Best Development Platforms for Blockchain

Blockchain technology has achieved significant growth and served as a unique approach to transforming different industries. The applications of blockchain technology have helped streamline supply chains, enhance financial transactions, and improve traceability. Therefore, curiosity regarding the best blockchain development platforms has been climbing higher.

Blockchain technology stands out for offering the distinctive advantages of decentralization, immutability, and security. If you want to capitalize on these traits, then you need the right blockchain development platforms. Interestingly, you can find multiple blockchain platforms in the market, which leads to a tough challenge. Let us find out more about the top blockchain development platforms that can help you create innovative apps.

Importance of Blockchain Development Platforms

Before you look for the top blockchain development platforms, it is important to understand their significance. Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger technology that ensures decentralized storage of data with immutability, transparency, and cryptographic security. You might wonder about queries like “What is a blockchain development platform?” at this point. Blockchain platforms are frameworks that work as the building blocks for the development of blockchain-based applications.

You can understand the importance of the most popular blockchain platforms by using relevant examples. For example, you decide to develop an NFT marketplace. You are likely to experience different challenges in back-end development, interface design, and other development tasks. The development process would be lengthier and more complex when you do everything from scratch. Blockchain platforms come to the rescue by offering access to existing services, software, and infrastructure that you need to build blockchain applications.

The answers to “Which platform is best for blockchain?” also draw attention to benefits of blockchain development platforms. You can find important benefits of blockchain platforms, such as fraud prevention and enhancement in productivity. Blockchain platforms can help businesses access all prerequisites that you need to create a dApp or blockchain application.

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Top Blockchain Development Platforms

Blockchain development platforms are analogous to software development platforms and have promising benefits for different use cases. Here are some of the top blockchain development platforms that you must consider for your next blockchain project.

• Ethereum 

The first choice from a blockchain platforms list for developing your new project would be Ethereum. It was introduced in 2013 and has become one of the biggest platforms for blockchain development. As a matter of fact, Ethereum was the first blockchain platform to introduce smart contract programmability in blockchain networks. Ethereum offers a virtual machine environment that helps developers create innovative decentralized applications in the easiest way.

Apart from decentralized applications, Ethereum serves as a valuable platform for creating and deploying NFTs. Ethereum is one of the top blockchain platforms with a mature ecosystem of tools that support smart contract development. Ethereum leverages Solidity programming for smart contract development according to their desired use cases. On top of it, the switch to Proof of Stake consensus with “The Merge” has made Ethereum more energy-efficient.

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• Hyperledger Fabric

Hyperledger Fabric is also another trusted blockchain development platform with a collection of tools to create blockchain applications. Hosted by the Linux Foundation, Hyperledger Fabric was created for enterprise blockchain uses. Hyperledger Fabric is one of the best blockchain development platforms with an extensive ecosystem of components that you can plug into a modular architecture. It is an ideal pick for private blockchain deployments with a focus on enhancing speed and security. On top of it, Hyperledger Fabric also supports different data models, such as account models and unspent transaction output models.

Hyperledger Fabric also offers the assurance of improvements in data privacy through isolation of transactions in channels. Furthermore, Hyperledger Fabric also offers high-speed transactions with low latency for confirmation and finality. Another interesting highlight of Hyperledger Fabric is the fact that leading cloud providers support it. Some of them include Google, Amazon Web Services and IBM.

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• R3 Corda

Experts are still debating the identity of R3 Corda. Is it a blockchain or another form of distributed ledger technology? R3 Corda is one of the most popular blockchain platforms for using a new consensus mechanism. The new consensus mechanism ensures cryptographic link between transactions without periodically grouping multiple transactions in one block. The most noticeable benefit of such an approach is the real-time processing of all transactions, thereby enhancing performance.

The R3 consortium has gained strong momentum in the domain of financial services. Some of the notable proponents of Corda include Microsoft, Bank of America, Intel, and HSBC. It offers support for tools that can help in automation of business logic for execution across different company boundaries. The recent updates in the platform helped in enhancing scalability and availability alongside supporting interoperability with different platforms. 

