What are the different types of Blockchain?

While the promise of absolute decentralisation has fueled blockchain adoption among pure crypto and Web 3.0 enthusiasts, blockchains have also been customised to fulfil multiple goals and use-cases inside centralised contexts.

There are four sorts of blockchains to consider when deciding which to employ.

Public Blockchains – These are completely permissionless and decentralised in nature, and are mostly utilised for cryptocurrency exchange and mining. These include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, and the majority of the popular blockchain networks that are actively traded on exchanges.

Private Blockchains – These are networks that function in closed contexts, with single organisations controlling permission levels, security, authorisation, and access. Ripple and IBM Hyperledger are two examples, and they are ideally suited for supply chain management, asset ownership, and payments.

Hybrid Blockchains – These provide "the best of both worlds," allowing enterprises to build private systems on top of an open permissionless network. These are best suited for projects that cannot be completely private or public, such as IoT, government-run real-estate, and finance-based apps. XinFin is the most well-known example.

Consortium/ Federated Blockchains – These are similar to hybrid blockchains in that they are set up among a chosen consortium of organisations, all of which utilise and participate in governance. These are ideally suited for finance, supply chain management, and research. R3 Corda, for example, oversees a cooperation of over 100 of the world's biggest financial institutions.