Blockchain technology is rapidly gaining momentum, and the technology has evolved as a mainstream technology of the modern era. Blockchain technology has found implementation in various industries, from healthcare to finance and is successfully applied in many companies worldwide. Many companies presently venturing into Blockchain technology and are involved in developing Blockchain-based applications that help turn business operations smoother, more transparent and highly efficient.
The world has recognized and realized the potential of Blockchain technology, that the Blockchain platforms are capable of more than just inspiring some weird disruptive currency. Presently, Blockchain is the underlying technology for developing existing enterprise platforms that can unleash the true potential of this distributed ledger technology with application in enterprises, supply chains, and other industries. Several vital Blockchain enterprise platforms are developed and applied successfully across different industries around the world. To realize what Blockchain technology is capable of, we should be familiar with those platforms. This article contains the discussion about the most successful enterprise platforms of Blockchain.
- Ethereum (Smart Cross-Industry Platform): Ethereum has created a buzz in the IT market. Created in 2013 by a Russian-Canadian programmer Vitalk Buterin, Ethereum is a highly recommended active and open source Blockchain platforms underlying the development of several other Blockchain applications. Ethereum stands among the most mature Blockchain platforms available in the market and is well known for its robust smart contracting functionality and flexibility. Due to its nature and properties, Ethereum is widely used in companies across multiple industry use-cases. Ethereum has the largest number of uses cases and has developed a massive online support community that provides regular product updates and enhancements.
Despite being applied broadly across enterprises and industry use cases, it should be known that Ethereum is permission less platform designed compatible with mass consumption versus restricted access. Also being PoW based it is an energy sucker platform.
- Hyperledger: Among the most recent developments in the list of Blockchain innovations, Hyperledger platform was developed in 2016 by Linux Foundation. It was created with the purpose to boost the use of Blockchain technologies across businesses and countries. Hyperledger is currently applied in more than 185 collaborating enterprises across sectors including finance, banking, supply chain, manufacturing, Internet of Things and technology.
Hyperledger has an open-source support community focused on building a suite of more stable designs, tools and libraries for enterprise-grade Blockchain applications. Hyperledger is as good as a neutral accommodating platform for several distributed ledger frameworks such as Hyperledger Fabric, Sawtooth, Indy and various tools like Hyperledger Caliper, and libraries like Ursa.
- Ripple. Solution for Global Payments: Ripple is an equally popular Blockchain platform with Ethereum. Found in 2012 and renamed in 2015, Ripple is a Blockchain platform aims to connect banks, digital asset exchanges, payment providers and corporates through RippleNet. The primary benefit of this Blockchain platform is that it allows nearly-free worldwide transactions without any chargebacks. Ripple allows payment globally using its digital asset called “Ripples or XRP” which is popular among popular cryptocurrency and Bitcoin and Ether. Ripple is comparatively faster and more scalable Blockchain platform as compared to other such platforms. It has its deployment in more than 100 enterprises having commercial deployment across three major use-cases named- cross-border payments (xCurrent), minimizing liquidity costs (xRapid), and send cross-network payments (xVia).
- Corda: R3 Corda has created an open-source Distributed Ledger Technology platform and collaborates with several most prominent financial institutions to explore more uses of Blockchain technology and integrate it with the system. Being a permissioned or private platform, Corda aims to assure the sharing of data with only those participants who should know about. Its main objective is to bring transparency and trust among the parties while interacting, maintaining privacy, and security.
Corda enterprise facilitates the Corda open-source platform’s central attributes and satisfies additional business needs as per your expectations and offers several features, including predictable release schedules, high availability, and extensive support for specific enterprise databases. It helps reducing transaction and record-keeping costs and allows streamlining business operations.
- Quorum. Enterprise specific variant of Ethereum: It’s an enterprise-oriented version of Ethereum, founded by J.P Morgan in 2015, which modifies Ethereum Blockchain’s core and allows the incorporation of seamless and quick Ethereum updates. Likewise Ethereum, Quorum is an open-source and independent Blockchain platform. It can process hundreds of transactions every second using vote based on different algorithms and not the Proof of Work consensus algorithm. Being permissioned Quorum powered networks are not open and accessible to everyone. Quorum is capable of handling several applications which need higher speed and processing of private transactions.
Unlike Ethereum and other Blockchain platforms, Quorum can facilitate confidentiality of records by private and public on-chain transactions. Quorum’s primary feature is free to use in perpetuity and encourages experimentation within the platform.
Before deciding to shift on to Blockchain technology, it is vital to understand the different aspects of the specific Blockchain platform that you are thinking to deploy. Some essential and considerable parameters to be looked upon are- kind of network it uses, the language used in programming, popularity among enterprises, activity support, pricing, and the consensus mechanism. Finding a platform that is compatible with your requirements and matching your idea of these parameters, you can go ahead to deploy it.
The frenetic pace of Blockchain technology-powered innovations has inspired the creation of new platforms with additional features and benefits. Plenty of Blockchain platforms are available and used globally and have found application in countless enterprises. Here, enterprises are required to understand, which would be the right platform for their business operations that can build highly scalable applications for their processes. The application of Blockchain platforms has not only benefitted businesses but also accelerated the career of Blockchain professionals. Many aspirants learn Blockchain with keeping in mind the scope and hope Blockchain technology has driven. The above-discussed platforms are the most popular platforms with undoubtedly the most successful applications in enterprises across the world. You can choose from these as per your specific needs.
