Top Blockchain Projects, Platforms, and Companies in 2024

Blockchain tech is known to have the capacity to bring high transparency, security, and trustworthiness to business processes. Many companies have already saved time and money and increased their efficiency by launching blockchain projects.

Beyond cryptocurrency trading and finance, blockchain now influences a variety of industries from logistics, real estate and healthcare to art, media & entertainment, eSports, and more. Businesses that have been disappointed in centralized instruments are actively investing in blockchain-powered projects.

Read on to find out more about the most promising blockchain major platforms, projects, and the businesses that are taking advantage of these revolutionary tools.

Blockchain technology: stats and trends for 2023 and beyond

The blockchain technology market is set to expand from $10.41 billion in 2023 to a staggering $403.36 billion by 2030. This exponential growth stems not only from cryptocurrency trading but also from the development and use of decentralized apps.

The FinTech industry is the apparent leader according to the number of transactions and deals made. Blockchain is very popular in infrastructure solutions and cybersecurity applications as well.

One of the leading sectors is supply chain management. Recently, a variety of projects have emerged that enable companies to track and trace their goods from the manufacturer to the point of sale. Observing the transportation path of items in real time gives business owners the opportunity to identify and eliminate inefficiencies.

Healthcare is another avenue for blockchain improvements as this technology provides a better way of storing and extracting medical history data. Patients now have easier access to their records and can easily share them with medical experts in a secure manner.

Best blockchain platforms to pay attention to in 2024

Blockchain platforms serve as the foundation for building decentralized applications. The platforms provide an underlying blockchain network that serves as data storage and supports the transactions made by users. Every blockchain platform has its own unique features that can be beneficial for certain types of projects.

Let’s take a look at the blockchain platforms currently dominating the market.

Ethereum

Ethereum is a well-established general-purpose blockchain platform. It ranks second after Bitcoin in terms of popularity and mainstream use by the crypto community. It also takes after Bitcoin by offering the same high level of decentralization. Ethereum’s top differentiator is its advanced smart contract capabilities which make it a top blockchain platform for decentralized app development.

Developers use the platform to create dApps for the financial market, blockchain games, crypto wallet applications, and more. Ethereum lures them in with its large community and expansive documentation with guides covering almost every use case.

Most of the products in the up-and-coming world of DeFi now run on Ethereum. Having a long history of serving the crypto community, Ethereum has built up an impressive infrastructure and connected system of services provided through decentralized apps. That’s why most creators go with building dApps on Ethereum, wanting their users to have access to its large ecosystem.

Polkadot

Polkadot was designed to feature an interconnected network of application-specific subchains and also enable interoperability with other blockchain networks. The subchains are responsible for delivering the application logic and functionality and are plugged into a single base chain. The base chain delivers Polkadot’s consensus and voting logic.

Such a unique architecture design makes Polkadot a prime platform for connecting private, public, consortium, and permissionless networks into one ecosystem. Partnered blockchains can operate independently, yet have the opportunity to exchange information and carry out cross-chain transactions in a secure and private manner.

Hyperledger Fabric

Hyperledger Fabric is the platform of choice for enterprise projects because of the granular privacy features it provides. Its key feature is its modular architecture that gives blockchain network owners the ability to incorporate the plug-and-play components they need.

Hyperledger works well in closed corporate environments where access to data is prohibited outside the organization but there’s a management need for decentralization within. Its open smart contracts model is good for maintaining internal affairs.

The platform allows managers to assign permissions and isolate certain transactions for data privacy. Private data collections can be created to share information with authorized groups or specific users.

Flow

The Flow platform was created by the CryptoKitties project owner, Dapper Labs, to battle Ethereum’s scalability problem. Because of its friendly interface, low fees, and high transaction rate, the platform has become very popular amongst NFT creators.

The NFT craze has allowed Flow to legitimize itself and become one of the most promising startup blockchain projects. NBA Top Shot, a sports collectibles marketplace launched on Flow, instantly caught everyone’s eye. The marketplace has garnered over $30 million in collectible sales.

Flow’s owners plan to create a ‘fully open, on-chain virtual metaverse’. This means that the state of the blockchain will be available as a whole for any developer to access and build on it. All tokens will be able to openly interact and be combined for use in transactions. At the same time, smart contracts could be built on top of other contracts to support more complex logic.

Blockchain projects redefining boundaries

We’ve mentioned that blockchain applications are no longer limited to finance. Recent breakthrough projects tackle issues that would never have been seen as blockchain prospects. Let’s take a look at some projects that inspire us to push the boundaries even further.

Butterfly Protocol

The Butterfly project is pioneering a decentralized approach to internet domain regulation, offering a censorship-resistant alternative to traditional namespace authorities. By utilizing cryptocurrency, individuals can secure a domain permanently, eliminating recurring fees and establishing undisputed ownership.

