Doom or Boom for EOS vs Ethereum dApps: How Rivals Look to Compete and Conquer User Adoption

There are two cryptocurrency and blockchain networks, Ethereum (ETH) and EOS, that are competing in order to attract decentralized applications (dApps) and developers to work on top of them. However, Ethereum has been the leader in the space for a long period of time, and it will be very difficult for other blockchains to take its position.

Network Improvements Ahead

A short time ago, Block.One CEO, Brendan Blumer, explained that EOS could eventually unleash Bitcoin and make it even more decentralized than never before. However, Joe Lubin, the founder of ConsenSys, explained that it is not possible to think about a decentralized network with just 21 block producers (BPs), which is how EOS works.

Clearly, Ethereum has to solve many issues to keep growing in the future. The same we can say about EOS. Each of these networks has its own things and challenges that must be addressed for them to continue their growth path.

Ethereum is working on Plasma, a layer 3 solution that aims at overcoming the platforms’ scalability issues. The network can only process 15 transactions per second (TPS), much less than Visa, that can process 2,000 TPS. Nonetheless, Ethereum is a decentralized network and Visa not.

This implementation will be using child chains that can process transactions off the Ethereum main network. The design is similar to what Bitcoin (BTC) is trying to implement with its Lightning Network (LN). The child chains in Ethereum will be transmitting the transaction data back to the Ethereum network protecting its integrity. In this way, Pasma will increase transaction speeds on the Ethereum network and process 20,000 transactions per second (TPS).

Ethereum is also working so as to implement Casper, which will allow the network to move from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). This is something that developers believe will improve decentralization since it replaces miners with validators. At the same time, it will increase scalability and reduce the impact on the environment.

At the moment, there is no confirmed date for Plasma, even when there are several projects such as OmiseGo that depend on it. Casper has also been delayed from 2018 to 2020.

Meanwhile, EOS was able to solve one of the issues that Ethereum struggled with during the last years, scalability. Nonetheless, this is achieved with a lack of decentralization, since the network is protected with 21 block producers that are backed by the community.

Developers can build decentralized applications on EOS using C++ rather than Solidity, the language that developers need to learn to operate in Ethereum.

Although it has positive aspects compared with Ethereum, the lack of decentralization is the main critic that the platform can have. At the same time, there have been some issues with the governance system implemented by the platform.

It is worth mentioning that EOS developers and users have to purchase RAM up front rather than paying gas as the Ethereum network does. RAM can be extremely costly in some situations since its price is determined by supply and demand.

Although this seemed a complication for the network, EOS developers did not work to make it easier for users to send and receive EOS coins. LiquidApps has already launched a solution on its own network that is called DAPP Network and it operates independently from EOS: This network has node operators known as Dapp Service provides (DSPs) and it runs on LiquidApps own DAPP token.

Users can start offering services to dApp developers that will be paying for the services using the DAPP token. One of the first services that were launched in this network is vRAM.

At the time of writing this article, EOS has a market capitalization of $4.96 billion and Ethereum $18.16 billion. Each EOS can be purchased for $5.48 and ETH for $172.