Difference between various blockchain protocols

Learn about key difference between the most popular blockchain protocols
26 December 2017   1213

Since 2008, when the term bitcoin was coined by Satoshi Nakamoto as a novel electronic and completely peer-to-peer cash system free of trusted third party, the interest in the bitcoin and blockchain technology has increased. Recognizing it as a revolutionizing technology across the industries, especially in banking and finance, in terms of transactions and their privacy and security, researchers are not leaving any stone unturned to come up with exotic protocols with each passing day and each is the newer, advancer and better protocol than the previous. 


Hyperledger is the open source blockchain platform, began in 2015 by the Linux Foundation, in an effort to support the blockchain-based distributed ledgers. The protocol focuses ledgers developed to support international business transactions, catering leading financial, technological and supply chain businesses, with the objective of improving a lot of performance and reliability aspects. The project emphasizes on making collaborative efforts for making open standards and protocols, by offering a modular framework that backs various components for diverse uses, including a range of blockchains having their own storage and consensus models, and the services for access control, contracts and identity.


The starting of the bitcoin dates back to November 2008, when a thesis had been posted by Nakamoto on a US mailing list where the cryptographers share or exchange information. The thesis titled “Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system”, presented the following characteristics of this protocol:

  1. Enables transaction directly with no need of any trusted third party
  2. Enables the non-reversible transactions
  3. Decreases credit cost in minor casual transactions
  4. Decreases transaction fees
  5. Prevents double-spending

Bitcoins are virtual currency, also called cryptocurrency. These are distributed while exploring the value in the data managed by software. The start of 2016 witnessed the issuance of around 15.26 million BTC, equivalent to around 7 billion US Dollars. Major technologies that make Bitcoin include hash, digital signature, public-key cryptography, P2P and Proof of Work. This blend has developed a mechanism that prevents duplication of payments and data falsification, additioinally a mechanism that prevents malicious users, which are critical for the operating system like the one for the electronic money, having no central authority.


Ethereum is a public, open-source and block chain oriented distributed computing protocol that features smart contracts (scripting) functionality. The protocol has provided a decentralized virtual machine called the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which carried out Turning-complete scripts by using a global network of public nodes and the token called ether, also referred to as gas. Gas is used for preventing the spam on networks and allocating the resources in proportion to the incentive provided by the request. Bloomberg explains Ethereum as shared software that is used by all; however, is tamperproof. Ethereum is also used as a protocol for decentralized applications, smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations, with a number of functioning applications developed on it by March 2016, New York Times says.

Ripple Consensus Network

The Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP), issued in 2012, has been developed upon an open-source distributed consensus ledger, Internet protocol, and native currency termed as XRP (ripples). Ripple enables instant, safe and almost free global financial transactions of any scale without any chargeback. The protocol is embraced being able to support tokens presenting cryptocurrency, fiat currency, commodity and any other value unit like mobile minutes, frequent flier miles etc. By the end of 2017, Ripple is expected to be the third-biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, after the bitcoin and ethereum.

R3’s Corda

Corda by the Company R3 is the distributed ledger protocol that has been developed from the ground up for recording, supervising and synchronizing the financial agreements among regulated financial institutions. It is, by great deal, stimulated by, and captures the advantages of blockchain systems, with no design choices that turn blockchains unsuitable for a lot of banking scenarios. Corda’s design came up as a result of heavy analysis and prototyping with team members. It is now an open sourced protocol since the code matured further.

Accenture to File New Blockchain Patent

Technology, developed by the team, seeks to improve blockchain's security and stability
08 August 2018   263

Accenture, which works in the field of consulting and professional services, filed a patent application describing the technology of "Hardware blockchain accleration", designed to accelerate and improve the security of transactions in the blockchain using patented equipment. This is reported by CCN.

According to Accenture, this technology is necessary in connection with the new security threats that have emerged due to the rapid development of communication and electronic technologies. The patent application states that this technology provides safe and efficient execution of complex transactions not only between software processes and hardware systems, but also between people.

Accenture says its invention improves the security and scalability of the blockchain due to the fact that the encryption and decryption of data is carried out not only in hardware but also programmatically, so that the technology is not limited to either way.

As a result, the implementation shown … has increased security and scalability as compared to, for example, software only based security systems. For example, all or parts of the implementations may be circuitry that includes an instruction processor, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), microcontroller, or a microprocessor; or as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA); or as circuitry that includes discrete logic or other circuit components, including analog circuit components, digital circuit components or both; or any combination thereof.

Accenture Patent Application

Instructions for performing tasks can be stored on various media, including flash memory, magnetic and optical disks like hard disks, CD-ROMs, as well as EPROM, ROM and RAM.

Earlier, the company developed a blocking prototype, which allows administrators to edit, rewrite and even delete blocks from closed blockchains. Then one of the leaders of Accenture, Richard Lamb, said that the absolute immutability of the block could not suit financial institutions like banks.