Update: For a more detailed and frequently updated comparison of Nxt and Ardor with other blockchain platforms, also see this Comparison of Blockchain Platforms.

Category Nxt Ardor NEM Ethereum Bitcoin Launched 2013 2018 2015 2015 2009 Programming Language Java Java Java C++ / Go C++ Open APIs ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ Block time 1 Min 1 Min 1 Min 15 Sec 10 Min Tokens 1 Billion 1 Billion 9 Billion 94 Million 21 Million Consensus POS POS POI* POW** POW Basic Building Blocks Nxt Ardor NEM Ethereum Bitcoin Generate Token ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Text Messages ✓ ✓ ✓ 3rd party ✗ Encrypted Messages ✓ ✓ ✓ 3rd party ✗ Share Encrypted Messages ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ Prunable Data ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ Data Storage 40K 40K ✗ Fee Based 80 bytes Name Aliases ✓ ✓ ✓ 3rd party ✗ Account Properties ✓ ✓ ✗ 3rd party ✗ Multi Signature Transactions ✓ ✓ ✓ 3rd party ✓ Phasing ✓ ✓ + logic ✗ 3rd party**** ✗ SPV Wallet ✗ ✗ ✗ ? ✓ Light Client ✓ ✓ ✓ ? ✗ Smart Contracts Nxt Ardor NEM Ethereum Bitcoin Programmable ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✗ Assets ✓ ✓ ✓ ERC20 tokens ✗*** Decentralized Trading ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗*** Restricted Tokens ✓ ✓ ✗ 3rd party ✗ Voting ✓ ✓ ✗ 3rd party**** ✗ Marketplace ✓ ✓ ✗ 3rd party ✗ Anonymity Coin Shuffling Coin Shuffling ✗ ✗ Coin Mixers Advanced Features Nxt Ardor NEM Ethereum Bitcoin Parent/Child architecture ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗***** ✗ Separation of security token from operational token ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ Transaction Pruning ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗

* Since NEM is not fully open source the exact inner working of POI is unknown

** Ethereum plans to switch to POS sometime in the future but there is no concrete time line for this

*** Assets and trading on top of Bitcoin are implemented using other protocols like OMNI and Counter Party

**** In theory, Ethereum smart contracts can mimic this unique NXT and Ardor functionality but developing such smart contract using the limited tools provided by Ethereum would be very difficult

***** plasma.io paper was released recently, perhaps in response to Ardor, but actual implementation is years away

Download PDF