One of the fastest-rising players in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space is Avalanche (AVAX). Boasting AVAX smart contract blockchain platform (1), AVAX has been listed as one of the “Ethereum killers’ that have the potential to de-throne the second most popular blockchain. Another of these well-known ETH killers is the blockchain project, Polkadot (DOT), which is also aiming to become the smart-contract provider of the future. When comparing two cryptocurrencies such as AVAX vs DOT, there are a number of variables to consider including price, market capitalization, transaction fees, and speed. When it comes to transactional costs, AVAX fees are much lower (2) than those of DOT. Looking at speeds, AVAX transactions appear to be twice as fast to complete as transactions on Polkadot. Variables like speed are very important in terms of scalability. If cryptocurrencies are to become mainstream, platforms will need to be able to handle millions of transactions with speed and efficiency. The price of the AVAX currency is currently around $75 USD (3) and the price of DOT is sitting at just about $20 USD (4). Both AVAX DOT seek to solve problems that have hampered the continued success of the Ethereum blockchain by delivering innovative solutions.

AVAX vs Solana vs DOT

Another competitor with AVAX and DOT is the blockchain project Solana (SOL) whose origins go as far back as 2017 (5). With a current price of around $109 USD (6) and a market capitalization of over $34 billion, Solana is by far the largest competitor in this list of three. SOL recently received a large setback that impacted the entire crypto market negatively when $320 million was stolen in the currency through software that was designed to connect the Ethereum and Solana blockchains (7). Solana also has other advantages in that transactions on its platform are more affordable and slightly faster than on AVAX (8). 

AVAX vs Elrond

Elrond (ELGD) is a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain founded by brothers Benjamin and Lucian Mincu along with Lucian Todea (9). It is a network that is focused, like crypto AVAX, on achieving better speed, scalability, and security. One of the things that makes AVAX unique is that its technology is based on three different blockchains operating together whereas most other similar platforms simply use a single chain. 

When comparing AVAX vs Elrond, the Avalanche blockchain appears to be a pretty clear winner when it comes to things like transaction fees or speeds. The Avalanche blockchain can complete transactions in merely 3 seconds (10), while Elrond takes 6. The difference may sound small, but when scaled to the massive numbers of transactions required for a global blockchain, every second counts. The overall utility of the Elrond blockchain is not, generally, quite as good as Avalanche’s (11). Elrond also possesses a much smaller market capitalization that is currently sitting around $3.1 billion (12).

Elrond vs Solana

When comparing Elrond vs Solana, the latter wins handily in the areas of transaction speeds and fees. Every transaction on the Solana blockchain takes around 1 second to complete compared to the 6 seconds required by the Elrond blockchain. Solana also possesses a much higher market cap, but this has not deterred the Elrond team. According to Elrond, the project has the capabilities to solve the scalability issues of Ethereum with a 1,000-times improvement (13). 

Elrond vs Cardano

Now, we’ll look at a comparison between Elrond vs Cardano (ADA) , another blockchain project in the list of Ethereum killers. As the third-largest cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin and Ethereum, it looks as though Cardano may be the closest competitor on the heels of Ethereum. The Cardano blockchain is far more energy-efficient than the number 2 blockchain because it relies on the proof-of-stake model (14). However, Cardano is slower and has more expensive transactions than the Elrond cryptocurrency (15). 

AVAX vs SOL

Because they are so popular and well-known, it could help to understand the dfiferences between AVAX vs SOL. Although SOL is one of the larger of the Ethereum killers and is more sizable than AVAX, there are reasons to think that Avalanche may wind up beating its competitors to the top spot. The technology behind Avalanche is one of its biggest advantages. It has a higher number of validators securing transactions on its blockchain than any other proof-of-stake protocol (16). Grayscale, one of the largest fund managers investing in cryptocurrencies, recently announced that it will be adding an Avalanche-related product for investors (17). This indicates the company’s confidence in the future of the AVAX blockchain and will most likely drive more demand for the AVAX currency, pushing its value up. Furthermore, the massive accounting and consulting firm Deloitte has recently announced a strategic alliance with Ava Labs (18), the organization behind AVAX, to build a new tool that assists local governments in responding to natural disasters and public health emergencies. 

Both AVAX and SOL are open-source projects. This means that the source code for both blockchains is not privately owned and can be viewed by anyone on the internet. Both blockchains are also dedicated to becoming the leading provider of smart contracts. Smart contracts are one of the building blocks of decentralized technology and finance in that they allow for events to occur within the blockchain software based on certain conditions. These smart contracts are programs that are stored on the blockchain and that execute when those conditions are met. This removes the need for an intermediary to facilitate a transaction and allows for decentralization. In terms of technical specifications and features, it would seem that currently Solana is ahead of Avalanche in a couple of ways. For instance, transaction fees are much lower on the Solana blockchain and the speed to complete transactions is currently higher (19). Nonetheless, Avalanche still has good fundamentals for improvement in the future and that is making investors like Grayscale take note. 

