To get knowledge about Smart Contracts, you must first know about Blockchain technology. Blockchain is known as a distributor ledger with a large database that is stored in various places called nodes. Data stored with Blockchain is impossible to alter or modify.
Users can verify the Blocks of information that are connected together through crypto stamps built with the data fetched from the last block and stamps from the chain of Blocks. Once a transaction gets validated, it can’t be deleted or edited which ensures data authenticity and security.
Blockchain and smart contracts are integrated with each other. Smart contracts are called computer programs that simplify trading between both identified and anonymous parties. The trade doesn’t require a middleman due to the use of smart contracts. Most businesses are adopting smart contract development services as this helps to alleviate the formality and costs combined with the traditional approaches without conceding credibility and authenticity.
Smart Contracts are building blocks to set up the next-generation successors with decentralized control. By embracing smart contract platforms, businesses have been more efficient and have minimized costs and errors.
Do you want to know about the most popular smart contracts platform that are helping businesses in trading securely? Below we have compiled a list of top smart contract platforms in 2023 along with their working, features, benefits, market situation, and applications that you must know about-
Table of Contents
What is Smart Contract?
To understand Smart Contract, first, let’s have a look at its brief history-
In 1991 –
To timestamp electronic documents, a program for a hard-to-tamper system was brought by Haber and W.S. Stornetta. It will let the system issue a certificate including the date on which it was built. Alongside this, the certificate will generate a link that can be used later to validate the document generation date.
In 1994 –
In 1994, Smart Contracts were introduced by Nick Szabo. They were originally computer programs used to switch the acts defined in conventional paper contracts. Two years later, in 1996, he came up with the various purposes of smart contracts comprising verifiability, observability, enforceability, and confidentiality.
In 2008 –
Satoshi Nakamoto introduced us to Bitcoin known as a decentralized payment system. It stores all the payment transaction history in a distributed ledger generated with the blocks. Every block includes a set of transactions, a timestamp, and a hash to the previous Block. The process was as same as the approach presented by S. Haber and W.S. Stornetta in the year 1991.
In 2015 –
Vitalik Buterin launched the first Smart Contract platform ‘Ethereum’ with the popular smart contract language Solidity. It is used by smart contract developers to create different smart contracts on a Blockchain. The reason behind the launch of Ethereum is to strengthen people to develop and quickly launch secure and capable decentralized apps. The language leverages your chosen smart contract development company with much flexibility and enables them to write contracts to solve complex computational difficulties.
In 2021-
Currently, various top smart contract platforms are running on Blockchain. They are made of distinct smart contract languages and consensus processes. With the help of smart contracts, businesses and various industries get strengthened and it also facilitates customary finance and insurance processes, crypto exchanges, and investments.
Coming next to “what is smart contract”, a smart contract can be said an automated contract written with the help of computer code and can be stored on a shared ledger. It is completely self-implementing when the contract’s innate standards are met and needs no intrusion from any middleman.
These are used to enable, validate, and impose the performance or negotiation for a contract. Smart contracts are created on the Blockchain or many other smart contract platforms.
Additionally, the reason why businesses hire smart contract developers is that smart contracts largely facilitate faster transaction speed while decreasing transaction costs. After defining it, now let’s have a look at the vast market size and expected growth of smart contracts-
With the increased adoption of top smart contract platforms, its global market was assessed at $397.8 million in the year 2022. The market is expected to reach $1460.3 million by the year 2029 with a 24.2% CAGR between 2023 to 2029. Key market drivers of smart contracts comprise rising apps in different end-user sectors. The advent of Blockchain development services has also contributed to the evolution of the smart contract market.
What Are Smart Contract Platforms?
Best smart contract platforms are used to support, identify, and take out smart contracts. These platforms allow users to access various smart contract Blockchain frameworks along with offering services for creating, testing, deploying, and executing smart contracts.
Top smart contract platforms are supposed to offer improved long-term investment capability than real cryptocurrencies. Cryptos are getting condemned for their uncertain nature, whereas smart contract development platforms provide benefits for the long term from the previous strategies built on them.
How Smart Contract Works?
Before making any significant decision about choosing the best smart contract platform, you must get to know how it works. Smart contracts permit ventures to exchange goods, money, securities, real estate, and other holdings. The smart contract is stored and simulated in a shared ledger in which data can’t be modified or deleted. But do you know how this whole process goes on?
Have a look at the following points –
- When a smart contract is deployed, it gets an address. This provided address facilitates users to interact with the contract and execute it.
