As you know, Cryptocurrencies have grown exponentially over the years and so-called “Ethereum killers” have entered the wallets of investors and quickly gained popularity in the market. Ethereum was one of the earliest pioneers of blockchain or decentralized networks. Ethereum (ETH) is the second largest coin by market cap. It was criticised for its very expensive transaction fees.
However, this blockchain network faces several technical challenges. Ethereum is known for being a powerful decentralized computing platform, but transactions are also considered slow and expensive. Therefore, several other cryptocurrencies are challenging Ethereum’s market position by offering a combination of faster processing and lower transaction fees.
See the Ethereum substitutes
Each alternative smart contract blockchain has its own set of properties, but uses a different blockchain system called proof-of-stake. In this case, transactions are made based on consensus among verified holders of the corresponding cryptocurrency, reducing power consumption and improving system scalability.
- Cardano (ADA) is a smart contract project founded by Charles Hoskinson, a former co-founder of Ethereum. His original plan was to incorporate and improve the best elements of ETH. ADA has just entered the third phase of development called "Basho". This should significantly improve network scalability and usability across competing blockchains. Seamless transfer of assets between competing crypto networks and the ability to handle 1 million transactions per second will be a major competitive advantage for ADA once these latest upgrades are complete. Cardano's Proof of Stake Consensus has been the most rigorously tested on all platforms and has over 60 peer-reviewed releases that prove its efficiency, reliability, speed, and more.
- Avalanche is “designed to be faster and cheaper to use than Ethereum, processing more transactions per second at a lower cost,” Hougan says. According to Ava Labs, Avalanche can process 6,500 transactions per second, and 20 transaction confirmations are typically collected within 1 minute. Transaction fees depend on the type of transaction you are performing on the Avalanche blockchain network. The final cost is usually about one tenth of Ethereum's fee for similar transactions.
- Solana can process a lot more, up to 50,000 per second, and the fee is only $0.00025. Solana depend on proof-of-stake processing combined with a unique layer of proof-of-history. This network records and conducts transactions based on ultra-precise timestamps without communicating to other validators.
Things are changing for Ethereum!
Developers will continue to upgrade the network according to the ETH2.0 development plan. This plan will increase the number of transactions per second to over 100,000, further reducing transaction costs and payment delays. The Ethereum Foundation has already created a proof-of-stake known as the beacon chain, which will be merged with the blockchain network as of the end of this year. The resulting hybrid should be able to process thousands of transactions per second and costly Ethereum mining operations should be permanently stopped By 2023.
As per my view
“At this point, Ethereum will clear most of the problems Solana, Avalanche, and Cardano initially sought to solve. None of the alternative smart contract networks are likely to kill Ethereum. I'm not saying Ethereum will exist forever, but this particular cryptocurrency has a huge advantage over its competition in the form of early adoption and huge market share.”