Avalanche vs Solana vs Polkadot

Avalanche vs Solana vs Polkadot are three of some of the biggest names on the Ethereum killer list. When comparing Avalanche vs. Solana vs. Polkadot, we are comparing a series of cryptocurrencies and blockchain platforms that are all competing with each other to provide the best services and solve the problems that have arisen with the Ethereum blockchain. We have briefly compared the AVAX cryptocurrency to the DOT coin. We have also looked at the match-up of AVAX vs Solana in order to see who among these three competitors has the best chance of ousting Ethereum and seizing the number 2 spot under the king of crypto, Bitcoin. 

Polkadot vs Avalanche

Now, we’ll take another look at Avalanche vs Polkadot. One of the unique offerings of Polkadot is its parachains (20). These are separate but parallel blockchains that are all interconnected. Having these multiple lanes allows the network to be more scalable and reduces the likelihood of problems due to overload. Investors have also started to pay attention to Polkadot with Europe’s largest telecom company purchasing a significant amount of DOT through a subsidiary and has committed infrastructure to support the Polkadot blockchain (21). Due to its faster speeds and lower transaction costs, Polkadot possesses a favorable outlook when comparing it to Ethereum. However, as described above, AVAX transaction speeds are about twice as fast as Polkadot and the Avalanche blockchain has more affordable fees. 

AVAX Ecosystem

The AVAX ecosystem includes all of the projects built on the Avalanche blockchain. According to the ecosystem’s website, Avalanche has supported 428 projects in the last 16 months and is rapidly growing (22). One of the big incentives for getting developers to start building apps on the AVAX blockchain is the fact that Avalanche is still compatible with Ethereum. 

As Avalanche is newer, some developers will feel more comfortable working on projects that are on a blockchain that doesn’t restrict them to just one platform. As the entire cryptocurrency space starts to become more mainstream, and Avalanche NFTs acquire more adoption from a wider base of users, blockchain projects such as AVAX are seeing an extremely positive AVAX price prediction (23). Experts agree that there are several strong reasons to expect good growth and strong performance from blockchain projects like Avalanche. 

Some may also wonder how to use AVAX. The native Avalanche cryptocurrency is actually quite easy to use on a variety of decentralized applications. The first thing you will need to set up is a special kind of wallet that can hold cryptocurrencies. There are hardware wallets and virtual wallets. Hardware wallets are considered the safer of the two because the private information associated with your tokens never leave the device and are thus less susceptible to theft (24). Using this crypto wallet, you can purchase AVAX tokens from a cryptocurrency exchange and then start engaging in transactions either on the Avalanche blockchain or even directly to other blockchains. 

AVAX vs ATOM

The comparison of AVAX vs ATOM is an interesting one. ATOM is the native token of the Cosmos blockchain which was first introduced in 2016. ATOM is another of the ATOM crypto competitors to Avalanche and is also based on a proof-of-stake model. Its market cap is currently smaller than that of AVAX, and its price is currently sitting at around $30 (25). In terms of speed, the AVAX cryptocurrency is far superior to Cosmos. The delay to complete a transaction for the Cosmos platform is 109 seconds, compared to the 3 seconds for the AVAX blockchain. There are many other features that can be examined when it comes to comparing these two Ethereum killers which both seek to improve on some of the flaws of the Ethereum blockchain and come out on top. 

Resources

(1) https://www.avax.network/
(2) https://coinexams.com/compare/polkadot-vs-avalanche
(3) https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/avalanche/
(4) https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polkadot-new/
(5) https://messari.io/asset/solana/profile
(6) https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/solana/
(7) https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/320-million-stolen-from-wormhole-bridge-linking-solana-and-ethereum.html
(8) https://coinexams.com/compare/solana-vs-avalanche
(9) https://medium.com/crypto-wisdom/all-about-elrond-crypto-project-4d61b3ae8d27
(10) https://coinexams.com/compare/elrond-vs-avalanche
(11) https://coinexams.com/compare/elrond-vs-avalanche
(12) https://www.coinbase.com/price/elrond-egld
(13) https://coincentral.com/elrond-review-what-is-elrond-and-how-does-the-egld-token-work/
(14) https://www.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/could-cardano-become-the-ethereum-killer-2639447
(15) https://coinexams.com/compare/elrond-vs-cardano
(16) https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/avax-avalanche-replace-ethereum-solana-131500069.html
(17) https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/avax-avalanche-replace-ethereum-solana-131500069.html
(18) https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/press-releases/deloitte-ava-labs-blockchain-state-local-government-natural-disaster-recovery.html
(19) https://coinexams.com/compare/solana-vs-avalanche
(20) https://www.gobankingrates.com/investing/crypto/what-is-polkadot/
(21) https://www.gobankingrates.com/investing/crypto/what-is-polkadot/
(22) https://www.avax-projects.com/
(23) https://www.yahoo.com/video/avalanche-avax-price-prediction-2022-175010529.html#:~:text=What%27s%20next%20for%20Avalanche%20(AVAX)%20in%202022%3F&text=Other%20forecasts%20for%20next%20year,the%20bullish%20sentiment%20will%20continue.
(24) https://docs.avax.network/learn/getting-started/
(25) https://www.coinbase.com/price/cosmos
(26) https://coinexams.com/compare/cosmos-vs-avalanche