- These smart contracts can store different values followed by the logic written by developers. For instance, smart contracts can be programmed to store a person’s name.
- After the deployment of smart contracts onto the Blockchain, people are allowed to communicate with it.
- Smart contract functions listed in the transaction during the execution phase are executed by a set of nodes. After that, these nodes evaluate their outcomes and determine which one to choose to retain based on the consensus mechanism applied on the Blockchain network.
- The PoW and PoS consensus mechanisms refer that every node must execute a particular operation or get a specific value. The very first node that comes with valid proof becomes the leader and is allowed to add the outcomes of the execution to the Blockchain. There is also the use of hybrid consensus protocols similar to the Solana Blockchain network depending on both proof-based consensus protocols and Byzantine Fault Tolerance.
- The valid outcomes get succeed to pass the block and then, the block is included in the Blockchain. If internal variables get modified by a validated transaction, these new values act as initial values for potential transactions.
Benefits of Smart Contract
Smart contracts are self-executing, open-source code that runs when specific conditions are encountered. Smart contracts are fast, execute instantly & autonomously, and can’t be influenced by any of the third-party. Apart from these, here are some more benefits that you can enjoy through implementing smart contracts-
- Trust & Transparency
- Efficiency & Speed
- Security
- Paper-free
- Storage & Backup
- Savings
1. Trust & Transparency
As we know smart contracts don’t involve any mediator. It has encrypted transaction records that are distributed across participants, which is the reason why there is no requirement to question if the data is being modified or changed.
2. Efficiency & Speed
In smart contracts, if a specific condition is met, it will execute automatically. Alongside, smart contract lives on the web and run on software code, hence, it executes faster transactions. This faster speed is attracting many traditional businesses to execute smart contracts in their processes.
3. Security
Smart contract developers consider top Blockchain protocols to make the transaction records encrypted to share them across cryptocurrency networks securely. Furthermore, every record is linked to the previous and following records on a distributed ledger. If somebody has to change a single record, then they have to change the entire chain. It makes security more improved in smart contracts.
4. Paper-free
Standard contracts created on paper are always at risk of being lost, destroyed, altered, or stolen, on the other hand, businesses can hire Blockchain developers to get smart contracts created in lines of code in the digital area.
5. Storage & Backup
Smart contracts are used to record crucial information about every transaction occurred. So, whenever a person’s detail is stored in a contract, it keeps the information permanently for future perspective. Hence, if the data gets lost, it can be retrieved easily.
6. Savings
Smart contract eliminates the requirement of having a vast chain of middlemen. It directly reduces the need for any bank, lawyer, or other intermediaries.
Use of Smart Contracts in diff-diff Industries
Every venture wants to streamline its processes along with quickening the existing workflows, hence they take the help of a leading Blockchain development company to leverage these digital contracts to make the process easier. Currently, various industries have adopted the smart contract to get benefits from it. Here are they-
- Healthcare Industry
- Retailer-supplier Industry
- Faster & Safer International Trade
- Government Sector
- Real Estate Industry
1. Healthcare Industry
In this sector, smart contracts help to better the insurance trial procedures while providing access to cross-institutional data and assure patients about the security of their sensitive data. Smart contracts are used between patients and healthcare providers. For instance, the Robomed network is a decentralized medical network permitting users to interact and manage their assistance depending on Ethereum Blockchain smart contracts. It also supervises all the interactions with patients, impressions of interactions, and effectiveness metrics with healthcare providers.
2. Retailer-supplier Industry
With the help of increased visibility and real-time communication through smart contracts, businesses in the supply chain and retail industry are having stronger relationships with their suppliers. It has resulted in more innovation and better decision-making for the enterprises along with automation and better operational efficiencies. For instance, Dropp and digitize payroll administration have helped ventures in terms of real-time tracking, better visibility, and micropayments.
3. Faster & Safer International Trade
Top Blockchain development companies are assisting organizations when it comes to using smart contract Blockchain platforms for quick transaction processes, getting histories, and monitoring all the transactions from start to end. Blockchain-based smart contract platforms use standardized rules to manage trading options for alleviating risk and friction while simplifying the trading procedure and getting more trade opportunities.
4. Government Sector
Smart contracts help government organisations to execute deals while strengthening consensus and justice. If there included digital contracts in the voting process, there would be no chance or possibility for any type of amendment or changes by third-party. Here votes would be kept in a distributed register and a person will be needed advanced computing skills to hack the system and decode it.
