Ethereum has been touted as “the cryptocurrency to beat” for several years now. It has been clear for a while that Ethereum’s creeping gas prices and high energy consumption make it more likely it will lose its position in the future.

Which Successors are there?
Before we go into detail about the different platforms that the crypto community has marked out as a threat to Ethereum, it’s important to first understand the key features of an “Ethereum Successor”:

• It’s decentralized
• You can be sure
• It allows smart contracts
• It provides a platform for decentralized apps (DApps).
• It can be scaled
• Transactions can be made quickly and cost-effectively with this system.
• It integrates with other blockchains

There are currently three top platforms involved in the battle to become the “Ethereum Killer”:

• The, which is a public platform for blockchain technology with an indigenous currency known as SOL. This is a Proof-of-Stake blockchain that allows validators verify transactions by counting how many tokens they have. A new technology, called Proof-of-History or PoH (Proof-of-History), is also used. This allows for proof of order and the passage time between events.
• ADA is a publicly accessible blockchain platform. This is also a PoS Blockchain.
• The, which is a public platform for blockchain technology with a native currency named DOT. It is a Nominated-Proof-of-Stake (NPoS) blockchain. This system allows validators to be nominated by validators. They are given their stake in return for their faith in them. If they nominate a poor validator, however, the stake of nominators is subject to forfeiture.

These Ethereum Successors offer many benefits.
One of the main benefits all three Ethereum competitors has is their significantly lower carbon emissions.

This is significant, considering that cryptocurrencies have been criticized for their huge carbon emissions over the last year.

When it comes to efficiency, Polkadot leads the pack. The average annual electricity consumption is 70,237 kWh.

It is clearly better than Cardano or Solana which use 598,755 kWh and 1,967.930 kWh respectively.

Ethereum, on the other hand, lags significantly behind – consuming a whopping 17,300,000,000 kWh of electricity every year. Even worse than Ethereum, it uses a staggering 89 780,000,000 kWh each year. Wow.

Solana, Cardano and other benefits are not without their growing pains.
It’s far from smooth sailing for Solana and Cardano – both of which have been under fire in recent months.

After a hacker exploited Wormhole (a cross-chain link called Wormhole) to enable users to exchange digital assets among different blockchains and took $320 million, Solana’s life was over. Since then, the platform has been criticised for not maintaining the security section of the Blockchain Trilemma. This concept was created by Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder.

According to the trilemma, developers face three major issues while building a Blockchain: security, decentralization and scaling. They are required to sacrifice one segment in order to create the two remaining segments. This did not work out in the end.

In the recent months users also complained about the Solana network being overcrowded. Users have complained about slow speeds and failed transactions.

Meanwhile, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has resorted to warning Cardstarter and SundaeSwap – two projects built on its blockchain – to “get your shit together,” following rising allegations concerning fraud, and a “rug pull” between the two platforms.

Everyone is now looking to Polkadot
Despite the drama between both of its top competitors, Polkadot remains a strong contender as the key “Ethereum Killer”. Polkadot recently received 993,286 DOT to demonstrate its commitment. This is in an effort to grow its ecosystem and Web3 development.

It’s still all to play for, and things could change drastically over the course of the year. For now Polkadot looks like a strong competitor.

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