A list of public, permissionless, permissioned and private Blockchains

The blockchain frameworks are a software solution that simplifies the development, deployment, and support of technically complex products. Usually, the framework contains only the blockchain framework and its basic modules, and all specific components are implemented by the developer based on them. Thereby, a high development rate is achieved while maintaining the stability and performance of the final product.

1. Hyperledger

Developer: Linux Foundation
Founded: 2016
Network Type: Public and Private
Source model: Open Source

In 2016, the Linux Foundation started the Hyperledger project. Hyperledger is open-source and doesn’t support any cryptocurrency. It was designed as an environment where different communities and individual developers can meet and work together on blockchain technologies. The result of this cooperation is a set of blockchain tools for building financial, healthcare, banking, IoT, supply chain, and other projects. This project is not one tool but a set of libraries, instruments, frameworks, and interfaces. The most well-known and commonly used Hyperledger frameworks are: Hyperledger Sawtooth. Intel has created a blockchain suite with a modular architecture based on the PoET consensus algorithm. Hyperledger Iroha. Several Japanese companies cooperated to create this project. The result is a mobile-oriented blockchain framework that’s easy to implement into an existing solution. Hyperledger Fabric. Created by IBM, this is the most famous instrument among all Hyperledger frameworks. Fabric is a great solution for creating highly scalable apps. Hyperledger Burrow. This tool was designed by Monax in cooperation with Intel. It operates as a permissioned Ethereum smart contract blockchain node.

2. Ethereum

Developer: Ethereum Developers
Founded: 2013
Network Type: Public and Permissionless
Source model: Open Source

Founded in late 2013, Ethereum is an open-source and blockchain based distributed computing platform proposed by Vitalk Buterin, a 22-year old Russian-Canadian programmer. Ethereum is known for running smart contracts on a custom-built blockchain. Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) provides the run-time environment to smart contracts in Ethereum. Every node within the network has to run an EVM implementation. Though enterprises have adopted Ethereum widely, it is essential to understand that Ethereum is a public blockchain platform, built for restricted access versus mass consumption. Moreover, it is the Proof of Work based platform, which is comparatively slower in terms of speed. But it might change its consensus algorithm to Proof of Stake in the coming years. Ethereum has also built a large online support community to keep everyone up-to-date with product enhancements and updates.

3. Multichain

Developer: Coin Science
Founded: 2013
Network Type: Private
Source model: Open Source

The MultiChain framework belongs to the Coin Science company. This is an out-of-the-box solution you can apply to build and deploy a private blockchain for your company or for use by several companies. MultiChain was created to overcome major obstacles to deploying blockchains in the financial sector. The framework offers a turnkey package with the necessary privacy and access levels. For ease of use, MultiChain has a simple API, a command-line interface, and supports almost all server operating systems. MultiChain is based on the mining principle and offers privacy and openness with a feature for managing user permissions. Participants can manage the size of blocks, so there are no problems with scaling.

4. Eris

Developer: Monax Industries
Founded: 2014
Network Type: Permissioned
Source model: Open Source

Eris is free software that allows anyone to build their own secure, low-cost, run-anywhere applications using blockchain and smart contract technology.When using default platform architecture, whether marketplaces, exchanges, government services, or on-demand commercial services, we wholly rely on a service provider to manage the business processes required for the system but with Eris, communities, businesses, governments, and anybody else can use smart contracts to automate their business processes between organizations. All on their own.It is a controllable, Proof-of-Stake based blockchain design.

5. R3 Corda

Developer: R3
Founded: 2015
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Corda is a product of R3. The company wanted to design a framework specifically for the financial sphere and wanted Corda to work as a mediator and remove expensive business transactions. The framework allows businesses to reduce transaction and record-keeping costs and streamline business operations. Corda is an open-source technology that can be used to store, manage, control, and synchronize financial obligations between different organizations. It helps organizations build an open network to transfer value directly with trust. And you can get it all with complete privacy.

6. OpenChain

Developer: Coinprism
Founded: 2000
Network Type: Private Source model: Open Source

This framework was launched by Coinprism. It’s designed for issuing and managing digital assets. The Openchain distributed ledger aims to meet the needs of banking establishments and financial institutions. Openchain solutions allow financial establishments to effectively manage all financial processes and enhance anti-fraud and anti-money laundering systems. It’s a great option if you need to optimize your organization’s infrastructure and adapt it to different needs. Openchain relies on a partitioned consensus algorithm where every instance has only one authority with the right to validate transactions. This creates a client-server architecture which, as the framework developers claim, is more reliable than the usual peer-to-peer architecture. The developers also promise full control over the infrastructure with the required level of transparency.

