The chains that secure themselves
A layer 1 has its own validators, its own consensus and its own security budget. It does not depend on any other chain. Everything else in crypto ultimately settles down to one of these.
The differences between layer 1s are mostly about what each one decided to give up. Bitcoin gave up programmability and speed to maximize durability and decentralization. Solana gave up cheap validator hardware to maximize throughput. Cosmos gave up a single shared state to let every chain be sovereign.
None of these is wrong. They are answers to different questions, and reading a chain as an answer rather than as a product makes the whole landscape easier to navigate.
| What to compare | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Validator count and distribution | A proxy for how hard the chain is to capture or coerce |
| Finality | Whether a transaction can still be reversed, and for how long |
| Throughput | Real capacity, not the theoretical number in the marketing |
| Fee level | Determines what kinds of applications are viable at all |
| Ecosystem depth | Where the liquidity, tooling and developers actually are |
Priced in real time
Loaded from CoinGecko when the page opens.
| Network | Ticker | Price | 24h | Market cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | BTC | |||
| Ethereum | ETH | |||
| Solana | SOL | |||
| BNB Chain | BNB | |||
| XRP Ledger | XRP | |||
| Cardano | ADA | |||
| Avalanche | AVAX | |||
| TRON | TRX | |||
| Polkadot | DOT | |||
| Cosmos Hub | ATOM | |||
| NEAR Protocol | NEAR | |||
| Aptos | APT | |||
| Sui | SUI | |||
| TON | TON | |||
| Litecoin | LTC | |||
| Hedera | HBAR | |||
| Algorand | ALGO | |||
| Monero | XMR | |||
| Celestia | TIA | |||
| Injective | INJ |
Live from CoinGecko on page load. Figures are a snapshot, not advice.
One page each, with live data and the honest tradeoffs
Proof of workBitcoin
The original blockchain, and still the one everything else is measured against.
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Proof of stakeEthereum
The programmable settlement layer that most of crypto is built on top of.
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Proof of stake with proof of historySolana
A single fast chain built for cheap, high volume activity.
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Proof of staked authorityBNB Chain
A fast, cheap EVM chain with enormous retail volume.
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XRPL consensus protocolXRP Ledger
A payments focused ledger built for fast, cheap settlement between institutions.
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Ouroboros proof of stakeCardano
A research led chain that ships slowly and formally verifies as it goes.
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Avalanche consensusAvalanche
A fast EVM chain plus a framework for launching your own connected chains.
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Delegated proof of stakeTRON
The quiet giant of stablecoin transfers, especially outside the US.
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Nominated proof of stakePolkadot
A network of specialized chains that share one security layer.
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Tendermint proof of stakeCosmos Hub
The internet of blockchains, where every chain is sovereign but can talk to the rest.
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Nightshade proof of stakeNEAR Protocol
A sharded chain with human readable account names and very cheap transactions.
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AptosBFT proof of stakeAptos
A high throughput chain built on the Move language for safer asset handling.
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Mysticeti proof of stakeSui
An object based chain where simple transfers skip consensus entirely.
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Proof of stake with shardingTON
The chain wired directly into Telegram, with wallets inside the chat app.
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Proof of work with ScryptLitecoin
Bitcoin's older sibling project, tuned for faster and cheaper payments.
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Hashgraph asynchronous BFTHedera
An enterprise network run by a council of large companies.
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Pure proof of stakeAlgorand
A chain with true instant finality and no forks by design.
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Proof of work with RandomXMonero
The privacy chain where amounts, senders and receivers are hidden by default.
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Tendermint proof of stakeCelestia
A chain that only stores data, so other chains can be built cheaply on top.
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Tendermint proof of stakeInjective
A chain built specifically for finance, with an order book in the protocol itself.
Open the network pageWant help picking one?
The right network depends on what you want to do and where your money already is. We can work that out on a call in about twenty minutes.