SpringerLink
Log in

Comparison of Smart Contract Platforms from the Perspective of Developers

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Blockchain – ICBC 2023 (ICBC 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14206))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 204 Accesses

Abstract

Blockchain technologies promise to transform businesses by offering benefits like efficiency, transparency, fewer intermediaries, streamlined processes, and cost savings. With several public and private blockchain options available, companies and developers face the challenge of choosing a suitable platform for their needs. Ethereum has emerged as the most popular platform for the development of blockchain programs, but alternatives such as Algorand, Cardano, EOS, and Neo have also gained traction. We assess these five platforms from a developer’s perspective. Based on a catalog of criteria and metrics, we compare the platforms regarding their key features, including practical aspects like availability of documentation and ease of installation. We specify three use cases that are characteristic of blockchain applications: fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens, and a basic supply chain. By implementing these use cases on all platforms and logging the effort as well as any incidents, we identify their strengths and weaknesses in a way that supports developers in choosing an appropriate platform.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free ship** worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.ey.com/en_gl/innovation/how-public-blockchains-are-making-private-blockchains-obsolete.

  2. 2.

    https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-dominates-among-developers-but-competitors-growing-faster.

  3. 3.

    https://www.alchemy.com/overviews/ethereum-statistics.

  4. 4.

    The numbers are based on estimates of the member counts of developer channels and forums like Reddit, Discord, Stack Exchange, Stack Overflow, and Telegram. There is an unclear overlap of channels where developers communicate.

References

  1. Allen, D.W., Berg, C.: Blockchain governance: what we can learn from the economics of corporate governance. J. British Blockchain Assoc. 3(1) (2020). https://doi.org/10.31585/jbba-3-1-(8)2020

  2. Bareis, M., Di Angelo, M., Salzer, G.: Functional differences of Neo and Ethereum as smart contract platforms. In: 2nd International Congress on Blockchain and Applications (ICBA). Springer (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52535-4_2

  3. Benahmed, S., et al.: A comparative analysis of distributed ledger technologies for smart contract development. In: 2019 IEEE 30th Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), pp. 1–6 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/PIMRC.2019.8904256

  4. Bishnoi, M., Bhatia, R.: Interoperability solutions for blockchain. In: 2020 International Conference on Smart Technologies in Computing, Electrical and Electronics (ICSTCEE), pp. 381–385 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSTCEE49637.2020.9277054

  5. Bosu, A., Iqbal, A., Shahriyar, R., Chakraborty, P.: Understanding the motivations, challenges and needs of blockchain software developers: a survey. Empirical Softw. Eng. 24(4), 2636–2673 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-019-09708-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Capocasale, V., Gotta, D., Perboli, G.: Comparative analysis of permissioned blockchain frameworks for industrial applications. Blockchain: Res. Appl. 4(1) (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcra.2022.100113

  7. Chang, S.E., Chen, Y.: When blockchain meets supply chain: a systematic literature review on current development and potential applications. IEEE Access 8, 62478–62494 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2983601

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Chen, Y.: Blockchain tokens and the potential democratization of entrepreneurship and innovation. Bus. Horiz. 61(4), 567–575 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2018.03.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Chohan, R., Paschen, J.: NFT marketing: how marketers can use nonfungible tokens in their campaigns. Bus. Horiz. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.12.004

  10. Dabbene, F., Gay, P., Tortia, C.: Traceability issues in food supply chain management: a review. Biosyst. Eng. 120, 65–80 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2013.09.006, operations Management in Bio-production Systems

  11. Dernayka, I., Chehab, A.: Blockchain development platforms: performance comparison. In: 2021 11th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS), pp. 1–6 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/NTMS49979.2021.9432669

  12. Di Angelo, M., Sack, C., Salzer, G.: SoK: development of secure smart contracts - lessons from a graduate course. In: 3rd Workshop on Trusted Smart Contracts, Financial Cryptography 2019, Proceedings, pp. 91–105. Springer, LNCS 11599 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43725-1_8

  13. di Angelo, M., Salzer, G.: Identification of token contracts on Ethereum: standard compliance and beyond. Int. J. Data Sci. Anal. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41060-021-00281-1

  14. Dias, L.S., Ierapetritou, M.G.: From process control to supply chain management: an overview of integrated decision making strategies. Comput. Chem. Eng. 106, 826–835 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compchemeng.2017.02.006, eSCAPE-26

  15. Gilad, Y., Hemo, R., Micali, S., Vlachos, G., Zeldovich, N.: Algorand: scaling byzantine agreements for cryptocurrencies. In: Proceedings of the 26th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, pp. 51–68. SOSP ’17, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2017). https://doi.org/10.1145/3132747.3132757