7. Exonum

Developer: Bitfury Group
Founded: 2017
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Exonum is a blockchain framework developed for enterprise projects and launched in 2017 by the Bitfury Group. The Exonum source code is absolutely open, as are all application programming interfaces (APIs). Exonum provides access not only to the whole codebase but to client software for blockchain management. It was built with the help of Rust, one of the safest and fastest programming languages. Rust is currently faster than Java, C, C++, and even Go.As a developer, you can use Exonum to build solutions for FinTech, GovTech, LegalTech, and many other fields.Exonum avoids the possibility of double-entry bookkeeping and all sorts of document forgery.

8. Graphene

Developer: Cryptonomex
Founded: 2012
Network Type: Public and Private
Source model: Open Source

Cryptonomex launched the Graphene platform for deploying blockchains. This framework is mostly written in C++ and has a modular structure which makes it very adaptable. Initially, Graphene was created as the foundation of Bitshares, a cryptocurrency exchange. Yet the platform became so popular that it has found many applications in different areas.Graphene offers a long list of financial services. And a lot of financial establishments choose Graphene because of its transparency and reliability.

9. Ripple

Developer: Ripple Labs
Founded: 2012
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Ripple is aimed at connecting payment providers, digital asset exchanges, banks, and corporations via a blockchain network, RippleNet without any chargebacks. It allows global payments through a digital asset called XRP or Ripple. Built on the advanced blockchain technology, XRP is more scalable and faster than other blockchains. Ripple uses probabilistic voting to reach the consensus between nodes.

10. Quorum

Developer: Ethereum Developers and JP Morgan Chase
Founded:
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Founded by J.P. Morgan, Quorum is an enterprise-focused version of Ethereum. It modifies Ethereum’s core and therefore, can incorporate the Ethereum updates seamlessly and quickly. Quorum is open-source and free to use the blockchain platform in perpetuity. Unlike other blockchain platforms, it uses vote based and different algorithms to process hundreds of transactions per second. Designed to be permissioned, the networks using Quorum won’t be open to everyone. It can handle applications requiring high throughput processing and speed of private transactions. Quorum resolves the issue of the confidentiality of records that Ethereum and other blockchains failed to handle by introducing private and public on-chain transactions.

11. EOS

Developer: EOSIO Core Arbitration Forum
Founded: 2018
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Launched as open-source software in June 2018, EOS is a blockchain platform founded by a private company, Block.one. It is designed for the development of dApps (Decentralized applications). The company distributed one billion ERC-20 tokens to ensure widespread distribution of their cryptocurrency and allow anyone to use the EOS blockchain after it was released. The goal of the platform is to offer decentralized application’s hosting, decentralized storage of enterprise solutions and smart contract capability, solving the scalability issues of Ethereum and Bitcoin. Also, it eliminates the fees for all users, i.e., no one needs to pay to avail the benefits of a dApp based on EOS. EOS accomplishes consensus by using multi-threading as well as a delegated proof-of-stake algorithm. They have their own community forum named as EOS Forum.

12. Stellar

Developer: Stellar Development Foundation
Founded: 2014
Network Type: Public and Private
Source model: Open Source

Stellar is a distributed blockchain based ledger used for facilitating cross-asset transfers of value. It can also deal with exchanges between cryptocurrencies and fiat based currencies. It is possible to build banking tools, smart devices and mobile wallets using the Stellar network. Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) makes it possible to reach consensus without depending on a closed system for recording financial transactions. Having a set of provable safety properties, SCP optimizes for safety over liveness by halting the progress of the network until a consensus can be reached in case of misbehaving nodes or partitions. As compared to the decentralized proof-of-work and proof-of-stake algorithms, SCP has modest financial and computing requirements, reducing the barrier to entry and opening up the financial system to new participants.

13. Dragonchain

Developer: Dragonchain Foundation
Founded: 2014
Network Type: Public, Private and Hybrid
Source model: Open Source

Dragonchain’s Blockchain as a Service Platform is designed to provide developers and enterprises the useful resources required to develop blockchain applications in minutes. Originally developed at the Walt Disney Company in 2014 and open-sourced later in 2016, the Dragonchain platform has been specifically designed for enterprises. It’s public/private hybrid blockchain platform offers ease of use and high performance to develop and deploy blockchain apps and microservice-based smart contracts. Originally developed at the Walt Disney Company in 2014 and open-sourced later in 2016, the Dragonchain platform has been specifically designed for enterprises. It’s public/private hybrid blockchain platform offers ease of use and high performance to develop and deploy blockchain apps and microservice-based smart contracts. The platform can support any programming language, including Python, Node.js, Java, C# and Go. With five levels of consensus, Dragonchain offers a wide spectrum of trust and allows users to use multiple proof protocols.

