Top Smart Contract Platform Coins by Market Cap
The Smart Contract Platform market cap today is $474 Billion, a 0.8% change in the last 24 hours. Read More about Smart Contract Platform
Smart contract platforms are usually blockchains that host smart contracts or decentralized applications. Users can interact with different smart contracts on these platforms to perform various actions such as lending and borrowing funds, staking their assets or minting NFTs.
Smart contracts are programs that are stored on the blockchain and are automatically executed when certain conditions are met. To interact with these smart contracts, transaction fees may need to be paid and the amount and asset required will vary based on the platform’s architecture. Usually, the smart contract platform’s native token is used to pay for transaction fees. Some popular examples of smart contract platforms include Ethereum, Solana and Polygon.
What are Smart Contract Platforms?
Smart contract platforms are blockchains that host smart contracts. Smart contracts are the backbone of decentralized applications (dApps), and smart contract platforms make it possible for developers to deploy apps ranging from decentralized exchanges that run on automated market makers (AMM), decentralized loan providers that enable users to lend and borrow cryptocurrencies, and even yield aggregators that automatically move assets to the best performing pools to maximize returns for their investors.
What are Smart Contracts?
Smart contracts are self-executing computer programs on a blockchain that activate specific outcomes when certain predetermined conditions are met. They are also immutable while providing transparency to all parties involved, as they are recorded on the blockchain.
To interact with smart contracts, users have to pay gas fees in the smart contract platform’s native coin. Gas measures the computational effort required to conduct transactions, the cost of which may vary based on the complexity of the smart contract.
Popular Smart Contract Platforms
Many Layer 1 blockchains support smart contracts, as smart contracts replace the role of the financial institution in decentralized finance. Popular L1 smart contract platforms include Ethereum, the largest smart contract platform and a pioneer of the space, and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), which is EVM-compatible, enabling users to use applications like Metamask to store their BEP-20 tokens.
Smart contract platforms also include Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions, such as Arbitrum. These L2 solutions offer users faster and cheaper transactions by utilizing technology such as sidechains, bested blockchains, or optimistic and zero-knowledge rollups. These also depend on smart contracts, which validate the proof generated by the L2 protocol, validate it, resolve any disputes, and finalize transactions on the base blockchain.