- Ethereum Killers is a term used to call blockchains directly competing with Ethereum.
- High gas fees and slow TPS are some shortcomings of Ethereum.
- Solana, Avalanche, Cardano, and Polkadot are competing with Ethereum for market share.
If you are a crypto enthusiast or just know your current affairs well, the word ethereum would not be new to you. As one of the most popular cryptocurrencies around, ethereum is not an alien word anymore.
Ethereum was the first blockchain network, launched in 2015, which came up with features like smart contracts, dAPPS, NFTs, and support for deFi. Ethereum was launched on a PoW consensus, and the few users of crypto at the time considered these technologies to be revolutionary.
But as Ethereum gained popularity and became the go-to platform for launching dAPPS, financial services, NFT trading and crypto games, the load on Ethereum’s platform was felt by all. Ethereum has a transaction speed of 10-12 TPS, which is inadequate to support its enormous user base. It also charges a whopping gas fee of $1.68.These shortcomings led to the rise of other blockchain platforms, which were called “Ethereum Killers”, claiming to solve these challenges so as to become the next Ethereum.
Let’s look at some of the popular players who compete directly with ethereum for market share, and examine whether they really fulfill what ethereum lacks.
Solana
Solana targeted the transaction speed, often called the Achilles Heel of ethereum, by providing an improved consensus mechanism.
Along with the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) model, it uses a unique Proof-of-History (PoH) model. The PoS model already surpassed Proof-of-Work (PoW) on which ethereum was built by randomly choosing validators in proportion to their stakes. PoH was a step forward where each transaction was validated by the creation of timestamps which proved the instance when the transaction was completed.
Solana now boasts a TPS of 65,000 TPS, making it the fastest blockchain network out there. Other key features include Solana’s crypto phone, which promises to integrate mobile phones and crypto. Solana also opened a retail store based on crypto tokens.
However, experts also claim Solana achieved such TPS by compromising its decentralization and security. Hacker attacks on Solana have resulted in the loss of millions. For example, on 3 Aug, 2022 approximately $8 Million was lost from 9,231 accounts that were hacked.
Cardano
The ADA token, which Cardano uses on its platform for fees and incentives, is ranked 7 among all. It uses PoS as its consensus mechanism, and although it has been launched, it is in its development state. One of its unique features is the splitting of its blockchain into two separate layers, the CSL (Cardano Settlement Layer) for transaction validation and the CCL (Cardano Computing Layer) for app deployment.
Polkadot
A blockchain that focuses more on interoperability, something ethereum suffers from, by connecting several blockchains and allowing easy flow of data and tokens. Polkadot solves the issue of scalability by using many parachains that are connected to the main chain, which take most of the load off from the main chain and enable a transaction speed of nearly 1000 TPS.
Avalanche
Another rival to ethereum, which uses PoS consensus and smart contracts, is similar to ethereum. AVAX serves as its token for transaction fees and voting in governance. Features that make it unique are:
Finality: Avalanche claims a transaction finality of around one second, whereas currently, ethereum has a time finality of 15 minutes.
Fee structure: Ethereum burns only some percentage of the transaction fee, whereas avalanche burns all of it. The user decides the transaction fees through voting on Avalanche.
Are Ethereum Killers really a threat?
Having learned about the various competitors out there, we can now ask whether these blockchains really provide an alternative to ethereum.Ethereum has also been addressing its weaknesses by coming up with new solutions.. The Merge, which was completed on Sept 15, 2022, was Ethereum’s transition to PoS from its old PoW model and is already a positive sign of its progress. This reduced the previously required large computational power and hardware, making Ethereum more eco-friendly.
The coming up of Layer 2 blockchains, which are blockchains aiming to improve Ethereum by making it cheaper and faster are already proving their worth. Polygon, Immutable, Synthetix Network, and Looping are already some companies investing in Layer 2 solutions for ethereum.
With all these developments visible and more on the way, Ethereum is far from losing its market share. Ethereum still hosts a large number of networks and dApps and more developers and users are continuously joining in.
