What Are Ethereum Killers And How Far Have They Come?

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Ethereum is currently the most popular blockchain for Decentralised Finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) projects. Thanks to its ubiquity, interoperability, and the various tools it provides, it has been the go-to option for developers. But the days of Ethereum’s dominance may be dwindling. Fluctuating prices, the environmental impact of its proof-of-work consensus mechanism and high gas prices are pushing developers away. Further, other blockchains have noticed and addressed these shortcomings, thereby providing more efficient options for developers. These blockchains are often referred to as ‘Ethereum Killers’. They offer important features for users and developers, like scalability and high transaction speeds, among many other benefits, and are eating into Ethereum’s market dominance. Tag along as we go through some of these ‘Ethereum Killers’ and highlight the advantages they offer. (Image: Shutterstock)

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Cardano | Cardano is touted to be the most environmentally sustainable blockchain platform in existence. It uses the proof of stake consensus mechanism, which is believed to have a much smaller carbon footprint than the proof of work consensus mechanism. Cardano runs in a highly open-source environment, and it is often known as the blockchain that provides the highest level of support to smart contracts and decentralised applications. It can also process hundreds of transactions per second, unlike Ethereum can process only 10 to 30 transactions per second. (Image: Shutterstock)

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Polkadot | Polkadot’s most remarkable feature is its multi-chain ability, making it highly interoperable with other blockchains. It can connect to multiple other chains simultaneously, providing more scalability and security. This para-chain concept will lead to various blockchains existing on the same relay chain. The other blockchains on Polkadot’s relay chain can take advantage of its high transaction speed and scalability. The multi-chain approach will also allow developers on the network to create and release projects easily and much faster. (Image: Shutterstock)

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Tezos | Tezos is relatively new on the scene. It is a growing smart contract-based blockchain platform. It is similar to Ethereum, but it offers an infrastructure that can evolve and grow without the danger of a hard fork taking place. XTZ is Tezo’s native token, and it has a global market cap of roughly $2.5 billion. Several notable decentralised projects have been launched on Tezos, including those in the fashion, music, gaming, and art industries. Tezos was also one of the first networks to use a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. The blockchain has also recently announced a partnership with Manchester United to create NFTs for the famous football club. (Image: Shutterstock)

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Avalanche | Avalanche has made significant strides in the past year and is currently sitting cosy at rank ten on CoinMarketCap. Its price has risen by 3,000 per cent in the last year while also gaining a global market cap of $18 billion. It is a layer one blockchain that caters to decentralised applications and custom blockchain networks. Due to its smart contract capabilities, it is a fierce competitor to Ethereum. It aims to beat Ethereum in its transaction output, having a substantially high TPS (transaction per second) rate of 6,500 TPS. It also boasts a high Total Value Locked (TVL) of $11 billion, according to DeFi Llama. This makes Avalanche the fourth biggest blockchain in terms of money invested in a platform’s decentralised projects. (Image: Shutterstock)

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Terra | Terra has been having a particularly good month (March 2022). Its price has surged by 65 per cent in the past week, and according to data from Defi Llama, Terra’s Total value Locked (TVL) has increased by 50 per cent since the end of February 2022, reaching a record high of $23.6 billion. Terra was created as a blockchain protocol that utilised fiat-pegged stablecoins to power global payment systems. Terra emphasises decentralisation by giving holders of Luna, the blockchain’s native token, the ability to vote on governance proposals. (Image: Shutterstock)

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Near Protocol | Near Protocol was designed to be a platform hosted on the cloud and run by a community. As such, it is able to over the limitations of other smart-contract oriented blockchains, such as low transaction speed and throughput. Near Protocol uses the sharding approach in which the main blockchain network is divided into smaller networks to handle scaling as new nodes join the network. Computing for transactions is parallelised to reduce the load for every node. There are several popular and successful decentralised projects on the network, including Mintbase, Paras, and Npunks. (Image: Shutterstock)

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Chainlink | As of Feb. 15, Chainlink secured more than $60 billion deposits into smart contracts and is a major driver in expanding the decentralised finance sector. Chainlink acts as an abstraction layer that allows smart contracts to connect to external data feeds, events, and payments methods. According to Bank of America, over 1,100 decentralised projects currently leverage the power of Chainlink’s network, the most prominent being Associated Press, AccuWeather and Sportmonks. The network’s native token, LINK, is the 23rd largest crypto token with a global market cap of roughly $6.5 million. (Image: Shutterstock)