5. Real Estate Industry
The real estate vertical uses smart contracts to sign a deal between two parties to sell, buy or rent properties. Propy was the first real estate company to use smart contracts and in September 2017, they did their first transaction. In this, someone bought a property worth $60,000. Both sellers and buyers must participate in the smart contract and have to take the necessary steps to play legally and fair.
Why Smart Contracts are important for Businesses in 2023?
Considering the arrival of the latest technologies and trends, there have already been a lot of changes rapidly in 2023. Hence, businesses need to leverage all the benefits provided by these technologies. Smart contract development is one of them that businesses need to adapt to stay ahead of the market competitors. Smart contracts are known as digital agreements collected on a Blockchain platform, these are transparent, secure, and immutable and used for secure and automated transactions without any intermediary.
From simple transactions to intricate business processes, these self-executing contracts help to sign the deal between two parties and provide them independence. The entire system is supposed to be trustless, disruption-free, and fast. Smart contracts strengthened by Blockchain technology generate immutable data that can’t be altered. Digital contracts are able to run simple transactions, but Blockchain goes well for complete transactions with exchanges including multiple parties.
The decentralized crypto exchange also uses smart contracts to make cryptocurrency traders able to carry out trades without the help of others. DEX places responsibility on users by allowing them to trade right away through their wallets with the help of smart contracts. There is a need to create smart contracts only once and then, they can be used again and again while connecting to more transactions.
List of Top 10 Smart Contracts Platforms 2023
Ethereum platform has got the most popular among all smart contract platforms due to its provided benefits. Besides this, many more smart contract platforms are more suitable for commercial app development. Ultimately, the selection of smart contract platforms largely depends on the use case.
There is a huge demand for different smart contract platforms among top NFT development companies to create the best NFT solutions. Similarly, healthcare, retail, and other sectors are also demanding suitable platforms for having faster and more secure solutions.
We have compiled a list of the top 10 smart contract platforms that you can use to simplify your business processes and trades with the other party. The list of digital platforms is well created based on the popularity and preference of the developers’ community.
- Ethereum
- Hyperledger
- Tezos
- EOS
- Stellar
- Algorand
- Solana
- Avalanche
- NEM
- Waves
- Corda
1. Ethereum
Ethereum is considered the most popular and used smart contract platform 2023 due to several reasons. Vitalik Buterin launched this decentralized platform in the year 2015 and currently, it enables app deployment varying from ICOs to insurance comprising smart contracts.
Among all, the most beneficial advantages of Ethereum are security, standardization, and support. It also has clear guidelines and rules for development along with the coding language Solidity that makes deploying smart contracts and Dapps on the platform easier.
The platform also has a vast and active Ethereum smart contract developers’ community that helps in creating & deploying smart contracts. Here are some more features of the Ethereum platform you must look at.
Features:
- Used for creating Defi and dApps
- Support from a large development community
- Free set-up
2. Hyperledger
In 2015, this open-source collaborative platform was founded by Linux Foundation comprising various market giants such as J.P. Morgan, IBM, Intel, Cisco, and others as its co-founders. Authenticity and validation of participants’ identities are the two most attractive characteristics of this permissioned Blockchain. It is the reason why organizations that deal with sensitive information and need data protection prefer this platform.
Originally Hyperledger was built for enterprise use including confidentiality, trust, and security. It is used to create private channels for specific network members referring to that only some chosen members can use transaction data. It provides high-quality enterprise cybersecurity by applying an additional security model based on hardware for identity management.
Features:
- Data sharing options are based on private data collections.
- Supports smart contracts written in chain code.
- Highly trustworthy.
3. Tezos
Tezos is among the most popular smart contract platforms in 2023 that was launched in 2017 by Arthur Breitman. It is a self-amending & open-source cryptographic ledger that existed on the MIT license. The purpose behind its development was to create an efficient Blockchain to sort the first-generation Blockchain problems comprising protocol forks. It refers that protocols can be upgraded necessarily if most of the stakeholders accept a specific improvement intended by a developer. This type of production helps the platform to grow spontaneously as developers get the chance to contribute to it.
Tezos makes the large-scale audit possible as the code is written in its own programming language Michelson which can be easily proven statistically. But Tezos’ Michelson is more complex in comparison to Ethereum’s Solidity.
Features:
- Proof of Stake instead of Proof of Work to get a distributed consensus.
- Executes smart contracts as it is intended.
- Exceptional security and accuracy
4. EOS
This smart contract environment gets support from open-source software EOSIO and is developed using WASM (WebAssembly) standard. The platform controls the whole network while EOS tokens provide it power. There are many advantages provided by the EOSIO platform comprising server hosting, cloud storage, and user authentication.