14. NEO

Developer: On-chain governance through votes of NEO holders and Off-chain governance through NEO Foundation support.
Founded: 2014
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Neo was founded by the same duo who established blockchain R&D company OnChain in Shanghai – Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang. Designed to develop scalable decentralized applications, the base asset of the NEO blockchain is NEO token. The role of NEO token is to generate GAS tokens which can be used to pay transaction fees to run applications on the network. Neo uses Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance as its consensus algorithm. The creators of Neo selected this protocol because it allows better performance and scaling as compared to other consensus mechanisms.

15. Bitcoin

Developer: Satoshi Nakamoto
Founded: 2009
Network Type: Public
Source model: Open Source

The framework of the first and most famous cryptocurrency in the world. It was created in 2009 by a person or a group of people under the common pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin blockchain is the progenitor of a significant part of the first twenty of cryptocurrencies. Now the Bitcoin framework is losing in popularity with the rest of the blockchains, since it is old and slow. Bitcoin has the largest capitalization and audience, and it also develops, as a decentralized system – the community decides in which direction the network will develop, what update to bring and how to wait.

16. IOTA

Developer: IOTA Foundation
Founded: 2016
Network Type: Public and Private
Source model: Open Source

Platform, customized to the work of Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is a global add-on over the normal Internet, whose users are not people of flesh and blood, but digital devices – from electronic watches on your wrist to a blast furnace in the production hall. The workshop itself can also be digitized and connected to the IoT. In its structure, the IOTA framework is not similar to Ethereum, Bitcoin, or other popular blockchains, since there is no traditional linear block chain structure. This structure limits the scalability of the network, so IOTA instead uses the Tangle algorithm: for the user to receive confirmation for his transaction, he must confirm the transactions of two other users.

The blockchain frameworks are a software solution that simplifies the development, deployment, and support of technically complex products. Usually, the framework contains only the blockchain framework and its basic modules, and all specific components are implemented by the developer based on them. Thereby, a high development rate is achieved while maintaining the stability and performance of the final product.

1. Hyperledger

Developer: Linux Foundation
Founded: 2016
Network Type: Public and Private
Source model: Open Source

In 2016, the Linux Foundation started the Hyperledger project. Hyperledger is open-source and doesn’t support any cryptocurrency. It was designed as an environment where different communities and individual developers can meet and work together on blockchain technologies. The result of this cooperation is a set of blockchain tools for building financial, healthcare, banking, IoT, supply chain, and other projects. This project is not one tool but a set of libraries, instruments, frameworks, and interfaces. The most well-known and commonly used Hyperledger frameworks are: Hyperledger Sawtooth. Intel has created a blockchain suite with a modular architecture based on the PoET consensus algorithm. Hyperledger Iroha. Several Japanese companies cooperated to create this project. The result is a mobile-oriented blockchain framework that’s easy to implement into an existing solution. Hyperledger Fabric. Created by IBM, this is the most famous instrument among all Hyperledger frameworks. Fabric is a great solution for creating highly scalable apps. Hyperledger Burrow. This tool was designed by Monax in cooperation with Intel. It operates as a permissioned Ethereum smart contract blockchain node.

2. Ethereum

Developer: Ethereum Developers
Founded: 2013
Network Type: Public and Permissionless
Source model: Open Source

Founded in late 2013, Ethereum is an open-source and blockchain based distributed computing platform proposed by Vitalk Buterin, a 22-year old Russian-Canadian programmer. Ethereum is known for running smart contracts on a custom-built blockchain. Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) provides the run-time environment to smart contracts in Ethereum. Every node within the network has to run an EVM implementation. Though enterprises have adopted Ethereum widely, it is essential to understand that Ethereum is a public blockchain platform, built for restricted access versus mass consumption. Moreover, it is the Proof of Work based platform, which is comparatively slower in terms of speed. But it might change its consensus algorithm to Proof of Stake in the coming years. Ethereum has also built a large online support community to keep everyone up-to-date with product enhancements and updates.

