Competition and Development of Public Chains

In recent months, the crypto market has seen a flurry of hot topics, with tenfold and hundredfold coins emerging one after another, leaving even seasoned insiders overwhelmed. A closer analysis reveals that these hot projects essentially stem from the competition among underlying public chains. When a public chain develops well and gains popularity, it attracts a large influx of funds seeking investment and development opportunities.

Since 2017, Ethereum has been recognized as the king of public chains. Whether it is in terms of market value performance, underlying technology, or the richness of ecological applications, it is in a leading position. However, the recent situation has changed. Major trading platforms have launched their own public chains, laying out in the DeFi field. These emerging public chains are developing rapidly with their speed, low fees, and large user base, diverting a significant amount of Ethereum's traffic. At the same time, Polkadot, as a rising star, has also performed remarkably, with soaring coin prices and a rich ecosystem, attracting numerous developers. Traditional public chains like Tron are also continually striving to launch various innovative applications such as DeFi and NFTs, strengthening their capabilities.

As the pioneer of smart contracts, Ethereum hosts over 90% of DeFi applications. However, with the surge in user scale, its inherent weaknesses have also been laid bare:

1. Low throughput and network congestion. Ethereum's TPS is only 15-30, far below traditional internet applications, making it difficult to meet the trading needs of DeFi users.

2. High transaction fees. Due to network congestion, users have to increase Gas fees to speed up transaction times, causing costs to soar to tens of dollars or even higher.

3. High threshold, complex operations. Most DeFi project interfaces are in English, and the operation processes are complicated, making it difficult for ordinary users to get started.

These issues provide opportunities for other public chains. Binance Smart Chain (BSC) has emerged as a strong contender, attracting a large number of users with its low costs, high efficiency, and diverse projects. Its daily trading volume has exceeded that of Ethereum, and its ecosystem covers multiple fields such as DeFi, NFTs, and gaming. Huobi Eco Chain (Heco) has also developed rapidly, deploying several popular projects with a total locked value of $2.8 billion.

Polkadot, known as the "blockchain of blockchains," aims to connect all blockchains and create a new ecosystem. Its token DOT has increased in price by more than 10 times in six months. Tron is also making continuous progress, especially excelling in TRC20-USDT with fast speeds and low fees.

In the face of competition, Ethereum is also actively exploring scaling solutions. Founder Vitalik Buterin believes that the most urgent issue is to solve the Rollups problem, rather than directly advancing Ethereum 2.0. Through Layer 2 solutions such as Rollups, Ethereum is expected to enhance its scalability by a hundred times while maintaining decentralization and security.

In addition, there are innovative public chains on the market such as Conflux, NEAR, and Kortho, each contributing to the blockchain ecosystem with unique technologies and application scenarios.

The competition among public chains drives the continuous advancement of blockchain applications and underlying technologies. In the future, only public chains that can continuously improve technology, enrich ecological applications, and promote the mainstreaming of blockchain will win users' recognition and market favor.