Top Blockchain Ecosystems: Which Platforms Will Dominate User Growth This Cycle?

Introduction

Anticipating this and the likelihood that investors will increasingly shift along the risk-return curve, we will examine the most popular so-called “general-purpose” blockchains (smart contract platforms) and their ecosystems in the cryptocurrency market and attempt to identify those that deserve the most attention from an investment perspective. Our analysis will almost fully ignore price action and valuation metrics and will be entirely based on fundamental factors: product market-fit, adoption rate, ecosystem richness and diversity, network effects, etc. But first and foremost, we will rely on the principle of "common sense": we assume that the success of a given ecosystem depends primarily on its potential popularity among users. As we are now at the stage of the cycle where cryptocurrencies are regaining popularity among new users, a critical aspect of our analysis will be the ecosystem's suitability from the perspective of these very newcomers. We will examine the ei