3. Multichain

Developer: Coin Science
Founded: 2013
Network Type: Private
Source model: Open Source

The MultiChain framework belongs to the Coin Science company. This is an out-of-the-box solution you can apply to build and deploy a private blockchain for your company or for use by several companies. MultiChain was created to overcome major obstacles to deploying blockchains in the financial sector. The framework offers a turnkey package with the necessary privacy and access levels. For ease of use, MultiChain has a simple API, a command-line interface, and supports almost all server operating systems. MultiChain is based on the mining principle and offers privacy and openness with a feature for managing user permissions. Participants can manage the size of blocks, so there are no problems with scaling.

4. Eris

Developer: Monax Industries
Founded: 2014
Network Type: Permissioned
Source model: Open Source

Eris is free software that allows anyone to build their own secure, low-cost, run-anywhere applications using blockchain and smart contract technology.When using default platform architecture, whether marketplaces, exchanges, government services, or on-demand commercial services, we wholly rely on a service provider to manage the business processes required for the system but with Eris, communities, businesses, governments, and anybody else can use smart contracts to automate their business processes between organizations. All on their own.It is a controllable, Proof-of-Stake based blockchain design.

5. R3 Corda

Developer: R3
Founded: 2015
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Corda is a product of R3. The company wanted to design a framework specifically for the financial sphere and wanted Corda to work as a mediator and remove expensive business transactions. The framework allows businesses to reduce transaction and record-keeping costs and streamline business operations. Corda is an open-source technology that can be used to store, manage, control, and synchronize financial obligations between different organizations. It helps organizations build an open network to transfer value directly with trust. And you can get it all with complete privacy.

6. OpenChain

Developer: Coinprism
Founded: 2000
Network Type: Private Source model: Open Source

This framework was launched by Coinprism. It’s designed for issuing and managing digital assets. The Openchain distributed ledger aims to meet the needs of banking establishments and financial institutions. Openchain solutions allow financial establishments to effectively manage all financial processes and enhance anti-fraud and anti-money laundering systems. It’s a great option if you need to optimize your organization’s infrastructure and adapt it to different needs. Openchain relies on a partitioned consensus algorithm where every instance has only one authority with the right to validate transactions. This creates a client-server architecture which, as the framework developers claim, is more reliable than the usual peer-to-peer architecture. The developers also promise full control over the infrastructure with the required level of transparency.

7. Exonum

Developer: Bitfury Group
Founded: 2017
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Exonum is a blockchain framework developed for enterprise projects and launched in 2017 by the Bitfury Group. The Exonum source code is absolutely open, as are all application programming interfaces (APIs). Exonum provides access not only to the whole codebase but to client software for blockchain management. It was built with the help of Rust, one of the safest and fastest programming languages. Rust is currently faster than Java, C, C++, and even Go.As a developer, you can use Exonum to build solutions for FinTech, GovTech, LegalTech, and many other fields.Exonum avoids the possibility of double-entry bookkeeping and all sorts of document forgery.

8. Graphene

Developer: Cryptonomex
Founded: 2012
Network Type: Public and Private
Source model: Open Source

Cryptonomex launched the Graphene platform for deploying blockchains. This framework is mostly written in C++ and has a modular structure which makes it very adaptable. Initially, Graphene was created as the foundation of Bitshares, a cryptocurrency exchange. Yet the platform became so popular that it has found many applications in different areas.Graphene offers a long list of financial services. And a lot of financial establishments choose Graphene because of its transparency and reliability.

9. Ripple

Developer: Ripple Labs
Founded: 2012
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Ripple is aimed at connecting payment providers, digital asset exchanges, banks, and corporations via a blockchain network, RippleNet without any chargebacks. It allows global payments through a digital asset called XRP or Ripple. Built on the advanced blockchain technology, XRP is more scalable and faster than other blockchains. Ripple uses probabilistic voting to reach the consensus between nodes.

10. Quorum

Developer: Ethereum Developers and JP Morgan Chase
Founded:
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Founded by J.P. Morgan, Quorum is an enterprise-focused version of Ethereum. It modifies Ethereum’s core and therefore, can incorporate the Ethereum updates seamlessly and quickly. Quorum is open-source and free to use the blockchain platform in perpetuity. Unlike other blockchain platforms, it uses vote based and different algorithms to process hundreds of transactions per second. Designed to be permissioned, the networks using Quorum won’t be open to everyone. It can handle applications requiring high throughput processing and speed of private transactions. Quorum resolves the issue of the confidentiality of records that Ethereum and other blockchains failed to handle by introducing private and public on-chain transactions.