EOS is coupled with the Agile system that simplifies the smart contract development process while making it more convenient. It permits smart contract developers to write code in any programming language.
Features:
- Highly configurable, flexible, and fast platform
- Broad array of resources & developers’ tool
- Adaptable authentication & data integrity
5. Stellar
This top smart contract Blockchain platform was originated in 2014 by Jed McCaleb, one of the Ripple Founders. It is considered an open-source distributed ledger technology platform that enables the creation and deployment of smart contracts. Stellar is one of the cryptocurrency smart contracts that provide scalability, security, and low transaction fees.
It makes your hired Blockchain developers create and deploy decentralized apps with the help of a decentralized consensus algorithm that supports the efficient and quicker implementation of transactions.
Features:
- Applies conditional logic, automated execution, and time stamps.
- Operates on a decentralized open network streamlining millions of transactions every day.
- Potential to implement multiple operations at a time including Batching and Atomicity transactions.
6. Algorand
Algorand is deemed to be an inexpensive and fast network comparatively with 1000 transactions per second. It supports the requirement of any dApp along with programming languages comprising Reach, Python, and Clarity. It is the popular asset management and issue platform that is also known as the first carbon-negative system offering fast smart contracts with a similar speed of transactions at layer 1.
AVM (Algoround Virtual Machine) implements smart contracts and soon, it will facilitate the Turing-complete programming language for digital contracts. It is more like Ethereum where coders write smart contracts in Solidity language and then, it is compiled to Bytecode for EVM execution without applying colossal gas fees.
Features:
- Secure, scalable, and low execution cost
- No risk of data being altered or manipulated.
- Applies permissionless proof-of-stake Blockchain.
7. Solana
In 2017, Solana was built by top software developers from Dropbox, Intel, and Qualcomm. It is permissionless, scalable, cost-efficient, and high performing among all smart contract platforms in 2023. It supports programming languages such as C, C++, and Rust. Solana has achieved the highest record of 65,000 TPS and the main reason behind it is the blend of PoS and PoH consensus mechanisms.
Here, each transaction belongs to its own block and later, it will be used as input for the next transaction. Innovative technology like Sealevel of Solana facilitates the processing of smart contracts parallelly. That makes Solana one of the fastest and top smart contract platforms.
The platform already hosts over 500 projects involving NFT marketing, DeFi projects, Chainlink, and decentralized oracle network, and still, the demand is increasing.
Features:
- More emphasis on security
- Proof-of-History consensus mechanism
- Low transaction costs
8. Avalanche
Solanais growing as the top smart contract platform in 2023 which is getting much more popular among the developers’ community for good reasons. Unlike other Blockchain networks, it is able to endure over 51% of attacks. It is known as a general-purpose layer-1 platform with smart contract functionality. Its native utility coin is AVAX. Avalanche is designed in a way that makes more users able to work on the network. It uses the Snow consensus mechanism utilizing the PoS mechanism as its base. The platform can perform up to 4500 TPS and uses Solidity for smart contract development.
Similar to Solana, Avalanche has much compatibility to transfer a dApp created in Ethereum to Avalanche easily. It uses a three-chain subnet architecture including P-Chain (platform chain), X-Chain (Exchange chain), and C-Chain (Contract chain). These three make Avalanche a flexible and secure platform.
Features:
- Security, scalability, and decentralization
- Uses the PoS (Proof of stake) mechanism.
- Runs dApps on the network.
9. NEM
NEM was released on March 31, 2015, and currently, it is backed by a large community of developers as it is written in Java programming language. It is the reason why this platform is super accessible as it is not restricted to platform-specific programming languages like Solidity or anything.
Recently, NEM has launched the Catapult or Mijin v.2 updates that have made NEM the most secure platform as per several security experts. This smart contract platform has come up with new opportunities for Blockchain database functionality.
Unlike Ethereum, NEM is able to manage hundreds of transactions at a time. This is why top Blockchain development companies are shifting from other platforms to NEM.
Features:
- No platform-specific programming language
- Highly scalable platform
- Developed in Java and easy-to-use.
10. Waves
Waves were released in June 2016 and are considered the best alternative for top smart contract platforms. It is an open-source platform designed to several presented barriers that come in the way of standard Blockchain implementation such as scalability and speed. Mainly, it permits users to program and deal with the terms of a contract without involving a middleman. Waves smart contract platform is deemed to be user-friendly and facilitates developers with the required tools and APIs to craft and launch their apps.