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• Stellar

If you want to develop DeFi applications, then you can rely on blockchain platforms like Stellar. It is one of the recent additions to the blockchain platforms list with the unique Stellar Consensus Protocol. The unique consensus mechanism can help shorten the time needed to process and finalize transactions on public blockchain networks. On top of it, Stellar blockchain also features security mechanisms to shut out malicious actors from financial transactions.

Stellar has been adopted by different companies for international trade and cross-border payments. Some examples of popular applications developed on Stellar include Circle for payments and MoneyGram for money transfers. The Soroban smart contract platform has helped streamline the development of DeFi and web3 applications on Stellar.

• IBM Blockchain 

Another popular addition among blockchain development platforms, IBM Blockchain, has garnered massive levels of success. It is a private and decentralized blockchain network that has served effective results for enterprise clients. IBM Blockchain is the best answer for queries like “Which platform is best for blockchain?” for linking to enterprise cloud and legacy technologies. You can also notice how the IBM Blockchain developer tool offers better flexibility, customization, and functionality.

IBM Blockchain also stands out as a promising blockchain development platform for its user-friendly interface. The interface can help simplify critical tasks, such as configuration, testing, and rapid deployment of smart contracts. Some of the successful blockchain solutions developed on IBM Blockchain include the IBM Food Trust and the IBM Blockchain Transparent Supply.

• Hyperledger Sawtooth

If Hyperledger Fabric is not enough for you, it is time to look for the advantages of Hyperledger Sawtooth. It is one of the top blockchain platforms that helps you choose from different consensus mechanisms according to desired use cases. For example, you can use a new consensus mechanism, Proof of Elapsed Time. On top of that, Hyperledger Sawtooth also offers support for Byzantine Fault Tolerance, which helps nodes achieve consensus when malicious actors compromise with certain nodes.

Sawtooth Raft utilizes a leader-based consensus mechanism with the advantage of crash tolerance for private and restricted groups of users. Custom blockchain developers can use a Sawtooth library to pick specific aspects of Sawtooth they want to use for their applications. Sawtooth also offers support for Splinter in achieving networking tasks, which facilitates dynamic private circuits. In addition, it lets you use Hyperledger Transact with transaction processing capabilities to enhance smart contracts.

• Tezos 

The collection of the best blockchain development platforms would also invite the limelight to Tezos. It is one of the older blockchain development platforms that can help you create dApps, NFTs, DeFi apps, and smart contracts. The platform also offers support for a dynamically upgradeable protocol alongside modular software clients for better adaptability to new applications.

It works on the foundations of a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism that guarantees better efficiency. The most interesting feature of Tezos for blockchain developers is the on-chain upgrade mechanism. Developers can use the mechanism to add new features without forking, thereby saving the trouble of creating a new blockchain and migrating users to the new fork. 

The Tezos community has been consistently working on new upgrades for the platform, with improvements that elevate performance and limit the size of smart contracts. On top of that, Tezos is one of the most popular blockchain platforms for its unique tools that help in automation of the process for integrating NFTs in enterprise supply chains.

The recent update proposal or Oxford 2 protocol has been associated with different novel enhancements. For example, a new Proof of Stake mechanism works through creation of new roles for nodes. In addition, the update also brings back another version of timelocks for improving security alongside introducing smart rollups for faster transactions. 

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Final Words 

The list of the best blockchain development platforms provides promising suggestions for your next blockchain project. At the same time, it is important to take a look at other options in the blockchain landscape that would suit your project requirements better. The entries in this blockchain platforms list offer exclusive features tailored for different types of blockchain projects.

For example, you can rely on Ethereum for any type of blockchain project. On the other hand, Hyperledger Fabric is useful for private enterprise blockchain uses. A comprehensive evaluation of the features of every blockchain development platform can help you make the right choice for your project. Explore the other blockchain development platforms that have been creating waves in the blockchain landscape now.

*Disclaimer: The article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide any investment advice. Claims made in this article do not constitute investment advice and should not be taken as such. 101 Blockchains shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this article. Do your own research!