Nexus

GoChain

HyperCash

Komodo

Validity

WaykiChain

Wanchain is a distributed ledger that allows for cross-chain transactions and the interoperability of multiple chains. Although Wanchain facilitates transactions between blockchains, it is also a stand-alone blockchain that runs autonomously. The protocol acts as a distributed ledger that processes and maintains records of cross-chain transactions.

Transactions on Wanchain do not only occur between different public blockchains but between private chains as well. As an Ethereum (ETH) fork, Wanchain enjoys some of the properties of the Ethereum blockchain. The protocol securely and autonomously processes applications via smart contracts.  The use cases for Wanchain include decentralized exchanges (DEXs), lending and borrowing platforms, stablecoins, crowdfunding, multi-currency payments and settlements.

The platform is totally decentralized and requires no custodian party to manage or confirm transactions. Unlike other cross-chain systems, Wanchain does not rely on a third-party platform to authenticate transactions. The locked account mechanism is used to secure and manage accounts on the network, eliminating third-party interferences.

Wanchain

Billed as "digital money for the modern world," nano is a lightweight cryptocurrency that is designed to facilitate secure, practically instant payments, without fees, and addresses some of the major limitations of both legacy financial infrastructure, and many modern cryptocurrencies.

Development of the project began in 2014 under the name RaiBlocks, and the coin (then termed XRB) launched the following year through a public faucet, which allowed users to claim small amounts of XRB after completing a captcha challenge. Anyone with access to a computer or phone could solve captchas, and be rewarded with RaiBlocks. The number of XRB people received per solved captcha varied over time

RaiBlocks (XRB) was rebranded to Nano in January 2018, with the new name chosen to better represent the speed and simplicity the project offers to users.

It is a peer-to-peer platform that uses a unique block-lattice data structure to allow users to easily transfer value to one another without relying on centralized intermediaries.

Unlike other platforms which typically use the combined proof-of-work of a massive mining network to achieve consensus, nano instead uses a system known as Open Representative Voting (ORV) — which sees account holders vote for their chosen representative, who then work to confirm blocks of transactions securely.

ORV makes Nano extremely energy efficient, positioning it as a more environmentally friendly alternative to proof-of-work (POW)-based cryptocurrencies.

In November, 2021, aiming to bring nano to the real world and to comply with the globally-recognized standards of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) requirements, nano adopted a new ticker and a standard symbol: XNO and Ӿ.

Nano

BitShares Blockchain is a decentralized “Blockchain as Organization” (BaO); an industrial-grade decentralized open source platform built to run high-performance financial technology operations. It represents the first decentralized autonomous decentralized community that enables its core utility token (BTS) holders to decide the Blockchain future direction in order to develop and maintain a wide range of decentralized financial technology products, features and functions. BitShares Blockchain is a Blockchain that permanently records financial technology operations between different Blockchain accounts and facilitates a wide range of access controls across BitShares Blockchain user financial means.

BitShares Blockchain is a technology that supports the digital generation entrepreneurs, investors, and developers with a common interest in building and participating in free market solutions by leveraging the power of globally decentralized consensus and decision making. Consensus technology has the power to do for economics what the internet did for information. It can harness the combined power of all humanity to coordinate the discovery and aggregation of real-time knowledge, previously unobtainable. This knowledge can be used to more effectively coordinate the allocation of resources toward their most productive and valuable use.

BitShares looks to extend the innovation of the Blockchain to all industries that rely upon the internet to provide their services. Whether its banking, stock exchanges, lotteries, voting, music, auctions or many others, a digital public ledger allows for the creation of distributed autonomous companies (or BaO) that provide better quality services at a fraction of the cost incurred by their more traditional, centralized counterparts. The advent of (BaO) ushers in a new paradigm in organizational structure in which companies can run without any human management and under the control of an incorruptible set of business rules. These rules are encoded in publicly auditable open source software distributed across the computers of the companies’ shareholders, who effortlessly secure the company from arbitrary control. BitShares does for business what bitcoin did for money by utilizing distributed consensus technology to create companies that are inherently global, transparent, trustworthy, efficient and most importantly profitable.

BitShares has went through many changes and has done its best to stay on top of Blockchain technology. BitShares is using Consensus as the mechanism by which organized people decide upon unitary rational action. While not considered technology in the traditional since, consensus “technology” is the basis of democratic governance and the coordination of free market activity first coined by Adam Smith as the “Invisible Hand.” The process of consensus decision-making allows for all participants to consent upon a resolution of action even if not the favored course of action for each individual participant. Bitcoin was the first system to integrate a fully decentralized consensus method with the modern technology of the internet and peer-to-peer networks in order to more efficiently facilitate the transfer of value through electronic communication. The proof-of-work structure that secures and maintains the Bitcoin network is one manner of organizing individuals who do not necessarily trust one another to act in the best interest of all participants of the network. The BitShares ecosystem employs Delegated Proof of Stake in order to find efficient solutions to distributed consensus decision making.

BitShares

Ardor

Apps use ICON to operate cross-chain seamlessly, build momentum and gain reputation. ICON's Cross-Chain Framework simplifies cross-chain development with its easy-to-use xCall messaging standard and connections to secure bridging protocols.

ICON

Augur

Ren (REN) is an open protocol built to provide interoperability and liquidity between different blockchain platforms.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Ren.

Formerly known as Republic Protocol, Ren launched RenVM, its virtual machine mainnet, in May 2020, having completed a $34 million initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018.

The protocol’s native token, REN, functions as a bond for those running nodes which power RenVM, known as Darknodes.

Ren aims to expand the interoperability, and hence accessibility, of decentralized finance (DeFi) by removing hurdles involved in liquidity between blockchains.

