Best Blockchain Platforms

Blockchain platforms are software solutions that allow businesses to build applications that rely on blockchain technology. Blockchain technology refers to the use of a distributed, immutable ledger that documents transactions, activities, and resource movement across a network. Companies utilize the ledger in various ways, and a blockchain-based ledger system can be applied to any application that relies on any kind of transaction.

Blockchain platforms operate as a development platform with an integrated distributed ledger. This ledger is essentially an encrypted storage space for all kinds of data. The integrated data is then used to help develop consensus mechanisms that will be used to validate and approve transactions. 

The ledger references integrated data and previously completed transactions to prevent fraud and ensure complete historical visibility. Companies can also perform audits of the ledger should suspicion of fraud or misuse arise. While these functions are some of the core features provided by blockchain platforms, they can still be customized by developers to possess additional features, unique user interfaces, and use cases. 

What Types of Blockchain Platforms Exist? 

Blockchain technology can generally be defined into four segments or protocols. These four main blockchains categories are public blockchains, private blockchains, consortium blockchains, and hybrid blockchains.

Public blockchain

Public blockchains are open source, decentralized solutions that anyone can use for transactions, development, or mining. They are, in theory, completely transparent and display each transaction openly for public examination. These ecosystems can not be shut down as there is no centralized control over its availability. Without that centralized authority, there are security concerns, but none about transparency and audibility. 

Private blockchain

Private blockchains require permissions to perform transactions, development, or investigation. They’re typically built and utilized by enterprise businesses that do not want confidential information displayed on a public blockchain. This kind of blockchain is easier to secure and monitor but more difficult to investigate or audit.

Hybrid blockchain

Hybrid blockchains can utilize any combination of features offered by both public and private blockchains. This provides companies flexibility in terms of governance and security without a complete loss of transparency. For example, a business could limit the blockchain's historical ledger to mask or hide sensitive information without completely closing the transaction history to others using the blockchain.

Consortium blockchain

Consortium or federated blockchains limit participants to preselected user groups. Consortium blockchains are mostly beneficial for smaller groups with trusted users. This allows some centralized authority over access to the blockchain, increasing transaction speed, throughput, and privacy. These increased benefits also preserve transparency and visibility for those approved to participate. 

The following are some core features within blockchain platforms that can help users build, develop, and deploy blockchain-based solutions:

Development: Development features include everything a developer would need to build a fully-functional blockchain application. This includes developer environments, asset libraries, APIs, templates, and more. 

Governance: Governance features vary depending on the type of blockchain in use but typically refer to the ability to control user access on private blockchains or peer-to-peer networks and approvals for consortium blockchains.

Scalability: Scalability is an important feature to consider when choosing a type of blockchain. For example, consortium solutions with small, trusted networks will not require substantial scalability, but applications utilizing a public blockchain will require scalability to prevent performance, throughput, and availability issues. 

Workflows: Workflow features will help businesses build out the transaction process. Pre-made or customizable workflows can provide a basic process for trading, validation, and settlement and allow for additional steps unique to a custom blockchain solution. 

Peer-to-peer networks: Access to large peer-to-peer networks is not always a priority but can be if developing a solution that requires consistent transactions. These networks can also be used to identify untrustworthy parties that may threaten the network. 

Blockchain platforms can provide various real-world solutions that may be unique to any business or industry. Some of the most common, horizontal solutions include the development and use of smart contracts, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized applications (dApps)

Smart contracts: Smart contracts are one of the two most well-established uses of blockchain technologies. Smart contracts, as you might imagine, are contracts with integrated, intelligent features that can ensure certain parameters are met before self-executing a contract. Companies can use blockchain platforms to build smart contracts for any purpose. For example, a real estate developer could program a smart contract to automatically close a deal upon parties meeting requirements for appraisal, inspection, and mortgage approval. 

Cryptocurrencies: Cryptocurrencies are the other original use for blockchain technology. These digital assets are used in place of traditional fiat currencies like the US dollar or the euro. Cryptocurrency coins are “mined” by users with access to the blockchain and rewarded after solving complex mathematical problems. 

Decentralized applications (dApps): dApps are programs running on a blockchain network. These applications can increase privacy and reduce censorship for users as there is no central authority with access to their information. Various dApps have emerged in the form of exchanges, games, financial tools, and video games, to name a few. 

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs): NFTs are digital assets such as art, videos, or music that utilize a blockchain ledger to generate unique, verifiable ownership identifiers for each individual asset. Artists, companies, or content creators can use these to create one-of-a-kind digital assets their fanbase or user community can buy and trade. 

Software Related to Blockchain Platforms

Related solutions that can be used together with blockchain platforms include:

Blockchain as a service: Blockchain as a service solutions provide a blockchain platform for companies and individuals to develop applications and solutions that can be deployed on preconfigured, third-party cloud infrastructure. These tools provide less extensibility and centralized control than a pure-play blockchain platform but can save time on development and money on deployment and hosting. 

Cryptocurrency software: Cryptocurrency solutions do rely on blockchain technology at their core but don’t provide the development capabilities of a blockchain platform. There are many cryptocurrency applications, but they all relate to the mining, trading, and storing digital currencies. 

Smart contracts software: Like cryptocurrencies, smart contracts rely on blockchain technology and can be developed using a blockchain platform but pertain to a specified use of the highly variable technology. Most of the tools in this category provide prebuilt but customizable smart contracts that run on a specific, existing blockchain network.