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Smart contract platforms

Leestijd: 4 min.

IFC +

3/29/2022

Smart contracts

Smart contracts are contracts that work completely without a third party. The parameters are programmed and they are automatically executed when reached. A simple example: Suppose person a makes a bet with person b, it involves a soccer match between team c and team d. Person a says that team c will win and person b puts his money on team d. In the old world, this bet runs on good faith that the other side will keep their end of the bargain. With smart contracts, this is no longer necessary. A contract is drawn up digitally and this contract contains the 50€ of person a and 50€ of person b. When the result of the soccer match is known, the money is automatically awarded to the winner. A fairer system simply does not exist. And the possible applications are endless. And the blockchain technology makes it completely transparent and reliable. This includes the immensely popular NFTs. It can also make the job of lawyer or notary redundant. It is therefore natural that these platforms are hugely popular. We list a few of them.

Ethereum

Ethereum was the first of its kind and was an invention of the genius Vitalik Buterin in 2015. It is also still the most popular and remains firmly in second place. All tokens running on Ethereum are called ERC20 tokens and there are quite a few of them, maybe even too many because due to that popularity the platform is a very crowded place which sometimes shows in the transaction fees. Besides NFTs, DEFI projects are also numerous on Ethereum. Ethereum is also like Bitcoin based on the proof of work principle, this they want to change to proof of stake like so many coins, this also partly for the environment. So far, we are still waiting to see when ETH 2.0 will be launched.

Cardano

Charles Hoskinsons who started his career with Ethereum thought this could all be done much better and more efficiently. The result is one of my favorite coin the Cardano. This system works with the economical proof of stake. Also one of its strongest features is the ERC20 converter. This converter allows developers to move their projects from Ethereum to Cardano effortlessly. It is sometimes called the Ethereum killer.

Solana

This is one of the most recent generation, advantage of this platform is its scalability. This network can handle up to 710,000 transactions per second. Solana works according to the proof of history consensus algorithm. A principle based on the proof of stake. This platform has grown at lightning speed and is therefore very popular, disadvantage of which is then the growing pains. The network has already experienced several problems, but despite this it remains a popular smart contract platform.

Polkadot

This is an open source blockchain platform that provides interconnectivity and interoperability between blockchains. Quite a mouthful but it is one of the top ones, also it uses the sharding technology like Zilliqa. You should definitely take a closer look at this project.

Zilliqa

Zilliqa is all about scalability. They use an innovative technology called sharding. This makes it possible for developers to run apps without limitation. Normally, transactions are processed more slowly according to how the network grows. With Zilliqa this is just the opposite. This could therefore become a major player in the future.

Vechain

This is a hugely popular Chinese project that enables supplychain management. In this way you can follow products on the blockchain and find out the origin of products. A good example is the collaboration with BMW, the carpass is put on a blockchain so that it can no longer be tampered with. Completely transparent and reliable.

The future

This is a small sample of what is on offer. The smart contract platforms are numerous, and each has its own way of working. The trick is to pick out the rough diamonds that will stand out in the future. Which ones they are, remains to be seen but try to diversify your portfolio as much as possible.


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