After the Ethereum Blockchain launched back in 2015, it became wildly popular. This was no surprise, as it boasted something genuinely unique and never before seen in the market — the ability to easily create smart contracts and decentralized applications. Ever since then, Ethereum has been the go-to platform for smart contract creation. However, it has some drawbacks and some disadvantages concerning scalability. Additionally, its inability to automate cross-organization logistics, lack of privacy protocols for internal and external private contracts, and other issues.
Currently, there are some alternatives to Ethereum that exist in the market.
QTUM
Qtum is an open source hybrid Blockchain project that combines a bitcoin core fork and an Account Abstraction layer. This means that Qtum allows for multiple virtual machines to operate on its platform. It can fully support the Ethereum Virtual machine and Proof-of-Stake consensus models. The project is specifically designed to handle industry, smart contract, and application building use cases.
Essentially, the Qtum platform positions itself to be a public Blockchain for business environments, specifically targeting the mobile telecommunications industry, finance, industrial logistics, manufacturing, and counterfeit protection.
The Qtum platforms Oracle and Datafeed functionality will allow any developer to build smart contracts using fully trusted and secure sources of information. The smart contracts that can be deployed are conceptually easier to navigate and write, thus, they are easier to understand. The Qtum platform pretty much combines the best of Ethereum and bitcoin. For a more technical explanation, refer to their Whitepapers.
NEO
NEO, previously known as Antshares, is a Chinese Blockchain developed for creating smart contracts, decentralized applications, and ICOs. The transactions on the NEO Blockchain are fueled by NeoGas. Both NEO and ETH are fully open-source, have massive communities backing them, represent full transparency, and are Turing complete.
On the NEO Blockchain, users are allowed to register, exchange, and circulate a wide array of assets. Digital and physical assets can also be linked together through digital identity, thus, they are validated and protected by national law.
The smart contract system used by NEO uses C#, Java, and other popular programming languages. The NEO Universal Lightweight Virtual Machine provides a few advantages,such as high concurrency, scalability, and certainty. NEO labeled its smart contract creation system as NeoContract.
Additionally, NEO is heavily backed by the Chinese government, as well as Alibaba, WINGS, and a few Microsoft guys. This extensive backing obviously provides the platform with a lot of support. All in all, NEO is quite a good platform with low smart contract creation entry barriers. Thusly, it is an adequate competitor for Ethereum. Let’s move on to Lisk.
Learn about the other three alternatives for the Ethereum Blockchain in the full article on MLSDev blog.
