Public chains have become a topic that is widely discussed, and it used to be all about comparing who had the better headlines and everyone was talking about Blockchain 3.0. Their normal method was to take a prominent indicator and make comparisons between them and a mainstream public chain in the market, and then come to a predetermined conclusion. Few articles objectively and comprehensively compare the current mainstream public chains in the market and give the public an intuitive and credible conclusion. Today, we are going to break this bad habit of this industry and make a horizontal comparison of the current mainstream public chains, and thus intuitively and objectively tell you what the differences are between public chains.
Contestants:
First generation public chain: BTC (father of blockchain)
Second generation public chain representatives: ETH, EOS
Third generation public chain representatives: polkaDOT, VDS, PT public chain
Criteria for the different generations: classification
- First generation public chain: mainly referring to the transformation from theory to the implementation of blockchain, Bitcoin is recognized as the representative of the first generation of blockchain.
- Second generation public chain: the main purpose is to explore the possibility of blockchain applications, among which ETH is the representative. Although EOS claims to be the third-generation public chain, it really should belong to the enhanced version of the second-generation public chain.
- Third generation public chain is on top of the second generation. It has generally found its niche, and comes with more valuable technical public chains, such as VDS resonance, or polkaDOT’s superb cross chain innovation, PT public chain's full chain compatibility mode and ultra-high throughput.
Four dimensions for comparison:
- Public chain consensus: the core indicator of public chain innovation, which directly affects the performance and security of the public chain, with a top score of five stars.
- Usage scenarios of the public chain: it mainly reflects the commercial value of the public chain and is an important basis for measuring the commercial prospects of the public chain, with a top score of five stars.
- TPS of public chain: represents the maximum potential upper limit of the public chain, with top score of five stars.
- Influence / achievement of public chain: represents the contribution value of the public chain to the blockchain industry, with a top score of five stars.
These four dimensions mainly consider the practicability of the public chain, and focus on the commercial value itself, as I believe that productivity is the only standard by which to measure technology.
BTC (first generation public chain)
- Consensus: POW (workload proof mechanism) this is a consensus with the highest degree of security and decentralization so far. The disadvantage is that it is less efficient, because it is the pioneer of POW, so we will give it a great score of 4 stars.
- Usage scenario: digital currency (payments, transfers, asset management) although BTC is currently the most commonly accepted digital currency, it has a single purpose. We give it a score of 2.5 stars.
- TPS: it can only process 7 transactions per second, which is also the major factor restricting the popularity of BTC at present. This was a technology compromise in the initial start-up stage, we can only rate it 1.5 stars.
- Influence: the father of blockchain, the founder of digital currency, it has to be the top score of 5 stars.
To sum up, the average score of the first-generation public chain is 3.25 stars.
ETH (Second generation public chain)
- Consensus: POW (Proof of Workload) it is the same as bitcoin's consensus mechanism, and its advantages and disadvantages are also basically the same. The difference is that ETH has added an algorithm against mining machines, which makes the computing power more decentralized. In addition, the witness mechanism of DPOS was introduced in the era of ETH2.0, which means I can give a score of 4 stars.
- Usage scenario: in terms of applications, ETH is invincible. It has the largest user group and developer team in the industry. It has produced popular and even quasi killer applications like Cryptocat, FOMO3D and DEFI, which is the king of blockchain applications. This gives it a full score of five stars.
- TPS: before upgrading to the 2.0 network, the TPS of ETH can only handle 30 transactions per second, which is considered to be in the weak category, and thus I can only give 1.5 stars.
- Influence: the representative of the second generation blockchain, giving it 4 stars.
To sum up, the average score of the second-generation public chain ETH is 3.625 stars.
EOS (Second generation public chain):
- Consensus: OPOS is a new set of consensus created in addition to POW, which perfectly avoids the shortcomings of the POW consensus mechanism. However, its own security has not been recognized by the community. Coupled with the existence of a centralized "referee mechanism", DPOS on the EOS chain has always received mixed reviews in the industry. At this stage, it only deserves a 3-star rating.
- Usage scenario: thanks to the improvement of the consensus mechanism, EOS has the possibility of being suitable for large-scale applications. There have also been popular applications such as Pixel Wars. However, due to the high rental costs of CPU resources, developers are becoming more and more distant from the EOS ecosystem, and it has been a long time since there have been any popular new applications, so only 2.5 stars.
- TPS: EOS claimed to have a million concurrency at the beginning of development, but the actual tested volume is 3800 transactions per second at the moment. Compared with the first two public chains, this was a major breakthrough, scoring it 5 stars.