11. EOS

Developer: EOSIO Core Arbitration Forum
Founded: 2018
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Launched as open-source software in June 2018, EOS is a blockchain platform founded by a private company, Block.one. It is designed for the development of dApps (Decentralized applications). The company distributed one billion ERC-20 tokens to ensure widespread distribution of their cryptocurrency and allow anyone to use the EOS blockchain after it was released. The goal of the platform is to offer decentralized application’s hosting, decentralized storage of enterprise solutions and smart contract capability, solving the scalability issues of Ethereum and Bitcoin. Also, it eliminates the fees for all users, i.e., no one needs to pay to avail the benefits of a dApp based on EOS. EOS accomplishes consensus by using multi-threading as well as a delegated proof-of-stake algorithm. They have their own community forum named as EOS Forum.

12. Stellar

Developer: Stellar Development Foundation
Founded: 2014
Network Type: Public and Private
Source model: Open Source

Stellar is a distributed blockchain based ledger used for facilitating cross-asset transfers of value. It can also deal with exchanges between cryptocurrencies and fiat based currencies. It is possible to build banking tools, smart devices and mobile wallets using the Stellar network. Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) makes it possible to reach consensus without depending on a closed system for recording financial transactions. Having a set of provable safety properties, SCP optimizes for safety over liveness by halting the progress of the network until a consensus can be reached in case of misbehaving nodes or partitions. As compared to the decentralized proof-of-work and proof-of-stake algorithms, SCP has modest financial and computing requirements, reducing the barrier to entry and opening up the financial system to new participants.

13. Dragonchain

Developer: Dragonchain Foundation
Founded: 2014
Network Type: Public, Private and Hybrid
Source model: Open Source

Dragonchain’s Blockchain as a Service Platform is designed to provide developers and enterprises the useful resources required to develop blockchain applications in minutes. Originally developed at the Walt Disney Company in 2014 and open-sourced later in 2016, the Dragonchain platform has been specifically designed for enterprises. It’s public/private hybrid blockchain platform offers ease of use and high performance to develop and deploy blockchain apps and microservice-based smart contracts. Originally developed at the Walt Disney Company in 2014 and open-sourced later in 2016, the Dragonchain platform has been specifically designed for enterprises. It’s public/private hybrid blockchain platform offers ease of use and high performance to develop and deploy blockchain apps and microservice-based smart contracts. The platform can support any programming language, including Python, Node.js, Java, C# and Go. With five levels of consensus, Dragonchain offers a wide spectrum of trust and allows users to use multiple proof protocols.

14. NEO

Developer: On-chain governance through votes of NEO holders and Off-chain governance through NEO Foundation support.
Founded: 2014
Network Type: Permissioned and Private
Source model: Open Source

Neo was founded by the same duo who established blockchain R&D company OnChain in Shanghai – Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang. Designed to develop scalable decentralized applications, the base asset of the NEO blockchain is NEO token. The role of NEO token is to generate GAS tokens which can be used to pay transaction fees to run applications on the network. Neo uses Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance as its consensus algorithm. The creators of Neo selected this protocol because it allows better performance and scaling as compared to other consensus mechanisms.

15. Bitcoin

Developer: Satoshi Nakamoto
Founded: 2009
Network Type: Public
Source model: Open Source

The framework of the first and most famous cryptocurrency in the world. It was created in 2009 by a person or a group of people under the common pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin blockchain is the progenitor of a significant part of the first twenty of cryptocurrencies. Now the Bitcoin framework is losing in popularity with the rest of the blockchains, since it is old and slow. Bitcoin has the largest capitalization and audience, and it also develops, as a decentralized system – the community decides in which direction the network will develop, what update to bring and how to wait.

16. IOTA

Developer: IOTA Foundation
Founded: 2016
Network Type: Public and Private
Source model: Open Source

Platform, customized to the work of Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is a global add-on over the normal Internet, whose users are not people of flesh and blood, but digital devices – from electronic watches on your wrist to a blast furnace in the production hall. The workshop itself can also be digitized and connected to the IoT. In its structure, the IOTA framework is not similar to Ethereum, Bitcoin, or other popular blockchains, since there is no traditional linear block chain structure. This structure limits the scalability of the network, so IOTA instead uses the Tangle algorithm: for the user to receive confirmation for his transaction, he must confirm the transactions of two other users.