Top 6 Blockchain-Based Development Platforms

Blockchain development platforms are essentially blockchain projects that support smart contracts. The introduction of smart contracts came in 2015 with the launch of Ethereum, and it revolutionized the crypto industry, shifting the attention from cryptocurrency, trading, and investing, to developing various blockchain products.

Smart contracts, as self-executed contracts, initially promised to eliminate the need for intermediaries and third parties that were otherwise required whenever two parties wanted to make some deal. In doing so, smart contracts reduced the cost of establishing deals. However, their ability to self-execute also made them a great way to run dApps, distribute rewards for activities such as staking and other DeFi activities, and much more.

This led to the creation of countless other development platforms that aim to improve smart contracts even further, by boosting the speed of transaction processing, improving scalability, reducing cost, and more. Here are some of the best blockchain-based development platforms that rely on smart contracts that you can check out right now.

1. Ethereum

The first on our list is Ethereum which is the very first platform of this type. Ethereum brought smart contracts to the cryptocurrency industry, thus revolutionizing it forever. As such, it definitely deserves to be the first on this list, just like it deserves its second spot on the list of largest cryptos by market cap, sitting just below Bitcoin, which started the entire crypto industry.

However, despite being the second most important project in crypto history, Ethereum is not without flaws, some of which are quite significant. It is extremely slow for today’s standards, and that led to long waiting periods and high transaction fees that have made it extremely impractical for most users, as well as developers.

However, we still felt that it deserves the first spot on the list due to the size of its ecosystem, as well as because it is actively working on the Ethereum 2.0 update, that will fix many of its issues, and soften this negative impact.

To learn more about this token visit our Investing in Ethereum guide.

2. BSC

In the second spot, we have BSC — Binance Smart Chain. As the name suggests, this is a blockchain project launched by Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume. This is Binance’s second blockchain, one that it created in 2020 after the DeFi sector exploded.

Always being ready to jump on the new trend, Binance created an Ethereum-like chain that actually grew to be Ethereum’s largest competitor. BSC is significantly faster and cheaper than ETH, which made it very attractive to developers and users alike.

Being able to handle more transactions and complete blocks faster, BSC doesn’t have long waiting periods, and users do not compete with one another whose transactions will be processed first by offering higher fees. As a result, the average gas fees are fairly low, and that makes for a pretty dApp-friendly environment, where most activities are fueled by microtransactions.

3. Cardano

Halfway down the list, we have Cardano. This is a project created by one of Ethereum’s co-founders, Charles Hoskinson. Hoskinson saw the mistakes that were made during the development of Ethereum, and he made sure that Cardano would not suffer from the same issues. He and his team also came up with a roadmap for Cardano that consists of 5 Eras, with each of them bringing a massive upgrade, alongside many smaller ones.

Each of them is expected to add new functionalities and features to Cardano, which will, in turn, have a significant impact on the project’s ecosystem, the utility of its coin, and even its value, hopefully.

So far, Cardano has completed 2 of these Eras, with the second one — its Shelley Era — ending in October 2021. The importance of this Era is that it brought smart contracts to Cardano after years of development, and suddenly, the project exploded with projects, new users, DeFi protocols, and much more, making Cardano more than worthy of a place on this list.

To learn more about this token visit our Investing in Cardano guide.

4. Solana

Solana is a smart contract platform that has been one of the go-to solutions for all those who started abandoning Ethereum and searching for a better place to do their business. While BSC is one of the biggest development platforms, there are many who would rather avoid it due to the fact that it is Binance’s blockchain. Binance has been involved in significant controversies in 2021 due to its offering of products without having the proper licenses, and its reputation suffered as a result.

Solana was known as a fast, inexpensive, reliable blockchain that users can turn to for the development of dApps and other blockchain products, their use, as well as the development of new tokens, and investment into its native cryptocurrency, SOL.

To learn more about this token visit our Investing in Solana guide.

5. Avalanche

Nearing the end of the list, we have Avalanche, which claims to be the fastest smart contracts platform in the blockchain industry, as measured by time-to-finality. Avalanche particularly takes great pride in the fact that it is eco-friendly, which grew to be a major requirement in the crypto industry.

Due to the large amounts of power that cryptocurrencies spend during the mining process, all coins that are built to be carbon-neutral are being preferred by the industry, especially since Tesla discontinued Bitcoin payments in May 2021, stating that the coin’s carbon footprint is the reason why.

This is actually another flaw of Ethereum, which currently still uses Proof-of-Work that requires massive amounts of electricity and computing power. While Ethereum will solve this issue with the launch of ETH 2.0, Avalanche has already solved it a while ago. Not only that, but the project also claims that any smart contract-enabled app on its network can outperform competitors by deploying on Avalanche.

To learn more about this token visit our Investing in Avalanche guide.

6. Polkadot

Finally, we have Polkadot. This is another project that aimed to solve the scalability problem of the older blockchains, although its solution is rather interesting. Polkadot found a way to reduce the load on its main chain by launching a number of parallel chains called parachains, which would be there to pick up the work and let the main chain work without interruptions.

However, the true value of this project lies in the fact that these parachains can also be used to connect to other blockchains and create a web with Polkadot in its heart. As a result, the project was one of the first and most efficient ones to find a way to achieve stable interoperability, and while this may only be its early version, Polkadot’s contribution to developing the network that would bind all blockchain ecosystems is undeniable.

More than that, interoperability would mean the capability to execute smart contracts across blockchains, which could also have many interesting uses down the road.

To learn more about this token visit our Investing in Polkadot guide.

Conclusion

The six development platforms listed above are generally considered to be the best of the best, and while some, like Ethereum, are definitely in need of improvement, the fact is that the project is working on it, and it could potentially resolve the issues that are still troubling it at the time of writing.

The others are significantly faster and less expensive to use, which is why each of them is a valuable candidate for this list, and you will not go wrong with any of them.