  16. Koens, T., Poll, E.: Assessing interoperability solutions for distributed ledgers. Pervasive Mobile Comput. 59, 101079 (2019). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574119218306266

  17. Mogavero, F., Visconti, I., Vitaletti, A., Zecchini, M.: The blockchain quadrilemma: when also computational effectiveness matters. In: 2021 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC), pp. 1–6 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCC53001.2021.9631511

  18. Mokdad, I., Hewahi, N.M.: Empirical evaluation of blockchain smart contracts. In: Khan, M.A., Quasim, M.T., Algarni, F., Alharthi, A. (eds.) Decentralised Internet of Things. SBD, vol. 71, pp. 45–71. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38677-1_3

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Rejeb, A., Keogh, J.G., Treiblmaier, H.: Leveraging the internet of things and blockchain technology in supply chain management. Future Internet 11(7) (2019). https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/11/7/161

  20. Saberi, S., Kouhizadeh, M., Sarkis, J., Shen, L.: Blockchain technology and its relationships to sustainable supply chain management. Int. J. Prod. Res. 57(7), 2117–2135 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2018.1533261

  21. Sankar, L.S., Sindhu, M., Sethumadhavan, M.: Survey of consensus protocols on blockchain applications. In: 2017 4th International Conference on Advanced Computing and Communication Systems (ICACCS), pp. 1–5 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICACCS.2017.8014672

  22. Song, W., et al.: EOS.IO blockchain data analysis. J. Supercomput. 78, 5974–6005 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-021-04090-y

  23. Valenta, M., Sandner, P.: Comparison of Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric and Corda. Tech. rep., Frankfurt School, Blockchain Center (2017). https://www.smallake.kr/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2017_Comparison-of-Ethereum-Hyperledger-Corda.pdf

  24. Voloder, A.: Comparison of Smart Contract Platforms for Decentralized Applications Development. Master’s thesis, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Wood, G., et al.: Ethereum: a secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger (2014). https://ethereum.github.io/yellowpaper/paper.pdf

  26. Xu, B., Luthra, D., Cole, Z., Blakely, N.: EOS: an architectural, performance, and economic analysis (2018). https://blog.bitmex.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/eos-test-report.pdf

  27. Zou, W., et al.: Smart contract development: challenges and opportunities. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 47(10), 2084–2106 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2019.2942301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Algorand developer docs. https://developer.algorand.org/docs/. Accessed 15 Apr 2023

  29. Cardano developer docs. https://docs.cardano.org/cardano-testnet/getting-started. Accessed 29 Apr 2023

  30. Eos network documentation. https://docs.eosnetwork.com/docs/latest/smart-contracts/getting-started/dune-guide/. Accessed 01 Apr 2023

  31. EOS reference smart contracts. https://github.com/EOSIO/eosio.contracts. Accessed 29 Mar 2023

  32. EOSIO documentation. https://developers.eos.io/manuals/eos/v2.0/nodeos/usage/development-environment/index. Accessed 07 Mar 2023

  33. EOSIO official documentation. https://developers.eos.io/welcome/latest/manuals/index. Accessed 27 Mar 2023

  34. EOSIO public blockchain documentation. https://eos.io/eos-public-blockchain/. Accessed 07 Mar 2023

  35. Ethereum development documentation. https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/. Accessed 06 Jan 2023

  36. Ethereum development tutorials. https://ethereum.org/en/developers/tutorials/. Accessed 24 Feb 2023

  37. Neo development documentation. https://docs.neo.org/docs/en-us/develop/network/testnet.html. Accessed 06 Jan 2023

  38. Neo development examples. https://neo.org/dev#examples. Accessed 23 Feb 2023

  39. Neo-express documentation. https://github.com/neo-project/neo-express. Accessed 16 Jan 2023

  40. Neo whitepaper. https://docs.neo.org/v2/docs/en-us/basic/whitepaper.html. Accessed 06 Jan 2023

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Ammar Voloder & Monika di Angelo

Authors
  1. Ammar Voloder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Monika di Angelo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ammar Voloder .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Data61, Eveleigh, NSW, Australia

    Qin Wang

  2. Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    Jun Feng

  3. Shenzhen Entrepreneurship and Innovation Federation (SEIF), Shenzhen, China

    Liang-Jie Zhang

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Voloder, A., di Angelo, M. (2023). Comparison of Smart Contract Platforms from the Perspective of Developers. In: Wang, Q., Feng, J., Zhang, LJ. (eds) Blockchain – ICBC 2023. ICBC 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14206. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44920-8_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44920-8_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-44919-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-44920-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation