Ethereum’s popularity came from its ability to offer the necessary tools for building and deploying applications, such as dApps, on decentralized ecosystems. Its smart contract features and immutability revolutionized the market, while the censorship-resistant blockchain made it trustable for the growing community. However, Ethereum slowly became inefficient for the number of users it supported, leading to congestion and increasing gas fees, which pushed users to other alternatives. Now, if you want to buy Ethereum with bank transfer, you’ll notice that many of its competitors are closely following it. These blockchains were called “Ethereum killers,” and they provided more or less the same features but at lower prices and faster speeds. Cardano, Solana, and Polkadot were among Ethereum’s biggest competitors.
While Cardano and Solana are more popular, Polkadot remains an underrated blockchain technology that’s not only more scalable but also safer. Moreover, Polkadot can connect blockchains to each other, host them, and allow users to build other blockchains on top of them.
So, who’s best?
ETHEREUM FEATURES INCLUDE THE EVM, LAYER-2 SOLUTIONS, AND TURING-COMPLETE LANGUAGES
When Ethereum was created, Vitalik Buterin envisioned a cryptocurrency as powerful as Bitcoin but with an expanded ecosystem complete with tools and technologies for developers. Users can now use the Ethereum network to create dApps, DAOs, NFTs, and more, as they’re supported by a massive community of developers and features like smart contracts.
Ethereum is a great choice for both beginner and experienced developers because it offers the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which backs smart contracts and helps ensure the blockchain’s safety. Developers use it to write code in Solidity and other languages for application deployment.
Ethereum also has many Layer-2 scaling solutions to mitigate scalability, from optimistic rollups to zkRollups that reduce fees and increase transaction throughput. Finally, Ethereum’s Turing-complete languages allow developers to write any program or smart contracts, allowing for complex logic, automation, and a wide range of computational solutions.
HOWEVER, ETHEREUM’S POPULARITY WENT AHEAD OF ITS FUNCTIONALITY
Despite its fame in the beginning, it didn’t take that long for problems to appear, especially for scalability matters. As the network increased and the number of transactions boomed, the network became congested many times, leading to massive gas fees and exaggerated timeframes. Indeed, once Ethereum made the switch from Pow to PoS, the blockchain’s productivity improved, but this challenge is still prominent.
The energy consumption problem was somehow tackled during the Merge update, but that doesn’t totally make Ethereum environmentally friendly. The carbon emissions generated by Ethereum are still worrying, even if Ethereum is leveraging staking, not mining, which requires more energy.
Finally, security and complexity have been significantly challenging for users because the platform’s smart contracts can sometimes have vulnerabilities in their written system, allowing hackers to modify the terms. At the same time, Ethereum isn’t that easy to maintain, considering the technologies it uses to deploy applications.
POLKADOT PROVIDES A RELAY CHAIN, SUBSTRATE, AND ON-CHAIN UPGRADES
Polkadot was released much later than Ethereum in 2020 by one of Ethereum’s co-founders and has rapidly grown in popularity due to its features, which are similar to those of Ethereum and are more affordable and efficient for users.
The relay chain Polkadot operates on has the primary goal of connecting multiple blockchains to each other and ensuring communication is possible and efficient. This feature makes creation limitless, as blockchains can share their tools and technologies to implement better applications.
The Substrate is what makes Polkadot great. It allows anyone to create their own blockchain in easy steps, as specifically as they want. At the same time, the Substrate even attaches the protocol connection points to the relay chain.
At the same time, on-chain upgrades help reduce security risks during complex updates, which would revolutionize the updating system since it can update itself without compromising productivity or safety.
STILL, POLKADOT CAN’T FACE THE COMPETITION
Blockchain competition is considerably high in the crypto industry since there are so many options to choose from, and networks are continuously developed. That’s why Polkadot couldn’t break the mainstream barrier, because it more or less offered customers the same features as blockchains like Polygon or Avalanche.
Polkadot has also experienced some serious cyberattacks that set the platform back, draining it financially and affecting its reputation. Although the problem was solved and vulnerabilities are not present anymore, customers have lost interest in and trust in Polkadot.
Finally, the use of DOT currency is limited, so it cannot be leveraged at its full potential, like Ethereum. Indeed, the user barrier issue might have contributed to less innovation and the need for Polkadot.
WHY NOT BOTH?
While many see Polkadot as an Ethereum killer, it might be a good idea to use them both as investors and developers because their features can be completed this way. Polkadot is more affordable and faster, but Ethereum has all the tools needed to develop a decentralized application, for example. So, they can be used for diversification to build a long-term portfolio and also bring some value to people’s investments.
At the same time, Polkadot is compatible with Ethereum, meaning they can be connected and blended to create something unique and revolutionary. Therefore, Polkadot shouldn’t be overlooked because it’s less popular or useful for cryptocurrency; it has great potential to power up Ethereum’s functionalities.
However, both face security challenges, so collaborating would have to be done perfectly to ensure users aren’t affected and the blockchains aren’t compromised. Since Ethereum is still working on scalability and Polkadot might be susceptible to vulnerabilities, they might be more dangerous than useful if not blended properly.
WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON POLKADOT?
Ethereum became the second most popular and used cryptocurrency on the market, but its blockchain is also considerable in size and importance. In time, its productivity lowered due to a lack of scalability, so alternatives appeared, such as Polkadot, to counteract the increasing gas fees. Still, blockchains like Polkadot are struggling to break the mainstream barrier and have remained in the shadows, with few developers choosing it. However, its potential is given by its ability to connect multiple blockchains, which might boom in the future.
