Mid last month, Ethereum World News shared a list of 5 MainNet Launches that were scheduled for the third quarter of 2018. In the list, were the fan favorites of Tron (TRX), EOS (EOS), Zilliqa (ZIL), VeChain (VEN) and Cardano (ADA).

Tron and EOS are in the process of launching the Genesis block of both platforms. Zilliqa has not yet announced the exact date of the MainNet launch, but the TestNet has been showing promising results in terms of sharding and increased transactions per second when compared to other platforms. Cardano on the other hand, already has a MainNet version released, what remains is the decentralization of the platform that is currently ongoing. VeChain has been rumored to release the MainNet on June 30th.

After Ethereum World News shared the article above, the crypto community was quick to add a few more projects that were not included in the above list. They include Oyster Pearls (PRL) that has already released its MainNet on the 29th of May; Ontology (ONT) that is scheduled to launch its MainNet this month; and Aeternity (AE) that should also launch either in late July or early August.

This means that a total of 8 projects want to claim independence from the Ethereum platform as well as migrating with existing users as is the case with Tron. The current Tron platform has over 100 Million users that will shift to the Tron MainNet as soon as the Genesis block is launched on the 25th of June.

The 8 MainNets will give Ethereum competition in terms of being alternative platforms for developers who want to create decentralized apps due to the better qualities they possess as compared to ETH. For example, the Tron MainNet has several outlined advantages including using Java programming language that is user friendly and can be used for scaling the platform. The same applies to the Zilliqa platform that uses Scilla and sharding.

In terms of transactions per second, Ethereum can only handle 25 tps compared to Tron’s 2,000 tps. In recent demonstrations of sharding on the Zilliqa platfrom, 6 shards could accomplish 2,828 tps. This means, no more instances of network clogging on the ETH platform. The numbers do not lie, and Ethereum will have a hard time retaining the crown of King of Smart Contracts and ICOs. With respect to the latter, we should also remind ourselves that the Stellar (XLM) blockchain has perfected ICO related projects.

In conclusion, the crypto-verse will welcome new and exciting blockchains this year that will offer unique solutions to real life problems. The question now is, will Ethereum manage to ward off the competition in terms of being the platform of choice for DApps and ICOs? Perhaps we can only answer this question in the only manner we know best by saying, ‘Only time will tell!’

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to give financial advice. It is an opinion piece. The opinion herein should be taken as is. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the numerous cryptocurrencies available.