves as hosts of decentralized applications dApps , ICOs, and smart contracts. This has made it popular domestically but also abroad, and for its unique value proposition as well.
NEO uses a more energy-efficient consensus mechanism called dBFT decentralized Byzantium Fault Tolerant instead of proof-of-work, making it much faster at a rate of 10, transactions per second. Moreover, it supports more computer languages than Ethereum. People can build dApps with Java, C , and soon Python and Go, making this option accessible to startups with big ideas while helping to add to its long-term viability.
One of the newest entries into the smart contract platform contest, Cardano is a dual-layer solution, but with a unique twist. The platform has a unit of account and a control layer that governs the use of smart contracts, recognizes identity, and maintains a degree of separation from the currency it supports. Cardano is programmed in Haskell, a language best suited for business applications and data analysis, making its future applications likely to be financial or organizational.
Despite its issues, Ethereum remains the gold standard for smart contracts and blockchain-based apps. These new challengers all offer exciting value propositions, but they must also prove capable of attracting a wide enough user base to allow for mainstream adoption and success. It also has a "massive 'first mover'-adjacent advantage," he adds, referring to the theory that the first to enter a market automatically has an edge over the competition.
Supporters of Ethereum say the blockchain will become more scalable, secure and sustainable after its Eth2 upgrade , slated for , during which the network will shift to a PoS model as well. They also argue that Solana has a long way to go before it reaches the same level of quality and prominence that Ethereum commands.
Generally, financial experts warn to only invest as much as you can afford to lose in cryptocurrencies due to their significant risks. Solana, in particular, has its own risks. First, it has appreciated substantially in a short period of time. Just like with other cryptocurrencies, the potential for large price swings should be considered and understood before investing. As quickly as it reaches a new high, it could go back down.
Critics also worry about Solana's decentralization after it suffered a hour outage in September, during which the network couldn't process transactions. Solana developers later blamed something called "resource exhaustion," Bloomberg reported. All in all, "the risks are that [Solana] is competing with other technologically slick blockchains and blockchains with very large communities and established user bases," Hougan says.
Sign up now: Get smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletter. Skip Navigation. Graham Cochrane, Contributor. The logo of cryptocurrency platform Solana. Nonetheless, "I certainly think both likely have a place," Trabucco says. VIDEO What to know about solana, the big ethereum competitior.
There are already a few cryptocurrencies chasing Ethereum, hoping to catch up to this second-largest player in terms of scalability. Meet the Ethereum Competitors: EOS, Stellar, Cardano, Tron, and NEO · EOS (EOS) · Stellar (XLM) · Cardano (ADA) · Tron (TRX) · NEO (NEO) · Will. We'll go over four of the most notorious ETH killers, as well as why they're called that. Cardano, Solana, EOS, and Polkadot are some of the.