This platform not only enables users to acquire and manage domains and subdomains for various purposes, including personal portfolios or social media, but it also empowers creators. They can build community-driven forums and entertainment platforms in a decentralized space, ensuring their content remains unaltered and accessible, free from the threat of shutdowns or external control.

OriginStamp

OriginStamp is a blockchain project that allows users to protect the originality of documents. After a document is uploaded into the system, it is timestamped and recorded on the immutable blockchain ledger. So there is absolutely no way it can be tampered with.

The project supports a variety of platforms from where you can upload a document, including Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive, and others. The OriginStamp team recently expanded the project to provide timestamps for other digital assets, including audio recordings, photos, video, and more. The decentralized app allows you to upload files in bulk and create timestamps for multiple documents at the same time.

By using OriginStamp, companies can easily keep track of their databases, upload various types of data, and link it all together logically.

GrainChain

GrainChain is a blockchain solution that offers complete traceability of goods within agricultural supply chains. The platform provides reliable data on the product’s origins for merchants and suppliers and also streamlines payment processes.

There’s quite a lot of players involved in an agricultural supply chain, so uniting them under one decentralized roof seems to be a logical way forward. GrainChain’s platform provides the specific tools and apps necessary for each user type.

Aside from providing traceability and ensuring the quality of delivered goods, the project also helps farmers and producers. It allows them to authenticate the quality of their products and demand increased price margins for their work. GrainChain covers every link in the supply chain and rewards participants based on their contributions.

World-renowned companies and their blockchain projects

Major players such as BMW, General Electric, Google, and Honeywell are stepping into the spotlight by adopting blockchain technology. Let’s explore how these corporations are embracing this innovation.

BMW

BMW is using blockchain technology to track vehicle components, parts, and materials. Together with Honda and Ford, the company is also part of the Mobile Open Blockchain Initiative which aims to benefit car manufacturers and enhance their operations.

BMW also launched a vehicle digital identity blockchain project. Its goal is to track every event throughout a vehicle’s lifecycle from the moment it was manufactured to its purchase at the dealership and then to everyday maintenance by the car’s owner.

This project can potentially bring value to every party involved in the process. The driver could opt to share information on the vehicle’s performance and their own driving experience. A blockchain database could record location, time, speed, engine, chassis, and brake parameters.

Manufacturers can use the data to improve the design of their parts. At the same time, maintenance services will have all the information they need to troubleshoot issues.

General Electric

General Electric’s aviation department is actively using blockchain technology to create a digital trail for airplane engines and parts. Every engine or part gets its own digital profile which records its history from the manufacturing process to maintenance records, to the moment it’s disassembled from a plane.

This project has solved a very important problem since airplane parts without certified documentation are very hard to dispose of or sell back into the market. So General Electric, just like any other aviation company, had to store this orphaned inventory in a special warehouse. Now, using blockchain, they can avoid retired engines and parts sitting unused in storage facilities.

Google

Google Cloud has a BigQuery service, which is Google’s fully managed, serverless data warehouse. Initiated in 2018, it provides a panoramic view of the crypto ecosystem, catering to professionals seeking in-depth cross-chain insights. The service negates the need for personal blockchain infrastructure, allowing intricate queries on trends, transactions, and smart contracts directly through BigQuery.

In September 2023, Google Cloud broadened this service to include data from eleven new blockchains, intensifying its support for the Web3 community. In this significant update, chains like Avalanche, Arbitrum, Cronos, Polkadot, Near, Optimism, and Tron were integrated, enhancing the scope of data available.

Google simplifies the extraction of on-chain data, promoting off-chain analysis of asset movements, token popularity, and more. They’ve also refined existing datasets, such as Bitcoin’s, and introduced managed datasets, like an enriched Ethereum set, ensuring precise, comprehensive analytics and addressing the need for accurate asset evaluations.

Honeywell

Honeywell has launched a blockchain-powered marketplace for aerospace parts and equipment. It collects information about aircraft parts from various sources and presents it to potential customers on the platform. Using blockchain allows them to aggregate information that often comes from competing market players, and keeps it private.

Honeywell actually went on to further develop the project after receiving positive feedback from the aerospace and aviation community. After carefully examining the activities performed by experts in the airline, defense, and related markets, they’ve come up with a new concept. The company’s project is aimed to provide an integrated dynamic solution with flight scheduling and planning features.

Conclusion

Blockchain projects have become very progressive and provide innovative solutions to known challenges in the industry. Most of them propose making all data publicly available and erasing boundaries for sharing information. This limitless transparency, however, sometimes comes with a price.

Large corporations must beware of giving up too much control over their data and technology. In most cases, consulting with an experienced blockchain development company can provide the necessary perspective, offer valuable insights, and generate sufficient momentum to propel forward.

Make your assessments, weigh up all the options, but don’t let doubts and concerns drive you away from innovation. Remember, it’s the first-mover advantage that is the greatest ingredient for a project’s success.