It’s mid-2018 now and more and more people are getting more and more interested in blockchains and cryptocurrencies. When it comes to blockchains, people generally assume that we are talking about Bitcoins only. Well, Bitcoin is just the tip of the iceberg, the blockchain technology is vast and there are numerous newborns that should make your brain tick. Today we are going to talk about the leading blockchain protocols you should keep an eye on in 2018.

The Ultimate List of Blockchain Protocols

1. Bitcoin

None can deny the very first blockchain network ever built. Basically, it paved the way for the others later. Bitcoins are still on the top of the list. With a market capital of staggering $131 Billion.

Bitcoin is a digital cash system that dissolved the necessity of any third party to validate transactions. They are famous for their Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm, hash, digital signature, mining features.

Bitcoin worked on multiple critical factors that made the system so trustable and authentic like preventing double spending. Last year, Bitcoin’s value surged up 1,000%. Undoubtedly, Bitcoin is the industry leader and one of the best blockchain protocol that should allure your interest.

2. Ethereum

Ethereum is often called the 2^nd generation blockchain as it took the possibility of blockchain into a whole new dimension. While Bitcoin is only a digital cash system, Ethereum is much more than that.

The Russian genius Vitalik Buterin innovated Smart Contracts that enabled the blockchain to work on various assets, indices, services.

Apart from the Smart Contracts, they introduced Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), Decentralized Apps, and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations.

A lot of newer blockchains use the ERC-20 token invented by Ethereum. Ether is the cryptocurrency Ethereum blockchain uses. Learn more about the benefits of Ethereum Decentralized Platform

3. Ripple

Ripple came to light in 2012 and it is built on an open-source distributed ledger. What makes Ripple so irresistible? Faster and easier transactions. While it takes hours to transfer money using the Bitcoin blockchain, Ripple can do it in an instant click. Moreover, the transaction fee is almost zero. So, if you want to send money to someone living in any part of the world it will just take seconds and almost zero fees.

They have XRP as their native currency. Moreover, the blockchain friendly for the banks and other payment providing companies with their RippleNet.

4. IOTA

IOTA is known for their blockless digital ledger. While most other uses a blockchain to keep the ledger active, they use a unique ledger called “Tangle”. Tangle enables machine economy to transact digital resources across the globe in real time.

They believe cryptographic blockchains can be much more than a P2P digital currency and would be very useful to transact technical assets without fees.

It can be used in fields like e-Governance and e-Voting. Most of the resources remain idle and useless most of the time like bandwidth or computational power. IOTA enables these idle resources to be shared and leased all over.

5. Symbiont

Symbiont distributed ledger first came to light in 2016. At first, it worked like a development kit for Assembly. Now Assembly is just a part of the Symbiont’s Smart Contracts. How it stands out from its competitors? Well, not every blockchain network can handle over 80,000 transactions per second!

They are the inventor of the Smart Securities technology. The Smart Securities enables the institutions to share business logic and market data with a distributed digital ledger. It can share data in light speed maintaining confidentiality and data integrity. The technology is completely riskless and doesn’t need any third parties to enable trust among users.

It undoubtedly one of the top blockchain protocols that would thrive in 2018.

Also read,

• Top 10 Promising Cryptocurrencies To Watch In 2018

• Top 10 Cryptocurrencies That You Need To Know About

Final Words

So, what are you thinking about? Sooner or later the blockchain technology will dominate the world economy. The sooner you start working on them, the better. You don’t want to step behind when the world is moving with this mind-boggling technology.

There were numbers of other promising blockchain networks that is worth looking into. You can also keep an eye on Chain, Corda, HydraChain, Lisk, Openchain, and Hyperledger. They are not very far behind in the race of the best blockchain protocols.

 

*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. Do your own research!