- Influence: at the beginning when launched, there was a massive wave of interest but then there were no popular applications and the ecosystem has gradually withered away, so influence gets only 2 stars.
To sum up, the average score of the second-generation public chain EOS is 3.125 stars.
polkaDOT (Third generation public chain)
- Consensus: NPOS is an updated consensus, based on an improved DPOS. The double confirmation mechanism makes it more difficult for nodes to be corrupted, but the cost is higher, so taking into account the utility of the public chain performance, I’ll give it 4 stars.
- Usage scenarios: polkaDOT provides a cross-chain relay chain mode, and its own positioning is to connect highways without public chains. At present, there is still a lack of real demand in terms of practical scenarios. So far, polkaDOT has been in a tepid state, giving it 3.5 stars.
- TPS: the processing is 1000 transactions per second on the chain, and taking into account the safety and efficiency, this is a relatively ideal performance, giving an overall score is 4 stars.
- Influence: the influence is limited to a small portion of the technology exploration community, giving it a 2.5-star rating.
To sum up, the average score of the third-generation public chain polkaDOT is 3.5 stars.
VDS (Third generation public chain)
- Consensus: due to the lack of powerful computing power to support it, the safety and the performance of the public chain have basically not been considered, so, only 1.5 stars can be given.
- Usage scenario: it has its own resonance mechanism, and it is no exaggeration to say that VDS was the most popular public chain in 2019. It immediately gained explosive popularity in the industry. We have to give credit to this kind of strength, scoring it 4.5 stars.
- TPS: the official marker is 60,000 transactions per second, but there is no way to evaluate it, and only one star is given.
- Influence: the once explosive project is now a thing of the past. All of the ecological hot spots have already been extinguished and only one star can be given.
To sum up, the average score of the third-generation public chain VDS is 1.875 stars.
PT Public Chain (Third generation public chain)
- Consensus: DPOS+SPOS, double consensus. This is the application of the latest blockchain research results, which effectively balances the differing demands of security, efficiency and decentralization. It may become the mainstream in the future. Here I’m giving a high score of 4.5 stars.
- Usage scenario: built-in cross chain, quantum computer confrontation, and has the first multi-currency aggregate mining mode. At present, PT public chain is the only fair chain in existence with zero pre-mining, zero reservations and zero handling charges. It is a public chain with long-term development potential. The PT public chain has just been put online, and the current ecosystem is still far from perfect, so, only scoring 4 stars.
- TPS: under the normal condition of the main chain, the processing speed of 4,000 transactions per second is excellent, but the PT public chain also has a hidden power-up mode. Once the fragmentation mechanism is enabled, processing speed of up to 100,000 transactions per second can be achieved, which is quite amazing data. At present, it can only be given 3.5 stars based on the normal state.
- Influence: as a public chain, PT has utilized a lot of new technology research, and also has a lot of innovation built into the operations. Recently, it has become popular in Europe and the United States, but at present, based on its budding state, it can only score 2 stars for the time being.
To sum up, the average score of the third-generation public chain PT is 3.5 stars.
In summary, from the score point of view, the scores of the three generations of public chain are beyond my original expectations. The second-generation public chain is still the preferred platform for mainstream applications, with mature technology, a friendly development environment and low user education costs being the key advantages. However, the third-generation public chain, as a latecomer, generally has a lower score. The technical purposes of the third-generation public chain are very obvious, so there is the phenomenon of partiality. Some of the main functions came close to a full score, while the rest scored relatively low.
I am very optimistic about the PT public chain. As a latecomer, PT public chain has the first decentralized Dpos+Spos consensus mechanism in the blockchain circle. It has high security, high privacy levels, high efficiency, high capacity expansion, supports compatibility and cross chain technologies, which makes it easier to carry out multi technology development. It also innovates the efficiency of the destruction mechanism of mining coalescence, effectively improving the shortcomings of the traditional mining allocation mechanism, eliminating speculative players, and increasing the participation rate of consensus innovation in the technology and methodology. However, due to the weakness of the latecomers themselves, the ecosystem is in its infancy, and there has not been enough time for all of the innovative mechanisms to be tested by the market, so I can only give it a low score unfortunately.
However, this score can only be used as a reference based on the specific current environment. Over time, the public chain ecosystem has had its ups and downs, user migration, pop ups, technology iterations, etc., I still believe that the public chain, with its technical advantages and model innovations, such as PT, can stand out in the market, and time will be the best witness. Just as the PT white paper says, you will slowly get rich together if you make the right choice.
