The Buzz
In the past few years, blockchain has become a buzzword in the industry, most of the applications nowadays are inclining towards this. And why not? The beauty of this technology has attracted many people across the globe to use it. Major industries like Finance, Heathcare, Supply Chain Management, Gaming etc are now focusing towards Blockchain implementation,
the crux of it being simple but elegant data integrity. Many organisations are focusing on this and are creating their own blockchain implementations resulting in many solutions in forms of various platforms being available in the market.One of the crucial concern for enterprises and startups is to figure out which is the best fit for your Distributed Application.
Distributed Applications (DAPPS)
This concept goes long back, but with the introduction of Blockchain, these gained a lot of prominence. Blockchain ensures that one can develop a resilient application in terms of stability, scalability, integrity and efficiency.
One May be many ways Out
Blockchain discussions are running through Tech circles intensely and the demands for these apps is ever-increasing now. Here is a guide for the ones who are starting out with the development of Blockchain apps and need to know which following platform is best suited for your custom application –
- Ethereum
- NEM
- Waves Platform
- Commerce Block
- HyperLedger Fabric
Studio Fintech evaluated these platforms on some parameters, which we believe can help one when aiming to architect for an application –
- Security – With any blockchain service this becomes the Core of things as one of the main reason to opt out for blockchain service is security.
- Scalability – This parameter comes quintessential as this governs the usage of DAPP, how much an application can scale, how much load it can handle. This is mostly governed by the consensus protocol applied in that.
- Interaction – This becomes a key factor depending upon the type of application you are aiming to build. There are many ways by which this can be achieved, but becomes a governing factor when trying to pan out the architecture for your application.
- Private Hosting – This is a requirement that pertains to some use cases, where the data security is a huge concern and sharing of that is not an option.
- Stability – The usability of a platform is governed by transaction stability as it is a crucial factor for selecting upon a blockchain platform.
- General Use Cases – It is important to figure out what use cases exist for each particular platform to decide where will the Blockchain be the best fit in.
- Costing – Each platform has some cost implications, in terms of cost per transaction, hosting etc.
Analysis for each individual platform to understand their application and utility –
One of the most sought after platform when it comes to Blockchain development, this was developed with a motive of building decentralized applications. In it’s crowdsale it’s currency Ether was launched as well.
Today most of the distributed applications are developed in this, major reason being introduction of coding medium available like Solidity. This was the first platform to introduce the concept of Smart Contract that enabled people to write and deploy code on a Blockchain.
In terms of development, this is the most enhanced platform. Also most of the ICOs have been launched via this. Though it looks like the most sought after platform in terms of Distributed Apps, but if we consider the transaction fees and time, they both seem quite high which makes it not much suitable for real time experience.
Stability wise, this seems to be most prominent platform as this has been since 2013 and the community behind this is great. Security wise as well this is a good option as this can be privately hosted and managed. One can easily run their ethereum node via Geth and achieve desired functionality.
Summary
NEM’s blockchain platform was designed and coded from the ground up for scale and speed. NEM’s permissioned private blockchain delivers industry-leading transaction rates for internal ledgers.
NEM has great features, such as Smart Asset system. This Smart Asset can be anything a coin, a signature, a status update or more. Using this we can customize the blockchain as per the system needs and one can represent almost any system of business transactions on the blockchain with minimal development.
Viability wise as well NEM is a good option, as it can be used as its consensus is built on Proof Of Importance algorithm which enables it to be run on any machine without any extraordinary computing power required as is the case for BitCoin.
Hosting is an issue at the moment with NEM as it can’t be privately hosted, one can get it’s clients open sourced from the website, but the server code is private. They do have announced a solution called Catapult which is a open server-core for NEM blockchain. This product is a solution provided by an organisation called Mijin.
Since this is still in the announcement/preview phase, this can’t be used for developing production level application.
Here is a summary, how NEM fares as per assessment parameters –
Waves is an open-source blockchain platform developed, marketed, and operated by Waves Platform AG that allows users to launch their own custom cryptocurrency tokens. Waves NG is making the platform easier and faster. Based on the Waves-NG protocol, it supports up to 6,000 transactions per minute. Waves’s blockchain uses a leased Proof-of-stake (LPoS) algorithm called Waves-NG, where participants being rewarded from the commission on transactions made.
It also provide smart contracts include account and token controls, which provide functionality to implement features such as multi-signature wallets, atomic swaps, 2-factor authorization. Waves also introduces a new transaction type which is called “Data Transactions”. Data Transactions is a way to post Oracle data to the blockchain all within the smart contract code.
Waves smart contracts do not use gas for non-Turing complete smart contracts — which means that fixed costs are always known upfront and its cost effective as compare to Ethereum.
The minimum fee for transaction is 0.001 WAVES. The fixed fee for market orders is 0.001 WAVES which right now is quite cheap as compared to other options available in market.
You don’t need smart contracts to release tokens or for leasing and making deals on the decentralised exchange, because transactions are performed natively.
It provides REST API’s to access all blockchain data (create transaction, history, balances, exchange etc.)
Summary
Commerce Block is an infrastructure company that provides a suite of tools for traditional asset markets to leverage the highly flexible and powerful qualities of blockchain based digital asset protocols.
It provides platform for distribution, exchange and storage of assets via smart contracts’ execution. It has a unique side chain protocol with easy-to-use libraries for issuing assets, constructing complex trade flows, enforcing multiparty escrow and producing trusted regulatory audit trails.
Transaction speed can be an issue with this, as this is a Fork of Bitcoin, this would not give outputs in near real time.
Summary
The Linux Foundation intended as a foundation for developing applications or solutions with a modular architecture, Hyperledger Fabric allows components, such as consensus and membership services, to be plug-and-play. Hyperledger Fabric leverages container technology to host smart contracts called “chaincode” that comprise the application logic of the system.
It provides truely modular, scalable and secure for industrial blockchain. This means that transactions happen between any two parties/members as per their special deal/agreement and then transaction happen without appearing on the public blockchain.
Performance wise as well this scales really well can handle upto 1000 transactions per second.
Summary
Out of these Ethereum looks like a very strong candidate if you are planning to run an ICO, simply because of its token’s presence across exchanges. Waves and NEM are good options as well when it comes to ICOs due to their low per transactions costs.
For the scenarios where organisations are handling cases to solve the Supply Chain Management problems, HyperLedger is the best way out.
This analysis has helped me in architecting multiple solutions across Distributed applications including ICO Launch, Blockchain App Development, Private Blockchain development, Smart Contracts development and many more at Studio Fintech. We recently developed a private Blockchain using Hyperledger Fabric for a customer who wanted to launch a Digital Currency but wanted that Ledgerized. Since the requirement was to have a solution which is privatised in conjunction to that per transaction cost was to be eradicated, hence HyperLedger Fabric seemed to be best choice. We aim to grow more in this space at Studio Fintech but so far this has been a great journey.
Contact Studio Fintech if you wish you take any consulting on which Blockchain App Development Platform to choose. We can also you create custom blockchain/decentralised apps.