Lisk and the LSK token are widely accessible on the most popular exchanges on the market.
The top exchanges to buy the Lisk token are:

Binance

Kraken

Upbit

Huobi

Zonda

Bitflyer

It is important to consider the fact that investing in crypto carries risk, just like any other investment.

If you’re struggling to find a LSK trading pair with your local currency, check out this guide on how to convert fiat into Bitcoin - giving you a gateway to buying LSK.

Lisk

Hifi (formerly Mainframe) is a Lending Protocol that allows anyone to borrow against their crypto. Hifi uses a bond-like instrument, representing an on-chain obligation that settles on a specific future date. Buying and selling the tokenized debt enables fixed-rate, fixed term lending and borrowing — something much needed in decentralized finance today. It is anticipated that a ticker symbol change will occur alongside future iterations on the Hifi Lending Protocol.

Mainframe Token (MFT) is the native utility token that is used for:

Governance votes

Staking to ensure the safety of the protocol

Rewarding contributors to the ecosystem

What can you do with the Hifi Lending Protocol:

Borrow:  Lock collateral in a vault to mint fixed-rate, fixed-term debt tokens.  These debt tokens can be swapped for instant liquidity allowing users to leverage long, yield farm, or pursue other strategic trades without selling their collateral tokens.

Lend:  Buy fixed-rate, fixed-term debt tokens for a discount.  When the term expires they can be redeemed for face value, earning lenders a predictable return on their investment.

Provide Liquidity:  Earn trading fees by providing liquidity between debt tokens and stablecoins on an Automated Market Maker (AMM).

Mainframe

Metal DAO

Hive (HIVE) is a blockchain running on a delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism. It launched in March 2020 as a hard fork of the centralized Steem blockchain and as a gateway from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. The blockchain claims to offer “lightning-fast processing times and fee-less transactions.” Examples of use cases include social media with monetized rewards for content creators, interactive blockchain games, identity management, micro-loans and more. The platform powers decentralized applications (dApps) like Splinterlands, PeakD and HiveBlog.

Hive is a social network of apps and services, where users discover the capacity of blockchain technology, connect to the platform and securely share content through equitable redistribution of value. Thus, the users are the proprietors of the network, and sponsors can contact communities and artists directly without intermediaries.

Hive is an open source blockchain that focuses on scaling through layer-2 sidechains, while still benefiting from a common layer-1 blockchain backbone to ensure distributed data integrity. The Hive ecosystem runs on two cryptocurrencies — the native governance token, HIVE and the USD-pegged HBD stablecoin.

Hive

Serum is a decentralized exchange (DEX) and ecosystem that brings unprecedented speed and low transaction costs to decentralized finance (DeFi). (DeFi).

Serum is the only high-performant DEX designed around a fully on-chain central limit order book and matching engine. Ecosystem partners can compose with Serum’s on-chain orderbook to share liquidity and power their trading features for institutional and retail users.

In light of the popularity of DeFi and the growth of DEXes on Ethereum, users and developers are limited by high gas costs and slow transactions. Serum aims to resolve these traditional problems of DeFi, as well as issues of centralization, low capital efficiency, and liquidity segmentation.

The SRM utility and governance token enables users to receive discounts on protocol fees and voting rights; 100% of exchange fees flow back to SRM via buy-and-burn, staking rewards, and ecosystem grants.

Serum

PERL.eco

ARK is a cryptocurrency- and blockchain- based development platform allowing anyone to create their own fully customizable and interoperable blockchain. Reducing the industries need for Smart Contracts by using custom transactions, logic and multiple programming languages. ARK was founded in mid 2016, running a Toekn Exchange Campain(TEC) later that year which raised $800K in bitcoin and other exchanged cryptos. Sound financial planning has allowed the team to become a well-funded entity since its inception. On March 21, 2017, the ARK Public Network went live, hosting the native ARK crypto asset. The ARK business entity formed shortly after, called ARK ECOSYSTEM SCIC. The business entity is commonly referred to as 'ARK.io' which is part of the teams branding as well as the teams website.

The ARK Ecosystem consists of an open-source blockchain technology stack authored in TypeScript programming language. ARK’s public network acts as a live implementation of ARK technology, node operators acting as delegates on the network, standalone blockchains running on ARK technology with independent node operators, business entities that develop products powered by ARK as well as assist in maintaining the code base, an enterprise division driving adoption as well as a community of users, developers and service providers.

The ARK Public Network supports special transaction types such as multi-payment, multisignature, many various registration transactions, and IPFS hash transactions. ARK’s Launcher product, allows fully customizable interoperable blockchain creation using a graphical user interface. This plug and play creation method allows developers to fully utilize ARK’s consensus model, technology stack, product line and custom transactions.

Peercoin, also known as PPC or Peer-to-Peer Coin, was created by Sunny King and his team and launched in August 2012. It is the first blockchain to implement Proof-of-Stake consensus.

The primary inspiration behind the creation of Peercoin was to address a number of perceived shortcomings of Bitcoin, including energy efficiency, security and sustainability, decentralization and long-term viability.

Essentially it was designed as an enhanced replacement for Bitcoin. As such, it was originally forked from Bitcoin and uses the same UTXO style blockchain. However, Peercoin's code was modified to introduce Proof-of-Stake as its primary consensus protocol. The next section explains how this makes for a better blockchain.

Given that Peercoin uses most of the same code, it can easily port new features from Bitcoin and utilize any of the supporting infrastructure, including tech advancements like Taproot or Lightning Network. Peercoin is the only Proof-of-Stake blockchain that uses modern Bitcoin code, making it the perfect drop-in replacement.

Peercoin also has a dedicated community, is actively developed, fairly distributed, has low barriers of participation, can do everything that Bitcoin does, minus the 13 TWh of energy usage, and it's not a scam.