Ethereum has become one of the most popular blockchains in the world. It is the most popular blockchain platform after Bitcoin and was the first to implement smart contract functionality.
However, Ethereum’s user base has grown over the years, making it the most popular blockchain platform to build DApps. However, with this massive growth, Ethereum has also developed some scalability issues that make transactions slow and expensive.
Because of this, several “Ethereum killers,” have been born over the years.
Ethereum Killers?
Ethereum killers are simply other blockchain platforms with similar functionality to that of Ethereum. The only difference is that these platforms aim to offer better scalability and performance than Ethereum, hence the name, “Ethereum killers”.
These platforms are being referred to as “ETH killers” because the crypto community views them as “potential” threats to Ethereum’s dominance as the leading blockchain for DApps.
In this article, we will take a look at the top 3 Ethereum killers to watch in 2023: These platforms are Solana, Cardano, and Polkadot.
Solana
Solana is truly impressive.
It is one of the biggest rivals to Ethereum, with the ability to handle and process as many as 50,000 transactions per second.
This figure is several thousands of times higher than that of Ethereum, which can only process about 15 transactions every second.
Compared to Ethereum, Solana is also very scalable.
With its hybrid Proof of History (PoH) consensus mechanism, Solana is capable of (theoretically) supporting millions of transactions in a second, compared to Ethereum.
Solana comes in as a great choice for low-latency DApps, and is even used by Serum; one of the most popular dApps on the market.
SOlana’s price
source: CoinMarketCap
According to CoinMarketCap, Solana is changing hands around the $25 zone at the time of writing
Cardano
Compared to the others, Cardano is slightly newer. This platform is still under development. However, it is already proving itself as one of the biggest potential Ethereum killers.
Like Solana, Cardano is designed to be better in terms of scalability and energy efficiency than Ethereum.
However, it is more like Ethereum than Solana, in that it also uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
Cardano is a very good choice for developers looking to build dApps that require high security and decentralization.
A good example is the Atala PRISM Identity project, which is one of the most popular decentralized identity solutions out there.
Cardano’s price
source: CoinMarketCap
According to CoinMarketCap, Cardano is changing hands around the $0.3 zone at the time of writing
Polkadot
Last, but definitely not least, is Polkadot.
Polkadot is different from the other blockchains on this list, by a wide margin. It is more like a central hub, that allows several other blockchains to communicate with each other.
This gives Polkadot a great advantage over Ethereum, Solana and Polkadot, and brands it as a good choice for dApps that require blockchain interoperability.
Like the others, Polkadot is also designed to be secure and scalable and is a good choice for dApps that need to interact with other dApps or blockchains.
A perfect example would be the Acala decentralized finance platform, built on Polkadot.
Polkadot’s price
source: CoinMarketCap
According to CoinMarketCap, Polkadot is changing hands around the $5 zone at the time of writing
Overall…
These are just a few of the top Ethereum killers you should keep an eye out for in 2023.
It will be interesting to keep an eye out for these blockchains and see the innovations they come up with, in the fight for Dominance against Ethereum.
At the same time, it is important to note that Ethereum still reigns supreme above all the others, despite its scalability issues.
However, it is not impossible that one of these Ethereum killers to overtake the current king and take the spot as the most popular platform for DApps.