Similar to Ripple, the platform has placed itself as a base to enable token operations. It is also the best platform for ICOs and it only takes a few minutes to develop your own tokens on the platform that needs no technical expertise. Waves can also be called an NFT smart contract as it is used to store and market digital assets.
Features:
- In-built decentralized exchange to trade digital holdings.
- Secure and accessible method to launch smart contracts & dApps
- Eliminates the need for external programming tools for developing smart contracts.
11. Corda
Corda is one of the top blockchain protocols used for enterprise-grade apps, facilitating businesses to alleviate cost by managing processes and automating safe business transactions. It is an open-source distributed ledger for processing and storing historical information on digital resources. Corda uses high-level programming languages including Kotlin and Java that run on top of JVM (Java Virtual Machine). Corda applies a transaction-based data model and Turing inadequate to support verifiability.
CFT (crash-fault-tolerant) gives the protocol an extra level of robustness, allowing the algorithm to continue and reach consensus, no matter if any constituent elements go wrong.
Features:
- Data sharing within the network without any help from the central controller.
- Supports a wide range of consensus mechanisms.
- Integration with other programming paradigms.
Comparison Table for Top Smart Contract Platforms
Here is a table to compare smart contract platforms 2023 based on different aspects. Have a look below:
| Platforms | Execution Environment | Programming Languages | Turing Completeness | Permission Type | TPS | Consensus Mechanism |
| Ethereum | EVM | Solidity | Yes | Public | 100,000 | PoS |
| Hyperledger | Docker | Go, JavaScript | Yes | Private | 2,000 | CFT |
| Tezos | Tezos VM | Michelson | Yes | Public | 1 million | PoS |
| EOS | EOS VM | C++ | Yes | Public | 4,000 | Delegated PoS |
| Stellar | Docker | Scala, Net, Go, C++ | No | Consortium | 4,000 | FBA (5CP) |
| Algorand | AVM | Python, TEAL | No | public | 6,000 | PPoS |
| Solana | LLVM | Rust, C, C++ | Yes | Public | 50,000 | PoS+PoH |
| Avalanche | EVM | TypeScript, Go, Python, JavaScript, Vue | No | Public | 4,500 | Snow Consensus (depends on PoS) |
| NEM | XEM | Solidity, Java | No | Private | 4,000 | Proof of Importance |
| WAVES | Decentralized | Ride | No | Public | 100 | PoS |
| Corda | Java virtual machine | Kotlin, Java | No | Private | 20,000 | RAFT |
How to Choose The Best Smart Contract Platform for Your Project?
Considering that Blockchain and smart contract development have been in the industry for only a decade, hence, there is still high uncertainty and lots of confusion about them. When it comes to choosing the best smart contract platform, there is no one-fits-all kind of option as businesses can choose the suitable platform according to their business functions and requirements. To help you out in choosing the best smart contract platform, here we have penned down the following points to check out-
- Transaction Speed and fees
- Offered Tools and required programming languages.
- Consensus algorithm
- Security and scalability
Keeping in mind all the aspects, you can definitely lean on Ethereum as this digital platform is a time-tested option offering robust tools and thorough documentation. But if you are looking for a platform that provides faster and cheaper transactions, then, you must look at Algorand, Solana, or Avalanche. These offer smooth transaction execution at a low budget. Also, be specific about security and scalability to make smart contracts robust in terms of fraudulent actions.
If you are a business dealing with sensitive information, you must go with Hyperledger as it doesn’t allow any unauthorized user to access the data. For your knowledge, it is not suitable for token management. You must also check if your selected smart contract platform is affecting your Blockchain app development cost and taking it to a higher level.
You should know that there is a vast pool of smart contract platforms you can choose among. Therefore, we suggest you go for a Blockchain consultant company to get the right guidance and assistance while choosing the platform.
Final Verdict
Smart contracts are taking place as a ground-breaking possibility for Blockchain app development as it helps to automate and streamline all the processes without the involvement of a third party. Choosing the right smart contract platform is a daunting task as you must look at various aspects in order to select the best to ensure the security of information. You can find a great variety of platforms including Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Hyperledger, and many more for your specific needs.
To get the finest among all, you must require to hire software development company or a consulting firm to help you with the development and deployment of digital contracts as per your business standards. At SemiDot Infotech, you can find years of experience and expertise in building Blockchain solutions with smart contracts. Contact us to discuss further details and get our assistance.
